Posted 8/14/2012 3:59 PM (GMT 0)
I can only imagine how tough it must be to have to make all of these decisions for your daughter's health! All I can share is that I got sick pretty young, and my mother and I both wish that we'd been more aggressive about treating lyme sooner. I lost many, many years that I could've been treating during because I was told after being diagnosed and treated with lyme that I needed to see an infectious disease specialist for a second opinion, who told me that the doctor I'd been seeing (president of the ILADS) was just plain wrong and there's no such thing as chronic lyme - we believed him! Just keep your eyes peeled for diagnoses of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, or an overemphasis on depression.
Are her symptoms consistent with lyme and/or coinfections?
Was there a known tick bite?
With the doxy - it could be doing nothing for a few reasons - she could be getting better, but not herxing, or it could be not working because the bacteria is in a cystic or cell wall deficient form (requiring different types of abx), or it could be hiding in biofilms where it can't be killed by abx or the immune system. Of course it's also possible she doesn't have lyme, but unfortunately there's no accurate test to date so it's all educated guesswork.
Sometimes the antibiotics aren't what make us feel better - it's the detoxing. Make sure you're doing something to get all that junk out!