ketek/zithromax/mepron

Ketek is probably the best oral med for Lyme but can cause severe liver damage and there have been deaths associated with it.

The FDA issued a black box warning for Ketek which is the their highest. I'm surprised any doctor would prescribe it knowing the risks involved.

Mepron with Zithro or Malarone is the standard treatment for Babs. You could also add artemisinin to the mix as an added antiparasitic.

Hey fauxpainter,

M doctor never has me start all my meds right away. If anything, I start on 1 pill for 3 days before I start taking anpther and slowly introduce them to my system. If the die off is too much or our body becomes overburdened with toxins, it can have some very detrimental effects. I was hospitalized, nearly going into sepsis on one occassion and a cytokine storm on another. You never know if your body won't tolerate a new med, or even vitamin or herb. I know a lot of lyme patients that start slowly. Don't feel you are screwing this up. Just stay safe.

As for Ketek, I have never even heard of it for a tick borne illness... And I have been treating with abx for over 3 yrs!

Hope this helps!
Samantha

Please watch for heart issues while taking the Zithromax! The FDA just sent out new warnings about heart issues while taking this abx.

Todd-
Thank you. Is there a drug that addresses both Babesia and Lyme that is better than the Zithromax?
Other than the Ketek, that is?
Thank you again for taking the time to share your information with me.

I don't think tinidazole treats Babesia. I've never heard of that. I wouldn't worry about heart issues with zithromax. If you look into the study carefully, the risk of cardiac complications is extremely small. I calculated out the risk in a percentage in another post on here.

You could use biaxin instead of zithromax but you definitely don't want to take Mepron alone. It will become resistant. Add in artemisinin or something to work with it. You don't have to treat both at once either. You can treat babesia first and then move onto Lyme. Lyme usually needs 3 meds although some people do use tinidazole or flagyl singly.

I agree that Ketek is rarely used even by LLMD's.

I don't know how I could have missed this thread... I myself was really scared starting Ketek. It took me more than a month to convince myself to get started...

I thought 'I have an excellent dr, he must know what he's doing', then thought about it another few weeks - lol.

From all the abx (I was on Azythromycin, Tetralysal, Rifampicin, Minocyclin, Plaquenil, Cefuroxime and Doxycycline), Ketek was the one I could tolerate the best, honestly. Never expected that to happen. I herxed, of course, serious herxing, but no side effects whatsoever. I had 3 reasonable days while I was taking Ketek, in a period of a whole year!

My dr was chuckling when I told him I was coping well with the Ketek. He said he prescribes it to a lot of his patients, and that this is the general reaction on the abx.

It causes major die off though, but no side effects.

Just get your liver enzymes tested, that's all...

I didn't feel anything of all that is written about Ketek: no elevated liver enzymes, no pemanent liver damage. I was so worried, but it wasn't needed.
My liver came out ok, I took it for 2 months. But I herxed. I herx on all abx or herbs that kill off those bacteria: flulike feeling, nausea, emotional outbreaks, anger, intensified headaches, muscle pains, other intensified symptoms...

I had 3 'good' days on Ketek, but then I had to rotate abx and switch to Ceftin. Then Doxy, then off abx and on a modified Cowden Protocol. I'm a complicated case, not better yet (been ill for a long time, can't detox well, have really high inflammation). I'm not a great example (yet) lol.

I hesitated a few weeks before starting it, but then I thought that my dr is knowledgable enough to not give my something that will cause so much trouble. I'm glad I took it. I was able to ride my bike for a few days!

Dr said afterwards, when I told him I was scared taking it, that it is a well tolerated antibiotic and that his patients react well on it.

Not very well, still struggling with coinfections bartonella, chlamydia pn., and yersinia....also very high inflammation markers and bad detoxing. All of this is complicating treatment...

I'm seeing my llmd in a few weeks. We'll see how to proceed....

Hi Eliz,

Thank you for your kind message :)

I think I wouldn't hesitate a bit to take Ketek again.

I have Yersiniosis, an intestinal infection caused by a bacterium called Yersinia Enterocolitica. There are other kinds of Yersinia (like Yersinia Pestis, the most known one, causing the plague). You can get it by ingesting undercooked pork, or contaminated milk, water, meat.
It's almost always acute, but it can be chronic too, and is a known coinfection of Lyme Disease (you can read some more info about it here:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3565243/pdf/TONEUJ-6-158.pdf
This is a really interesting article!)

I had a pneumonia 2,5 years ago (and once or twice before that too), when coming back from an exotic holiday. First the GP said I had Bronchitis, but she took blood. I kept on beign sick, but since there was no news I thought it was another bad bronchitis. I didn't hear anything from her, until 6 weeks later. She called me and said that she forgot to look at my test results weeks ago, but she did now and said I was positive for Chlamydia Pn.
I called my dr (he is now my llmd, he was treating me back than for leaky gut, trying to get my immune system back on track, but all of my tests for lyme and coinfections were Always coming back negative, so I didn't get treated for that yet). He said I needed 6 weeks of abx. The GP refused and only gave me 6 days. So I never got rid of it...

I get respiratory infections very easily: in the evening my throat starts to hurt, and the morning after: fever, bronchitis right away. These last 10 years I would get up to 7 bronchites a year...

you are right!! the detoxing problem is a huge one. I was tested for the MTHFR mutation, but everything was normal. There IS a problem, but it's still a secret... if it weren't the Lyme, it could be exciting - LOL

Were you tested for that??? if not, I would certainly recommend it to you. It helped out a lot of people on this forum. Once it is confirmed, and changed their protocol, they really started making progress!

I stopped my herbal treatment a few weeks ago, because of 2 bronchitis and an intestinal infection. I started again beginning of this week, and it's hitting hard.

Have you tried Burbur? It's supposed to be a good detoxer. I'm seeing my dr next week. I hope he will have something to add to my protocol. I will keep you updated when I discover something new about detoxing.

MarieLS

What protocol are you on now Eliz? How long have you been in treatment?