Lyme vs Bartonella

I am beginning my fourth week of doxycycline, and have been taking it three times a day for the past two weeks, and I am in the middle of my second week of nutritionals. I have made a huge improvement, thank goodness. (only have had lyme for 4 months) However, I am still suspicious of Bartonella. My LLMD mentioned it was a concern, but she wanted to see how I did with the doxy increase before she did any add on treatment. ( I was only taking it twice a day initially).

So the only symptoms I have left are occasional superficial pain in my legs (muscles are fine - probably nerve pain?)
muscle twitching, mostly at night (even though I am taking magnesium)
occasional migrating pains in joints
at night, different parts of my body will be tinglely if I sleep on them (shoulder, arm, chin, etc - but before they would get completely numb)
my left rib still bothers me on occasion (this was the first symptom I ever had)
and then its my feet (I know bart loves the feet) - my feet are always tinglely in the morning. My left baby toes started feeling sort of "numb" weeks ago, but now it seems to have spread to the sole of my foot and big toe. It is only one foot, and it doesn't hurt, and with bart I thought your feet were supposed to hurt? But the fact that this feeling has spread is making me worry.

I got my labwork back, but I don't see Bartonella anywhere on the paperwork.....I saw the Babesia test but not Bart - arghhh

Question 1 - what do you all think?
Question 2 - should I give it until march 19th when I see my LLMD, or should I call her and tell her whats up and see if she will consider altering my treatment beforehand?

thanks!

The foot issues and rib pain do indicate you MAY have Bart but the only way to really tell is to do an abx challenge. What I would suggest is discuss adding in Rifampin with your doc on the 19th. It's very safe and easy on the GI tract (at least it was for me) and that might be a way of telling whether you have it.

You are correct that it can raise up liver enzymes in some people but the doc will monitor that. Honestly I haven't seen anyone on the boards who have been permanently injured by it. The alternative are the quinolones like Levaquin which has injured many on these forums. Very safe wasn't the right term but I believe it's relatively safe. Best bet is to discuss it with your doc.

Good to hear you are feeling better:)!
Maybe you could take herbs to address the potential Bart infection until your symptoms and your doctors thoughts align. It could be a lot of things other than Bart though. Thats why I would do some detoxing and herbals directed at Bart in the meantime. But mine as well call and ask, right?

Glad your starting to feel better. Good news. What are your doses of Doxy 3 times a day?

if you don't mind me asking, how many mg are you taking with each dose?

Also, what are some herbals that are popular for Babs and Bart.?

I think I have both and would like to take something in addition to the doxy.  Thanks and sorry for the hijack:(

Post Edited (concepts) : 3/9/2014 9:19:59 PM (GMT-6)

Thank you Maine, I'll be looking up the info...I gotta get going on something for the Co's soon.

Edit:

Ah...Looked it up, I was thinking it was OC.  I would like to find something OC until my LLMD can see me.

My Dr will only let me take 100mg a day of Doxy... LOL...he wouldn't let me do anything else.

Post Edited (concepts) : 3/10/2014 8:43:30 AM (GMT-6)

Hi Chapelle!!

Congratulations on feeling better!! Woo hoo!!! Happy dance! Yippie!!!

I would suggest that you talk with your doc and find out more about the plan that she has for your healing though.

While Bart can be the culprit in those symptoms, so can Neuro Lyme. I'd hate to encourage you to do Bart treatments if they are necessary.

Hi, I'm not a regular on this forum, but thought I would check in and saw your post. My daughter has been dealing with Lyme, PANDAS (PANS), and Bart for sometime now. Bartonella is very elusive and so hard to yield a positive result. Shocker right. My daughter never tested positive through Igenex, but does test positive at times with Quest. When using Quest it should be marked to be performed at their Nicholas Lab in California, not standard Quest Lab. It is covered by our insurance, so I thought I would mention. Another great lab (but costly) is Galaxy. My daughter has a lot of GI issues and anxiety from the bartonella.

Regarding her lyme, she is usually always positive through igenex. In 2011, after a year of treatment on combo of antibiotics, we had to stop because of elevated liver enzymes. She deteriorated, and 4 months later I ran the Advanced Lab Culture which came back positive. They sent me a photo of the spirochetes in her blood sample.
Glad you treated quickly. Good luck.

Post Edited (emylgal) : 3/10/2014 8:05:22 PM (GMT-6)

IGeneX is superior with their Lyme Western Blot testing but their co-infection testing is no better than other labs.

My dd's LLMD runs the Bartonella Henselae Igg/Igm from Quest Diagnostics Nicholas Valencia, California. He also periodically orders it through Igenex.
Galaxy lab suggests a triple draw, since Bartonella cycles in/out of the blood so quickly. But expensive, and I don't think its covered by insurance. I also think they suggest being off antibiotics for a few weeks. The blood test which is a culture and PCR, tests for many bartonella species. One of the developers is an expert veterinarian in the field.