1 antibiotic vs. 2 or 3:how many are you taking?

my little guy (4) is now on two abx.

We switched llmds for a few reasons, one being that our first one was only prescribing amoxicillin and I had heard what you mentioned about using more than one to be more effective.

The new llmd has him on amoxicillin and azithromycin (that she said was in case of Bart. and she wonders about a strep infection too) to prevent resistance.

She doesn't (or hasn't) pulsed any abx for him, although we did just start with her Monday. But she didn't mention doing that.

And, don't worry about being demanding. We've got to look out for them like you did there!

Also, you should know that bromelain isn't an abx - it's an enzyme from pineapple - altmedicine.about.com/cs/herbsvitaminsa1/a/Bromelain.htm

You also want to be sure that the doc doesn't rush things. By starting one abx at a time and giving the body time to adjust to it's effects, it can really lessen a herx.

I think it is better to be on more than 1 antibiotics. But giving the body time to adjust is a good thing to do too. So adding them in one at a time to allow the body time to adjust might help people tolerate them better.

When I first goto on minocycline for example, I couldn't tolerate it, it made me dizzy gave me balance issues, etc. However now I can pop it and it's just like I had a placebo pill. I can take 200 mg of minocycline now with ease and even tolerate that dose. Also for rifampin I started on 600 mg and at first I got liver pain, but in a few days the liver pain went away. So I think gradually adding in abx is a good approach to allow your body adjust.

I also think combination abx will work better than just one alone. It is the same concept of HIV drugs. Use just 1 HIV drug and eventually the virus can adapt and become resistant to that drug. But use 3 drugs at the same time and it can never adapt and become resistant. Lyme of course is very slow growing, a bacteria instead of a virus, and less likely to adapt, but it is possible that maybe other bacteria in the body could adapt to antibiotics for example in the intestinal tract and these bacteria that do adapt can pass the information onto the Lyme.

Also there are spirochete and cyst or round body forms of the lyme that can be in the body or in the cells. So it's good to attack the different forms as well. Also some drugs are more effective in different tissue types. I am also using some herbs like japanese Knotweed, banderol, samento. It is suggested that maybe using herbs with abx is the best approach.

I am also taking Tinidazole pulsed which I am told is similar to Flagyl. I found the days just getting off of it I feel much better, but now on my second off day I am already getting many symptoms and need to go back on it. I think an issue with these cyst drugs is the toxicity of them, so pulsing these doses gives the body a break.

I think Lyme and co-infections become difficult to treat and multiple antibiotics are eventually necessary to prevent a relapse.

I think most if not all LLMDs will use multiple abx eventually. Maybe just starting treatment out with one depending on the patients circumstances and to see how the patient tolerates the medication and prevent them from reacting too much from the medication.

The cyst busting drugs like flagyl, tinidazole, grape fruit seed extract, plaquenil and important to prevent people from getting relapses and thus requiring treatment again. However even with these cyst busting drugs there still maybe a relapse if the patient is not sufficiently treated. Co-infections may also need to be addressed such as your son's bartonella which will require different antibiotics than the lyme.

So a lyme doctor may go after lyme and 1 coinfection at a time. I am not sure how your son's co-infection treatment turned out for bartonella and anaplasmosis. These will need to be addressed using other antibiotics like doxycycline + rifampin.

My doc started me out on minocycline and I couldn't take it, it made me drunk. So he switched me to Omnicef 600 mg a day, Monday - Friday, off on the weekends. Did this for 3 weeks then off 9 days.

The next month he added in 500 mg of Zithromax and on the 3rd week starting Wednesday I take Flagyl 500 mg 3 x day through Friday, then I recoup for 9 days.

Then the next month he upped the Omnicef to 1200 mg and we keep the same pulsing.

I also take A-L complex every single day, 9 drops twice per day, I never pulse them

Occasionally on my own I throw in Samento, thinking about doing it on the 9 days I'm off antibiotics but not sure if it will react to A-L.

I have to see him once per month on the off week.

I hate the Flagyl, it make me sick and I hate food for about 5 days, it makes my mouth taste funny all 3 1/2 days, nothing keeps the taste away.