ENT + LLMD Revisits...How to prepare?

I revisited my ENT specialist yesterday. He diagnosed me in January with Meniere's disease following a hearing test that showed a specific pattern of hearing loss in my left ear and two disabling attacks of vertigo. He's been treating me with a diuretic since then (it forces fluid from the ear canal) and apparently expected to see an improvement in my hearing, but there was none. I told him as long as the vertigo attacks don't happen, I'm completely satisfied. I did not mention Lyme disease because I figured there's probably no real point. I am not sure that was the right decision, but I didn't really want to get into a discussion about it. He was ready to order an MRI of my brain to rule out an acoustic neuroma, but I've had three over the past four years and he was able to get a report and see that my brain is "unremarkable" (haha).

I'm going back to my LLMD next week. I've been on pulsed antibiotic treatment for five weeks now and have cycled through a great variety of intense symptoms of all types. Right now is OK, but it's definitely a day by day thing. Overall, I feel worse on a daily basis than I did before I saw the doctor...but only just before I saw the doctor. For the past five years I've had many months at a time when I was close to disabled.

Anyway, the doctor gave me a zillion blood tests last time, and the only abnormal one was my C4a complement (19,900; normal = 0-2,900). Of all the Lyme and coinfection tests, the only positive was a single band (41kd), which I understand is general and not at all specific to Lyme.

I'm rambling...what's my point? Does anyone have any recommendations for questions I should ask or anything I should do with respect to the next appointment? I really, really like my doctor--very responsive, very engaged, an entirely different experience than I've had with most doctors as far as respect level goes. At the same time, I am nervous: I am covered (most of my body) with stretch mark-type scars that the doctor said are without any question bartonella rashes, but the bartonella tests all were negative. I've had *serious* reactions after having started taking antibiotics, but all the Lyme, bartonella, and babesia tests were normal/negative/nonreactive. As were all of my other blood tests--CBC, hormones, food allergies, other infectious diseases. So I am concerned that there won't be enough laboratory evidence for an infection to continue treatment...is that a valid concern? I am sure that it's a mistake to overthink anything before the appointment, but I do want to be prepared with any questions that might be helpful.

Yes, that would be nice to know what the treatment regimen might be...I have no idea how long I'm in this for (OK, I do know...life). She mentioned last time that she'd expect to see a lot of improvement in the bartonella rashes "once the Lyme symptoms improve and we move on to the bartonella treatment."

Thanks for the input! I'm sorry about my rambling rant/post...I'm getting antsy and I'm sort of exhausting my real-life human resources for discussion because no one understands it. People keep asking me things like, "oh, how are your symptoms? Did the antibiotics work? Are you done?" It's frustrating because it underscores how different this is from any typical infection, but it's also an opportunity to spread some awareness about that, which I guess is good.

Hi Girlie,

Thanks for the reply. My doctor told me to take burbur to flush toxins out of my system, and I also drink a "detox" tea once or twice a day. I'm taking zillions of supplements and some, like teasel, I think (?) are supposed to help get rid of toxins. I'll ask her more about it. I've read here that people take Alka Seltzer, and I haven't tried that.