Taking Mepron for Babesia, and dealing with severe depression, isolation, anger

Hi everyone!-

I am writing this to see if anyone else can relate.

I started Mepron the beginning of February. I also take Clarithromycin and Bactrim.

I started out slowly with the Mepron and continued to increase until I got up to full dose. Two teaspoons twice a day (10 ml twice a day).

Symptoms I have been dealing with: severe depression, anger, isolating myself from family and friends, suicidal thoughts, feeling like my soul has been literally ripped out of my body, hard to fake a smile, and lots of tears, hopelessness and dread.

This doesn't happen daily, but is a lot more frequent than I would like it to be.

I'm also wondering about if Mepron cause any tendon issues? The last couple of months, the back of my left knee is sore. Feels like something is tightening up or being pulled.

I have discussed these symptoms with my LLMD. She wants to keep me on Mepron. I can no longer afford Mepron. I am on my last bottle. So I don't know what I will try next.

Please don't tell me that I need to detox more. My day is consumed every waking hour with taking meds, taking and doing things to detox daily. I am a stay at home Lymie.

Through getting tested for MTHFR gene mutation, I found out that
I am Homozygous for A1298C gene mutation. I still don't understand what it means.

So, I guess I am wondering if the symptoms that I listed above are symptoms of Babesia? Or something else?

I know that it's hard to tell what symptoms go with each infection because a lot of symptoms overlap.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You!

LB,

The psych issues are a common symptom that they call the "Mepron Blues". Trouble is Babs takes a minimum of 120 days to treat (which is the life cycle of red blood cells), and most of us have treated a lot longer. I can't comment on the other sx because everyone is different.

Only option is to try Buhner's herbals like Cryptolepis, Sida Acuta, etc. But those can add up pretty costly as well.

There is a lot of Mepron resistant strains of Babs out there. Some folks have had good luck with a drug called Coartem. But it is pricey as well.

I struggled forever with treating a stubborn case of Babs, and didn't make much progress until I got Bart knocked down a bit. Its one big puzzle.

Hi tickbite666!-

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.

Thank you for the information about the "Mepron Blues ".

Thank you for the information about Babs taking 120 days (or longer) to treat and about Mepron resistant strains of Babs. I did not know this.

I know that my LLMD said that if Mepron was too pricey, that she would try something else. But she never said what.

Lyme, Babs, and Bart suck!!

It is hard to get better when some of these meds cost thousands of dollars for a one month supply. And the sad part is you don't know if the medicine will help.

Thank You!

I just went thru my files collected from many individuals that I've crossed path with over my past 6 years in treatment. One lower cost item I overlooked is Sovereign brand Colloidal Silver Hydrosol 10 Ppm. Always worth a try... google it.


Here's a rather long blog shared with me on some very aggressive babs treatment:

...... "I do not have tickborne illnesses -- my husband was the patient. Today is the one year anniversary of his death on 10/9/12 from ARDS (lung failure)and splenic infarction (blood clot in the spleen) due to babesia duncani or some as yet unnamed uncategorized strain(s) of babesia.

It is a long and complicated story -- Steve got 2 new tickbites 5 1/2 and 3 months prior to his final hospitalization. Nothing that had worked in the past seemed to work after the 2nd new tickbite.

For 8 years hubby thought he was allergic to mepron due to a very very severe reaction to trying that med in 2003. So we used other less effective nmalaria and antiparasitic meds and herbs for the next 7 years of treatment. Those treatments included artemisinin, low dose quinine and oral clindamycin, low dose primaquine and chloroquine, Bactrim, alinia, doxycycline, zithromax, plaquenil, cryptolepis, daraprim and coartem -- meds and herbs in various combos and doses. I probably left a few off the list.

When he finally was tested for babesia duncani after being sick for 10 years his titer was 1:2048. After 4 rounds of IDSA/CDC dosing with quinine and IV clindamycin in conjunction with oral malarone at 6 tablets daily the titer came down to 1:512.

He did 2 more rounds of the IV clindamycin and quinine -- total of 6 rounds (4 ten day cycles and 2 twenty-one day cycles) in conjunction with the malarone again.

That is 4 rounds before the retest and 2 after -- combined with malarone both times.

I need to point out that all of this aggressive babesia treatment began in January 2011. 11 months later after switching to lariam and oral doxy and continuing with the malarone he still had a positive blood smear from Clongen for babesia.

That is when we added in artemisinin, oral flagyl and ivermectin. After 4 months on this 6 item combo he stopped all antibiotics, antimalarials, antiparasitics and killing herbs for the first time in 3 years. He was off meds for 2 months and did pretty well -- actually felt the best he had since getting sick 12 years prior -- but babesia symptoms were starting to creep back.

A couple of days before doing a planned med challenge and retesting he got the first new tickbite. We also did a live blood analysis with a phase contrast microscope around that time. Babesia was seen on 2 views -- I have a flash drive of this that was posted to you tube.

The hospital refused to believe that my husband could have babesia and refused to talk to his LLMD for the entire month he was in the ICU (3 weeks on a ventilator). On the day of his death we got the report from Clongen that found babesia on a blood smear. Subsequently Fry Lab found by PCR 3 different unnamed uncategorized strains of babesia like blood borne parasites that are listed in the GenBank.

I have recently had some communication with the Virginia Department of Health and still hope to get the CDC involved in testing to identify exactly what strains of babesia my husband had.

It should also be noted that during the 11 months of aggressive treatment for babesia in 2011 hubby was hospitalized 5 times with fevers over 102. 3 times they identified serratia marcescens in his blood and they could not culture a pathogen the other 2 times.

He started having titers to ehrlichia and anaplasma and even rocky mountain spotted fever during that time. We did not know of a new tickbite then -- Steve and I and his LLMD felt that the aggressive treatment for the babesia had brought out infections including the serratia which had been in hiding.

3 times during that 11 months he tried to switch to pulsing babesia meds. Each time within 2 or 3 days he started having increased headaches, increased dizziness/off-balance, increased nausea/vomiting/dry heaves, and return of Parkinsonian tremors and other movement disorder symptoms.

It should be noted that IV flagyl was the med that triggered many of the fevers in 2011 and what triggered the lung failure in 2012. Hubby could tolerate the oral med without problems but IV is much more potent.

From my reading of the medical literature ARDS in babesia patients has been triggered by the beginning of "successful" treatment of babesia. By this I mean treatment which was bacteriocidal and not bacteriostatic. If I understand it correctly severe die-off or a herxheimer reaction if you want to call it that triggers an immune response similar to a cytokine storm.

When babesia meds are continued after ARDS begins the survival rate is around 50 percent which is almost identical to the survival rate of all severe ARDS patients regardless of the cause of the initial lung insult.

I did get my husband one week of mepron and Zithromax while in the hospital by going to the medical ethics board, but it was too little too late. The splenic infarction occurred sometime during those last 2 weeks in the hospital.

I am not writing all this to scare you. I just want all tickborne patients to fully understand the potentital seriousness of severe babesia infections.

My husband had 3 days of shortness of breath before going to the ER. Air hunger had never been one of his babesia symptoms. He was initially diagnosed with pneumonia based on a chest x-ray. We thought that was strange because he was on IV Zithromax and factive and amantadine at the time.

The local hospital kept him on his babesia meds and changed his other antibiotics to treat empirically for bacterial pneumonia. 3 days later his pulse ox dropped very suddenly into the 50's I think it was and he went into afib. He was transferred by helicopter to the larger teaching hospital at that point and that is when things got really ugly.

That is probably way more info than you wanted, but hopefully I answered your question.

As to the ivermectin -- Dr F at F Lab is one of the first docs to suggest that med. He uses it in patients with FL1953 (hubby tested negative for that coinfection). Several LLMD's are now using ivermectin for all patients with blood borne protozoans such as babesia and FL1953.

This is not medical advice, just my opinion based on hubby's experiences."

End Quotes

Fascinating and absolutely gut-wrenching story, tickbite. Thanks for sharing.

-p

Hi Girlie!-

Thank you for the info on other meds to try. I wrote them down so I don't forget!

It doesn't feel like swelling behind my knee, but feels like something being pulled.

When you mentioned Alinia, Clindamycin do you mean to take both together,or to take one or the other?

Currently I am on Clarithromycin (Biaxin), Bactrim, and Mepron. My LLMD wants me to stop Bactrim and start Clindamycin. So once I run out of Mepron (1/2 bottle left), do you think that Clarithromycin and Clindamycin will be enough? Or do I need to pair the Clindamycin with another med? Since I won't be on Mepron anymore more.

It is ok if you don't feel comfortable answering these questions. But any thoughts are welcome.

Thank You!

Hi NM!-

Thank you for sharing about Malarone and how much you took daily.

Thank you for reminding myself that the crying and suicidal thoughts are NOT me and that they are symptoms that I am dealing with right now. It helps to hear this especially when you think that you are going crazy because of these symptoms.

Thank You!

Hi Rikky!-

Thank you for sharing all the meds that you took for Babs. Crap it sounds like you took a lot of different combinations. I am happy to hear that it is under control for you right now!

I am also on A-BAB since last September. I have been stuck at 2 drops in the morning and 2 drops in evening. 4 drops total daily. At 5 drops, I lost my ability to talk (this isn't anything new. It always happens once a month). 6 drops I had a seizure. So still stuck at 4 daily.

You gave me a lot of great info. My brain is like Jello right now, so I will save this whole post to favorites so I can reread.

Thank You!

"Babesia is an aggressive infection that inflames the brain. This results in hypo perfusion of areas of the brains including the hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex and the autonomic nervous system. A-BAB counteracts this circulatory inhibition."


Thanks for posting, tickbite666 - I've been focussing on lyme and bart...and recently have decided it's time for Babesia.
My autonomic nervous system is affected...nothing has worked so far. I have shivers off and on all day and night...except for the few good days I have. I also have intermittent sweating, and my pulse rate goes up when I stand up and stays 90+ range for a long time. When I was healthy this did not happen.

Although, my saliva hormone test also showed very low estrogen, progesterone...which could also be causing the sweats.

Thank You All!

Thank you for taking the time to look up valuable information for me and to support me through this. I will save all this information, so I can reread it.

I wish that I could write more, but my brain is failing me.

Thank You!!!!!💛

Bump while we wait for LB.

I haven't had any improvement for Babesia, but my current Babesia protocol is:

Mepron + Azithromycin + Bactrim + Dihydroartemisinin + Beyond Balance BAB-2 + Cryptolepis + Goldenthread.

I did 2 weeks of Alinia before this, and I've pretty much felt terrible since then :p

Thanks for the "bump " Mudtardseed! And for letting us know what you have tried for Babesia.

Hi Little bear,
Wow, sounds like you're having a whole lot of trouble! The ammonia and acne thing sounds awful. Hope your condition improves. Who knew that detox/drugs could do such things to people! Sounds like you'd have been better off taking nothing but body immune system strengthening supplements.
Again, best wishes for feeling better. Big sympathy hugs, Aylett