Hi Denise -
First - I'll share my experience for context:
My LLMD and I got a high viral load (I had high titers for 4!) and yeast/fungal load down first, then started healing gut and supporting immune system 3-4 months before I started lyme & co treatment.
Then I started on Byron White tinctures A-Bart, A-Babs and AL-Complex (lyme). I had significantly different reactions to each of those tinctures.
- Strong reaction (herxing, increased babs symptoms) to small doses of A-Babs (despite a negative test)
- No reaction to high doses of AL-Complex despite being CDC-positive
- And small doses of A-Bart triggered such severe GI attacks that they landed me in the ER.
As I tried a couple more herbs for lyme (I can't remember what they were) and made no progress, my mobility began to decline very quickly... I was nearly wheelchair bound with debilitating pain in hip & knee joints and large muscles. LLMD felt that the lyme herbs weren't acting quickly enough so she started me on IV Rocephin and I herxed so severely at first I had to stop all other antimicrobial herbs for coinfections. But eventually recovered and made good progress for awhile.
However, I was working long stressful hours at the time and soon found that my progress was declining - treatment and life all competing for the same resources.
So I resigned from my job (and stepped back many components of my life) and slowly rebuilt my protocol back up only to crash from overdosing on an antiviral herb. Every time my body gets run down from herxing too much or the infections gain a foothold, my viral load soars... so I've needed to stay on an antiviral throughout treatment.
However, I've been trying to wean off antiviral Rx and get started on an herbal (Beyond Balance IMN-V-II) but it is very strong and it's taking a long time to titrate up to the optimal dose w/out crashing. I learned the hard way that the viral load is a huge drain on my body and will always interfere w/ lyme & co treatment unless I can manage it better.
A month later I was finally able to re-engage and started rebuilding my protocol again, then crashed again by reintroducing the bart herbs. When I finally recovered from that I started on a new bart IV abx -vancomycin. Herxing was bad at first but has been manageable.
I have recently FINALLY made progress... not just with the antimicrobial treatments but being able to adhere to a schedule, detoxing effectively, and manageable symptoms. I have not resumed babesia treatment yet... maybe in a month or so... VERY slow process for some of us.
Long story short--it's a very personal decision and journey. I think it is VERY easy to overdo it and the cost is significant. I think LLMDs/NDs try too much too fast with some people without spending the time to help get their bodies ready for treatment. There is a process that will help prevent total overload and setbacks.
I think you have to start off the bat by reducing the peripheral load on your immune system (viruses, yeast/fungal overgrowth, adrenal stress, GI problems) so that your treatment has a fighting chance. And GI issues are going to challenge proper absorption of supps/meds. If you're in good shape on that front, then the next challenge is to get really good at understanding your symptoms to various infections and how you react to components of your treatment and detoxing.
I would start slowly with antimicrobials for one infection at a time (like you did), usually your dominant infection (as indicated by your symptoms), so that you know what you're responding to and why.
And when your detox is in balance with what you're killing and you're feeling like the symptoms from that infection/treatment are "manageable" then you can introduce a new antimicrobial, etc... so that is what you have to consider next - do you feel your lyme sx are under control? And if you herx from bart will that be too much on top of your lyme sx?
Literature suggests that during treatment of lyme, other infections can often go a little dormant. This was certainly true for me--bart flared like crazy once I started to address it recently. So that's something else to keep in mind that your secondary infection just might be lying in wait to pounce!
Hope this is helpful...if not keep asking questions!
-p
Post Edited (Pirouette) : 5/31/2016 12:00:06 PM (GMT-6)