What is considered catching LYME in time?

That would be considered early for most Lyme patients. Ideally you would get on the abx as soon as you got bit but that does not usually happen, as in your case.

I would be concerned that 4 weeks of Doxy is not enough and that you need to see a LLMD that specializes in treating Lyme. I would be concerned about an Infectious Disease Dr. unless you know for a fact that he is a LLMD.

You had a bull's eye rash and that is the best indicator of lyme. It is even a better indicator than the lyme test. As for the co-infection test, those are very unreliable.

How much doxy are you taking?

Doctors all have differing opinions and especially on how to treat. The co-infections seem to display their lovely symptoms as you are getting rid of lyme. I am pretty sure I had or have Bart because of my feet issues. It felt like I had shards of glass in them.

I think you pretty much have to go by symptoms on the co-infections. The tests were an expense that I chose to spend on treatment. I knew if the cos test said I had not one, would I believe it?

Based on your symptoms, your doctor will treat you.

Oh, and I am pretty sure that your doxy script is not enough. I think it should be 200 2x a day. I hope an antibiotic person comes and give you more information on this part.

Oh they are all better. Thank you. It was only about a month of barely being able to walk on them. And it was a typical lyme symptom, in that it would come and go.

I think lyme and co-infections co-mingle symptoms. They all blend. And as you get well and a certain symptom is not going away it will become an ah ha moment and that is when you discover that it could be bart or babs and you then just add in a little extra at that time for that co-infection.

No worries and so stressing. You could have a super easy time dealing with this lyme. Just stay as stress free as you can, detox like it is super important (which it is) and eat as organic as you can afford.

100 mg of doxy is pretty standard. You want to treat longer than you think necessary. You don't want to risk the chance that months down the road you get slammed with much worse symptoms because you didn't treat long enough and there was still too much bacteria left in your system.

The ILADS guidelines calls for 400- 600 mgs of Doxy a day to treat Lyme.
www.lymenet.org/BurrGuide200810.pdf

No, there are no tests available that are accurate enough to test to see when the infection has been cleared - we don't even have good enough tests to catch more than 50% of those that have these infections.

Most people are healed in 4 weeks on 400 - 600 mgs of Doxy when caught very early like yours was, but not all. It depends on many factors, like what else your body may be dealing with, if there are any co-infections, viruses and other things that may have been passed at the same time and more.

If you have the tick that bit you, you can send it in to here: www.bayarealyme.org/lyme-disease-prevention/tick-testing/ But I surely wouldn't wait for results! The only time to actually get rid of the bacteria is with the very early treatment.

While it's possible for some to heal with just the 200 mgs a day, personally I don't like the chances of developing chronic Lyme at that dose. I wouldn't allow my husband to stay on that low of a dose when he got infected in 2014. I went in with him to talk to the doctor and fortunately, she listened carefully and we worked out that he would take the 400 mgs twice a day in order to avoid chronic Lyme.

I want to be clear here - I am NOT trying to scare you, but I DO want you to be fully aware of the difference.

"There has never been a study demonstrating that 30 days of antibiotic treatment cures chronic Lyme disease. However there is a plethora of documentation in the us and european medical literature demonstrating by histology and culture techniques that short courses of antibiotic treatment fail to eradicate the Lyme spirochete. Short treatment courses have resulted in upwards of a 40% relapse rate, especially if treatment is delayed.


Most cases of chronic Lyme disease require an extended course of antibiotic therapy to achieve symptomatic relief. The return of symptoms and evidence of the continued presence of Borrelia Burgdorferi indicates the need for further treatment. The very real consequences of untreated chronic persistent Lyme infection far outweigh the potential consequences of long-term antibiotic therapy."
www.ilads.org/lyme/about-lyme.php#sthash.yXk0U3he.dpuf

Asymptomatic infections don't produce symptoms, as you may have guessed, even though you have the bacteria in your body. It doesn't mean that the bacteria will not do damage, it just doesn't produce the 'usual' symptoms. One way to find out is when the person isn't healing, or if the symptoms are just so light that they are not felt until one or more other infections are treated. I'm that way with Babesia. My symptoms are usually pretty light..... until I start treating. =/

Thanks Trav and Girlie,

I'll see what the doctor thinks on Monday. Are there different numbers for Lyme (like grades of how much bacteria in your system, determined by the lyme and co-infection tests) OR is it just positive/negative?

Thanks everyone

Huddie,

You have been given great information already and I hope you heed the advice you received.

Please take a peek at my signature.

I started 100mg 2x per day doxy the day after I pulled the nymph deer tick out of my abdomen.

I had no rash but the tick was inside a tiny red pimple.

My prescription was for 21 days and, when my LabCorp Lyme test came back negative 2 weeks later, my PCP told me I could stop the doxy if I wanted.

I took the full prescription yet developed some mild and transient peripheral nervous symptoms within 10 days of going off doxy. I sought the advise of a LLMD and was lucky enough to meet him/start treatment within 2 months of the bite.

My LLMD always insisted I had only Lyme - most likely because my symptoms were mild. He also insisted that my immune system was taking care of the bulk of things.

It was after he took me off abx and I started the full Cowden protocol (which also treats coinfections) that I started to suspect I had a Babesia/Babesia-like infection.....and possibly a Bartonella/Bartonella-like infection. My suspicions arose based upon the (mild) herx symptoms I had on the coinfection-specific herbs.

I had asymptomatic infections.

July 16th was exactly two years since I started treatment for Lyme.

I, too, came from a very healthy place and I now accept the concept that the strength of my immune system is indeed the reason why my symptoms have been so mild.

However, I am not symptom-free and I was before Lyme and I thus continue to treat.

If I was medicated properly after the tick bite, I doubt I'd be here.

You have the chance to do things differently because you are being given information I didn't have when I needed it.

I think you should consider running with it.