Scleritis

Yes!! It was one of my first symptoms. It was awful. Both eyes were bloodshot for about 8 or 9 months. I looked stoned all the time. I didn't know I had lyme at the time. No one could figure out what was wrong with my eyes. Finally, my eye dr said it was scleritis. He said I had some kind of autoimmune problem but he didn't know what one. He gave me steroid drops. fixed the redness. Looking back, I'm not sure if the eye steroid drops was a bad thing for the lyme that I had though.

What is the treatment they are doing?

I would assume this is from lyme right??

Carol I'm not exactly sure what scleritis is, but my eyes were bloodshot like a stoners for the 2+ years before I started treatment. My eyes have been getting better and better.

I have seen a few threads pop up here about bloodshot eyes. Not sure if that is the same, but Joe's comments refer to that.


You have only been on treatment a few weeks right?

Don't give in. Give it more time. You can get better

I had this pretty bad for a while myself- fortunately, it rarely happens any more as it's rather disturbing.

Bartonella is the usual culprit of this: www.retinareference.com/diseases/61075940c17078f7/images/e826096f8a/

Bartonella is very hard on the vascular system, and as such, very hard on the eyes for some people.

OriolCarol said...
Is the treatment I am doing for Bartonella correct? With rifampin 600mg, 100mg of minocycline and 2g of ceftriaxone.

I'm not noticing any improvement

Carol - can you remind me (and others reading this thread) how long you've been on the bartonella treatment?


I can't comment on the Ceftriaxone IV (Rocephin) - as i'm not knowledgeable about IV abx.

But for others who will be reading this thread - how often are you infusing the 2g of rocephin?

Rifampin 600 mg once daily or 300 twice daily is the usual dose.
Minocycline is usually 100 mg TWICE daily...but since you're also doing the rocephine...the 100 mg once daily may be appropriate.
I'm sorry I can't be more definitive on this - I'm just not sure when there are IV abx.

OriolCarol said...
I try not to lose hope, but I think lyme is winning the battle, both in the psychological and physical ...

Is it possible to have a herx of months? interrunpidamente?

I keep forgetting to respond to this! Ugh, sorry.
Yes, it is possible to herx for very extended periods of time. I herxed for 12 months continuously, with it getting worse every month. This is harmful to the body though, so if you are 'stuck' in a herx, then your first order of business needs to get the herx to stop. Then you can slowly reintroduce treatments - if they needed to be stopped completely to get the herxing under control.

Most of the time though, we can gain control of a herx by lowering our doses and increasing our detoxing, using binders and other means of detoxing.

If you believe you are stuck in a herx, please let us and/or your doctor know so you can get some help in getting it to stop.

OriolCarol said...
Another thing that I would like to comment on.

Traveler, in the link that you have passed me of the scleritis by Bartonella, the woman had a title of igg of 1/1280 high!
I have looked at the igg of bartonella henselae and quintana and I only have 1: 128 that is negative? It's a very low title, is not it?

Sorry, I had a very busy (and painful ) couple of days.

A "normal" result for acute Bartonellosis (IgM)is 1:128, so you are correct in that your result is low by most standards.

An IgG titer of greater than 1:256 is considered evidence of current or past Bartonella infection. Titers of 1:64 to 1:128 are considered equivocal.

But, no matter what your tests say, your symptoms ( tinnitus, vertigo and fasciculations, also the joint pain and the burning sensation) definitely suggest that you do. In this case, I would say a treatment trial is needed to know if you have the infection or if it's just severe Neuro Lyme. Usually though, those people that have a lot of neuro pain have both Neuro Lyme and Bartonella.

I would suggest that you increase your detoxing first - then talk to your doc about lowering your doses if that doesn't help. It would just be until you can get 'ahead' of the herx.


Loutucky
That's my understanding as well. There comes a point in time where some must make that decision to use steroids, and hopefully it's only in a 'localized' situation as you had.

Loutucky said...
Thanks Traveler! I hope you are feeling better now.

Thanks! I"m getting there! LOL! Changing out faucets in hard to get places needs to be left for the younger crowd, I think though! LOL!