Considering a change -- thoughts?

I've been going to the J clinic in D.C. for almost a year and a half, and I've made a lot of progress with them. I love my NP there and I feel like they have this thing down to a science. I like that they have so many people to compare me to, and I like the pulsing approach -- I've gotten this far with relatively little damage to my body. I think I would be in remission if I didn't keep catching other illnesses from being around kids as a part-time teacher and parent. (But the kids keep me going ...)

I am so tired though. I feel very run-down and I'm not sure how much longer I can keep doing this to my body. I found a great holistic new PCP who ran a bunch of tests and says I have mitochondrial damage along with candida, a leaky gut and flat adrenals. She also suspects SIBO. She has a plan to do some healing, starting with some strict diets (sob).

I need to keep killing the bad stuff but I also need to get other things back in order. I see two options -- keep going as is with the clinic and this PCP, or switch to a more holistic local LLMD for a different approach to Lyme treatment (along with the new PCP) for a fresh take on it.

The new LLMD would be the one I recently started taking my son to. She is brilliant and works to get the whole body back in order, but I'm not sure I trust her as much as Dr. J for the actual killing of the bad stuff. I'm afraid of leaving something that is working and maybe relapsing. But she would take a more individualized approach that takes into account generic issues and a huge range of other infections and toxins. She uses abx, herbals and ozone therapy, which I used to think was way out there but I'm starting to think there's something to it. Not planning to do that, but just to give you an idea of her approach.

What would you do?

I would stay with Dr. J and keep treating until he thinks it is time

I understand your hesitancy to switching to all natural and leaving the care of someone so knowledgeable. I trust Dr. J, but sometimes your body needs a more natural approach. It's a hard call. Personally, I have switched to completely natural with the exception of a few prescriptions for thyroid and psych symptoms, and I have made more improvement than I ever did on antibiotics. But I still often wonder if someone as knowledgeable as Dr. J could help get me the rest of the way. I think the most important thing to do is listen to your body. If the antibiotics are tearing you down, it may be time to switch to a method that will focus on building your body up. It took us 6 months of rebuilding naturally to account for one year of antibiotics. Something to think about. Maybe you could work with both to do natural but also get Dr. J's input along the way.

Girlie, yes, it was mainly gut. The gut was affecting neurotransmitter levels for one. I was really low on dopamine and GABA levels via his electrodermal scanning. He said it was likely because my gut wasn't functioning properly. I had problems with candida toxins affecting brain functioning, so candida was a problem. There was overall unbalance of many of my systems. Thyroid functioning was lower for a while after stopping abx. Where I can't definitively say it was antibiotics causing a lot of the unbalance we were getting, I can say that I began to feel stronger and stronger after switching from abx to homeopathics. As the 6-7 months progressed, I began feeling stable again. Was that the lack of antibiotics, or the increase of support from the herbs and homeoapthics, I do not know. But my ND said that we had a period of having to detox from the side effects of the prescription meds. Liver functioning has improved after switching off of Rifampin too.

Have you tried CoQ10 and d-ribose? They can help with mitochondrial dysfunction.

Thanks for the clarifications. You're right, I remember now -- I just assumed that Tindamax would have the same risk as Flagyl because it's in the same class. Is that wrong? They know I'm not taking it and they're still treating me.

I'm still on babesia because some symptoms are lingering, plus I keep getting sick or having allergic reactions and being unable to hit things as hard as I'm supposed to. I back off a little (especially the biofilm busters) when I get sick. I also have a hard time functioning when I start the new cycle suddenly, so sometimes I'll wait on the artemisinin and other herbals until the second day. One month on the NP's suggestion, I started just the abx (not the Mepron or herbals) during the second off week, and started the regular cycle full-blast and wow, that felt like an effective cycle. Haven't managed it again though.

After hearing an explanation from my son's doctor, I'm starting to think the cysts and biofilms are a major component I'm not hitting hard enough. I'm probably harboring a whole lot of stuff hiding out that I'm not even beginning to touch.

I don't think there's any cyst busting going on during breaks. What would be doing that? Think we're supposed to avoid that. (Though I admit to having some illicit sugar-free chocolate with artificial sweeteners that probably chips away a little during the breaks.)

Oh yeah, that's true about the break giving them a chance to come out.

That is a lot on one week. I'm glad you can handle the D's together after that first bad experience.

I guess it does sound a little funny for any of us at the clinic to say we're undertreating, lol.