Herbs and blood tests

To refresh: about a month ago I had a flare involving night sweats, insomnia, heart palps., fatigue, brain fog, etc. I had been treating with Buhner’s Lyme protocol for about a year when this happened, and it led me to believe herbs might not be enough.

I made an appointment with a doc (non-LLMD but takes insurance) who, from what I had read about online, did not treat co-infections. I decided I would start treating Babesia and Bartonella with Buhner’s protocols right away before taking any Lyme antibiotics with the hope that this would make Lyme antibiotics more successful.

Started Babs protocol first. Herxed a bit after adding Bidens Pelosa, but slowly started to feel better in general. Night sweats are gone and insomnia has improved after 30 days and counting

Started Bart protocol and oh boy am I taking a lot of things now. The Houttuynia has given me a herx for the last week. Still not up to the full suggested dosage on that.

So today I had my first appointment with this non-LLMD Lyme doc. It turns out he does treat for co-infections, but needs positive blood tests first. After giving blood I started to wonder if my treating with herbs would reduce the chances of the tests coming back positive.

What do you folks think?

I’ve been treating with Buhners Lyme protocol for almost a year and a half. How might that affect tests for Borellia infections?

Now that some of the hallmark Babs symptoms are gone after 30 days or so on Babs herbs, have I ruined my chances of getting another positive test for Babs?

Would a herx from Houttuynia have any effect on Bart test? Also, would a herx from Houttuynia be a decent indicator for a Bart infection? Any other things that it might indicate?

I wish I had more specific info about the tests. He said they were for 3 types of borrelia and all of the common co-infections.

I think all of the tests that exist for babesia involve identifying the actual protozoa. Not sure on that though.

He said we will only be able to do aggressive treatment (iv) with positive tests.

potsnpans said...
Well the Lyme Western Blot showed 9 bands positive (93, 66, 58, 41, 39, 30, 28, 23, 18).

All tests for co-infections came back negative.

I asked the doc if he thinks my symptoms are from persistent infection, an autoimmune disorder, or both- he said he doesn’t know. Anyway he is going to start me on IV Rocephin with oral Azithromycin in late May. Insurance will likely only cover 4-6 weeks. I'm hoping that is enough to clear up my heart issues and maybe some of my head issues as well. I plan on continuing Buhner Lyme herbs and some of the babs and bart herbs through/beyond the abx treatment.

Any opinions on this antibiotic combo? Suggestions that might improve its effectiveness? Doc also prescribed the gallbladder med. and suggested milk thistle and curcumin as supportive supplements…

Your test results show some lyme specific bands backing up the lyme diagnosis.

The negative coinfection tests don’t rule them out.

I’ve not taken IV abx but rocephin is a common one used for IV.
And Azithromycin is also commonly used for Lyme (and combined with other Pharma to treat Bart and Babs)

However 4-6 weeks is s short time - not sure if it will do much in that time...

Good to see that your doc is putting you on Ursodiol for gallbladder protection.

Somebody said...
However 4-6 weeks is s short time - not sure if it will do much in that time...

I guess I'll see what options are available to me once I get that far in. I am a little nervous about long term abx though.

Somebody said...
For the curcumin, you may also want to look into the absorption of this. A form that is hydro-soluble absorbs better. Turmeric/curcumin is more challenging for the intestinal tract to absorb.

Thanks for the tip!