Diagnosed with Lyme and Bartonella

Hi everyone,
I was diagnosed with CIRS from mold in January, but just got diagnosed with Lyme and Bartonella a few days ago. My mold dr. had my LabCorp test results from the beginning and you think she would have questioned the two positive bands on the IgG that showed up, but she didn't. I had to find another doctor who used Igenex and there you have it. Positive for lyme and two different species of Bartonella.

I guess my question is this. Do the species matter? And the bands on Igenex that were positive are 31, 41, and 66 with 30 being indeterminate. He started me on Biaxin because my identical twin sister had a severe reaction to doxycycline many years ago and he didn't want to take a chance.

I'm a big believer in herbs and alternative therapies as well, but I don't think he is. I have an appt to see him in person on the 27th. What herbal remedies do you recommend to go along with the Biaxin? I read something somewhere about grapefruit seed extract pairing well with Biaxin, but any suggestions, advice, or words of wisdom would be much appreciated. Thanks so much in advance
Jill

Hi Physed girl!
Nice to meet another jersey girl!! No...my mold doctor is in Vermont and I had to drive seven hours to see her, but I don't think she's going to be my doctor for very much longer.

Are you happy with your Lyme dr here in New Jersey? I know we can't mention names but would really like to know since you've seen so much improvement. Also, whereabouts in New Jersey are you? Thanks so much for the warm welcome!
Jill

Hi Jill,

You have lyme and bart and possibly others’ as well.
No species of bart doesn’t matter.

I’m thinking you should find a LLND since you wouid prefer herbal treatment.

There are a lot of herbal options, as well as other treatment alternatives to pharmaceuticals, but honestly I don't know anything about how they interact with Biaxin, so you definitely should do some research and/or wait to discuss with an LLMD. Girlie is right that an LLND will know best about herbs, but they can be harder to find. In my experience a good LLMD should know at least about the basic herbal protocols as well, since with these crazy infections different bodies respond differently to treatment and often try multiple approaches before finding what works.

We all understand being scared, but I'm glad you're here, and I hope we can be helpful! Please feel free to reach out anytime, and use the search bar as well to see past discussions about issues that interest you.

Arguably the best place to start learning about herbs for Lyme and co-infections is the Stephen Buhner website. Personally I'm also a fan of RawlsMD.com.

What are you doing to treat for CIRS right now? Have you seen any improvement, and are you out of the moldy environment? If you know mold is an issue for you and you have CIRS, then some might argue that you should get more stable in that regard before you try to treat Lyme. Read Neil Nathan's Toxic if you have not already - excellent information in there about how to approach multiple issues, where to begin, how to manage a sensitized system, etc.

Good luck!