Mycobutin (Rifabutin) for Bartonella

How did people do on this abx? I've heard many say even though it's in the same class as Rifampin, its alot more tolerable and just as good for Bartonella. Thanks

Yes, I understand everyone responds differently. I'm on Macrobid now and again my psych symptoms just don't seem to be disappearing. If you've seen my previous posts in the last month you'd see that I did horrible on the Rifampin and Clarithromycin.

The nights are definitely alot more rougher. Its like clock work around 3am I wake up with bad anxiety, worry. Last night ( or should I actually say early this morning) I was up from 3 till about 5 and at one point balled my eyes out. The misery and despair was debilitating. I texted a good friend who dealt with lyme pretty bad about 10 years ago, we talked on the phone for a good hour .

Its so hard to keep a positive attitude. I know im upsetting people with my negative thinking. It has strained relationships in my life including with this particular friend.

I dont know if I should try the Mycobutin or take days off and pull back, detox and begin again and stay with the abx I'm on now . That friend has encouraged me to try the Mycobutin too.

Sometimes its so bad I want to go to the ER or call my psych nurse practitioner that I see once a month and have her put me on something low dose. I feel as though going back on psych drugs, no matter how low the dose, will just be a "band aid" and get in the way of treatment.

Personally, I did much better on Rifampin than Rifabutin. I had some herxing and increase in neuro/psych symptoms on Rifampin, along with a constant headache and neck pain. That may have been because I was taking my hydrocortisone doses incorrectly. As soon as I started Rifabutin I was bad. I was on 450mg of Rifabutin daily for a year. I just got off of it because my Bart tests came back negative. But, Rifabutin was significantly harder to take than Rifampin. I was actually doing better Rifampin, decrease in symptoms. I switched to Rifabutin because the Rifampin did not kill off enough of the Bart. Then, things got really bad and I had a lot of herxing taking all 450mg of Rifabutin at once each day... I lost about half of my hair over a 4 month period. Rifabutin also causes your body to break down hormones and neurotransmitters more rapidly, so I was extremely depressed as soon as I started taking Rifabutin. Overall, Rifabutin was much harder for me to take and never got easier to take.

I’ve never taken rifampin, but rifabutin has never been problematic for me

Cryptolepis and Japanese knotweed don’t seem to help much with what I consider my bartonella symptoms (disembarquement syndrome). They do help in other ways though. I have been thinking about trying houttuynia to add to my Bart meds.

I tried to take Cipro and I can confirm it was effective for Bart (drove it nuts) but I quickly developed the tendon pain on it and my LLMD had me stop taking it.