Spinal Tap

Ditto to what Chris posted. I've never seen good evidence to suggest that a spinal tap is worth the risks. Although should you choose to have the spinal tap - PLEASE take someone that will drive for you. No need to take any more risks!

Are you sure you don't have a co-infection? If you have a Babesia or Bartonella infection as well, it will complicate the Lyme treatment. I had to treat both Lyme and Bart at the same time to get the progress that I did.

Also, have you tried using a heating pad or an ice pack on your neck? Most of the time heat would help for me, but once in a while I had to use an ice pack. Heat will help relax the muscles, ice will help reduce any swelling.

The only thing that ever helped with my pain levels is acupuncture. I tried high powered pain meds, but refused to keep going on stronger and stronger ones as they only worked for a very short amount of time for me.

It doesn't matter what kind of increase in activity you have, you should expect an increase in symptoms for at least a short while. So if you choose to have this done, be prepared for a couple of days or more of increased symptoms at least with your neck.

5 weeks of treatment really isn't 'completely treatment' according to what Burrascano thoughts are. He bases his treatment guidelines on ILADS standards of a minimum of 6- 8 weeks for those that have NO symptoms, but have a bulls eye rash. The more symptoms you show, the longer the treatment should be. If there are co-infections, that would also increase the amount of time for a person to be in treatment.

You can read his paper, 'Advanced Topics in Lyme Disease', by following the link provided in the "New to Lyme?" thread that sits at the top of our forum.

Going with IV abx just for the sake of using a different treatment usually doesn't help most people, and the risks may outweigh the benefits. Please do your research and choose wisely.

With seeing zero improvements, chances are high that you have a co-infection or other conditions that are stopping the healing. Have you had your adrenals, thyroid and/or MTHFR gene mutation tested?

Another thing, some people just don't seem to be helped by Doxy, have you tried using any other abx? What doses of abx are you using? Too low of a dose will only result in keeping the bacteria from replicating, rather than killing them off, so when you stop abx, you end up right back where you started or worse.

I had a spinal tap and wish I hadn't...forget a headache for a day or two. I had a pounding migraine starting from day two and it went for days. I wasn't even sore in my back...but the headache was awful. One of those funky bands that I can't spell for nothing were positive. Most MS patients have the same positive band but again that is Lyme. My spine was clear and I'm telling you I will never get another one. If anything get an MRI but remember those spirochetes hide in tissue and sometimes the MRI can't pick it up. Sounds like it's time to switch doctors. You need someone who is on your side and not against you, how you feel or what the labs say.

This all takes time. I was diagnosed last December, tried 2+ months of abx and it did me no good...started the natural route in March with an anti depressant, herbs, etc and a lot of my symptoms are gone.

It's awful how long it takes but you will get there but you need the right medical team in place.

Praying for you!!!!

Hey Sunny...how are you? Did you get the tap and everything? Keep us posted.