Posted 6/15/2012 11:11 PM (GMT -5)
I'm pretty sure most doctors will treat babesia and bartonella first - maybe other co-infections too, but I'm not sure; those are just the two that pop into my head that I've heard of being treated first. I think the main issue there is that they suppress the immune system, making it harder for your lyme treatment to work - making it harder to get your immune system to recognize and kill off the lyme bacteria.
As far as the "right" way to go about treatment - I think it's important to keep in mind that medical research is about finding the best option for the most people (ideally, at least), but other options do still work - they all just work differently. My doctor is very strict on following rules (understandably so) and even though my symptoms have been very suggestive of bartonella, without a positive lab she was unwilling to treat it (though we did use some abx that target both lyme and bartonella). It took some time, but I finally did start making a huge dent in the lyme, and am feeling much better now!
It's hard to say if it's out of the picture - in general the less of the lyme bacteria there is, the better in control your body is against it.