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IV vs Oral antibiotics for Chronic Lyme

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Posted 9/24/2014 6:39 PM (GMT -5)
Does anyone have any good information on the effectiveness of taking oral antibiotics vs IV antibiotics for Neuro or Chronic Lyme? I have had symptoms for 5 months (about 25 different symptoms), but the big ones are a bunch of white matter lesions in my frontal lobes I'm assuming is caused by this disease, as well as swelling joints, chest/heart pains and brain fog/dizziness. I'm to the point of hardly getting around and am wondering if my LLMD (on the ILADS list) is being aggressive enough.

He had me on 400mg of daily Doxy for a month with no positive change (I know it can take awhile), then for the last three weeks added 500mg daily of Zithromax and 250mg for seven days of flagyl. At the one month point I mentioned IV and he blew that off. I also found myself getting spacy and numbness in the fingers and face when I took flagyl so the LLMD had me stop that medication. My worry is I have a bunch of Lyme cysts and/or furtherance of brain lesions the longer this goes on. I hadn't really felt a herx so I was hoping flagyl was going to be a great addition, but I cant take it now so I don't know what to do quickly for cysts or biofilm.

I also had an appointment today with the cardiologist for chest pain. Interestingly when I told him about my positive lyme test and my chest pains, he closed his chart and didn't test me anymore. He said he had a friend in Wisconsin who had Lyme (I'm in Michigan) and that I needed to find a place that can manage all of my symptoms and to look for a major treatment center, possibly in Wisconsin who can treat me. He mentioned a university, however, from reading several Lyme books and articles, im pretty much afraid of University clinics and their short term treatments vs ILADS type clinics/Dr's. As it is I have a University of Michigan Dr. who wants to give me steroids for some symptoms right now and my LLMD who says no and to keep taking orals....
Posted 9/24/2014 6:43 PM (GMT -5)
I have neurological symptoms, brain fog, twitching, tingling, etc., my doctor thought an IV would be best because it can penetrate the brain/blood barrier. I went for it. But I know people who have had similar symptoms to myself and got better with just oral abx.
Posted 9/25/2014 11:35 AM (GMT -5)
If you show no improvement on antibiotics then there is a reason. This is a very complex disease. following link explains all the possible reasons why you might be ill:

http://lymebook.com/beyond-lyme-connie-strasheim
Posted 9/25/2014 11:53 AM (GMT -5)
Well, they certainly aren't necessary to heal from late stage Neuro or long term chronic Lyme - I healed with just herbs. It's more of a personal choice.

There is study after study of relapses after having oral and IV abx for Lyme disease, so what you have to ask yourself is if you want to try that route or not. It might not work and you could be right back to where you are.

Are you detoxing? An overload of toxins in the body keeps the body from healing since it's expending it's energy to deal with those toxins instead.

Do you have any other conditions (thyroid, adrenal, mold exposure, viruses, to name a few) - they could be stopping the healing as well.

Healing from chronic Lyme almost always means uncovering what is dysfunctional in the body - one layer at a time - similar to an onion. There is soooo much more to healing from Lyme than just taking the abx. You need to investigate why you aren't making progress - rather than just jump from one protocol to another.
Posted 9/25/2014 3:13 PM (GMT -5)
I'm taking Epson baths after brushing, lemon water, and burbur drops in my water to help detox. Next week I learn about my co-infection tests. Adrenals are supposedly in the ranges.

The other weird thing is when I take my antibiotics I feel a little pressure and tingly feeling inside of my forehead area. I'm sure there is no way to find out but that's supposedly where my lesions are in the frontal lobe. I wish I could tell if its the meds reacting with the lesions or infection in a good way or something else. Definitely an odd feeling and of course just my luck I came across a intracranial pressure warning for Doxy last night on a website...
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