Getting ready to start antibiotics. What to expect?

I started strong (doxy, ceftin and tinidazole) pulsing right out of the gates and didn't have any bad herx. I detoxed a lot and only had symptoms for 4 months before starting. I think it depends on the person. Detox detox detox! sending you good thoughts!

Xelaetaks - would you mind sharing your dose of Amoxicillin?

Because of it's short half-life (something like one hour) - I was taking it 3X daily. 1000 mg each dose.
I was also prescribed Probenecid to take with it. Probenecid is a medication that was used to treat gout.
When taken with Amoxicillin - it helps keep Amoxy levels higher in the blood stream for longer time.

I would encourage you to discuss this with your LLMD.

Tinidazole is often added as a cyst buster for lyme. I was on it - on a pulsing schedule - 2 days a week.

I would advise to at least take Nystatin which is easy on the body. It doesn't travel outside of the GI track. So no worries about the liver.

I would advise to not ignore your gut health. High quality probiotic, other things to settle the stomach like bone broth (or bone broth supps). Gut health is a big part of lyme recovery (boost immune system) and just overall health in general.

"amoxicillin 875mg x a day "

So is that 875 twice daily...or three times?

Will it be increased after awhile on that dosage?
Is it a LLMD you are seeing?

I just wanted to mention that it is a low dose.

Here's the Lyme Treatment guidelines (ILADS)

www.lymenet.org/BurrGuide200810.pdf

1000 mg 3 X daily - plus Probenecid.

bluelyme said...
I waited on antifungal ...bad candida ...mwf has same effect i would pulse diflucan

Reading some topics here about candida (https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3563265&p=2), it sounds like people have taken flucanzole on a once or twice a week basis, I may try it like that when starting it.

Also the doctor is an llmd, she suggested I may need antibiotics for a long time.

How much probiotics do you take? How much is enough?

Xelaetaks-

I have a few specific thoughts on antifungals I'd like to share. You'll benefit from reading the post I placed in the "New to Lyme?" thread that Traveler referenced but it is long. Here are some highlights.
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=1606610&g=3644275#m3644275

First, you haven't shared much about why you were prescribed Diflucan so that is important to know. Is it preventative since you're on abx or is it due to an existing yeast/fungal issue?

MILK THISTLE SEED/BURDOCK ROOT
Diflucan, like many meds is hard on your liver but it's not "dangerous" and many have taken it without incident. To help boost your liver's ability to process it effectively you should take milk thistle seed and/or burdock root extracts. They have been helpful to many here. I think it's important to support the liver even without an anti fungal in your protocol so that might be something you could do, anyway.

SYSTEMIC vs. LOCAL ANTIFUNGAL
But it's important to know WHY you're taking an antifungal. Diflucan is a systemic anti fungal, whereas there are many effective local antifungals that, as previously mentioned, don't cross the gut's mucosal barrier and aren't absorbed into the bloodstream, which requires processing by your liver. Only those with systemic issues or yeast/fungal strains that are resistant to the local antifungals need to be on a systemic anti fungal. The thread above can help you figure out if you have local or systemic symptoms. You can also try to test to determine this but the tests aren't very reliable--easier to go by symptoms.

EXISTING Y/F OVERGROWTH:
If you do have a pre-existing y/f issue and based on your symptoms it seems to be primarily in your gut, the PURE Nystatin powder is the most effective and safest Rx you can buy and usually more effective than natural products (this isn't always the case with natural antimicrobials/herbs but unfortunately, natural antifungals don't work fast and hard enough on an existing yeast/fungal overgrowth, which needs to be knocked out hard and fast).

LEAKY GUT
However, you can have both a local and a systemic anti fungal problem--particularly if you have been suffering y/f issues for awhile and if you have had GI problems for awhile. The thread above explains this in more detail but left untreated long enough, y/f issues (among many other issues) can damage the gut's mucosal lining, allowing y/f and toxins, etc to seep through holes and into your blood stream, carrying toxins and y/f throughout your body--which is how most systemic y/f issues develop. So y/f overgrowth often starts in the gut first but both local and systemics are necessary to get it under control.

PREVENTATIVE
If you are being prescribed Diflucan as a preventative anti fungal, it's best to use only a local anti fungal. Again, if you do not have a pre-existing yeast/fungal issue (and it's important to know for sure) then there are many natural antifungals that are effective but you shouldn't take more than two at a time and they need to be rotated every couple of weeks to different antifungals or the y/f will grow resistant to them, rendering them useless. This is also why the products that you buy with multiple anti fungal ingredients, while effective for some to knock out an overgrowth quickly, are not good for long-term preventative purposes.

PULSING
I know people here have posted about pulsing antifungals like Diflucan in order to protect the liver. But yeast/fungus can take advantage of that and grow resistant to it. It's not the same as pulsing abx for lyme--at all. The y/f grows within MINUTES of the abx killing all the bacteria and/or the y/f feeding on whatever you are eating. So taking Diflucan once a week allows y/f to grow all week and eventually, that once/wk dose isn't going to be effective and you'll have to find a different anti fungal.

So I strongly discourage pulsing. If you need to be on a systemic anti fungal for a systemic problem, hit it hard and fast with the systemic and support your liver during the campaign so that you can get the overgrowth taken care of as effectively and quickly as possible and get off the systemic anti fungal ASAP. If it is for maintenance during heavy abx use--you should try a local anti fungal instead so that it is concentrated in the gut, where the risk lies.

STRAIN SUSCEPTIBILITY
If you are on diflucan and don't see much change or impact - you either have a strain that isn't susceptible to it and you need a different systemic anti fungal or you don't need something that strong and can have good success with a local.

Hope this is helpful --

-p

Hi Xelaetaks

OK - thanks for that info - helps quite a bit.

So, in YOUR particular case, I urge you to get on the Diflucan ASAP and get the yeast/fungal issue under control once-and-for-all. If you don't have much progress on it then you likely have a y/f strain that isn't susceptible to the Diflucan and you'll need to try a different systemic anti fungal.

But it's GREAT that your LLMD is targeting the y/f issues first. I wish more LLMDs did this.

The risk you take in not getting the y/f issues under control before starting the lyme & co protocol is that:

a) both conditions can really overwhelm your body and your immune system, making you sicker and effective treatment more elusive;

b) your lyme & co treatment will not be effective if the y/f issue continues - you'll have problems with extreme herxing and gut damage that causes malabsorption of not only the abx and other products in your protocol, but also with nutrition and proper detoxing;

c) also, there are many symptoms of y/f overgrowth that overlap with lyme & co symptoms so if you have all these issues going on simultaneously, it's tough to know what is causing what. And lyme & co treatment is very reliant upon understanding how you are responding to the treatment and that requires a clear understanding of your symptoms. If you get the y/f issues off the table first, lyme & co treatment is a lot more manageable.

I really think you should take a few moments to read the thread I posted--I don't want to retype it.

Since you already have y/f problems, you're going to be prone to them coming back while you're on abx so once you knock back the overgrowth with the systemic anti fungal, you'll need to stay on a local anti fungal (aimed at the gut since you're taking abx orally) and take it as long as you're taking abx. This is why the PURE Nystatin powder is beneficial--not the Nystatin pills (the thread explains this in more detail).

Do some reading and check back with us--you'll likely have specific questions since we all have a unique set of conditions with our lyme & co and we'll do what we can to help.

-p

How long to take one antifungal before changing it (in order to prevent yeast resistence)?