Aggressive Treatment Options

I want to zoom in and focus on killing the Lyme in a shorter period of time, rather than just getting by. I'm currently an intern for a company, and have been for over a year now, however, I don't think I am well enough to hold a full time job right now. I've missed too many days the past few months due to Lyme. So what I'm thinking is that I just need to step back from working and really treat this stuff.

I have the opportunity to quit my job and really focus on healing. If I were to do this, what could I add to really aggressively treat this thing? I know that there are some labs that I'm needing done (comprehensive stool panel for gut infections, heavy metals toxicity, coinfections, etc), but what else should I add to my regimen?

I was diagnosed last September and started treatment last November. But so far I have taken Samento and Banderol for 7 months and Bryon White A-L for 2. Samento and Banderol caused a small herx at the beginning but then I plateaued. With the A-L, I have made it to 11 drops in 2 months. It's been a little harder for me.

However, I don't feel like I'm doing enough. I feel like I am hobbling through life but drawing this process out longer than it has to be.

Antibiotics in addition to A-L? Something for viral infections? IV antibiotics and fluids? Really focusing on diet and supplements? What are your suggestions?

Thanks!

It is so nice that you can take off some time for work. That in itself is going to help a lot. Make sure you are eating healthy, resting a lot and work on the gut health also. I think, unfortunately Peteza is right. And I also know it is hard to hear. I wish you the best!

I know people who have healed in less time than that.

Our own Chapelle is one of them.
Also Traveler was less then 3 years of treatment.

My personal opinion. Antibiotics are the key to kill Lyme. I'm using everything from rife machine to herbs but I rely on antibiotics. If you have sifilis what is a bacteria that looks like lyme no matter how much herbs you take it's not killing it. So I'm aiming for total destruction of lyme adding everything that I can to my antibiotic protocol. I don't believe in putting it to sleep... I want it dead.

I'm sortof somewhere along that same decision path. Worked for 2 years while treating moderately using essential oils. Then quit to focus on more aggressive treatment which I've been doing for another 1.5 years.

The advantage to not working is that you can just treat harder whatever modality you're using. There is probably a point at which too much herxing becomes unproductive, but realistically I think with late stage chronic Lyme there is like a block of say 10000 herx units that you need to get through to get well. If you treat non-aggressively it might take years and years to get through all that.

Of course there is a point at which herxing becomes too much. It's really like hiking the Pacific crest or Adirondack trail. If you try to do 40 miles a day you're going to burn out too quickly and likely won't finish. But if you just stroll merrily along and do 2 miles a day you won't finish either.

I know there are some on here who treated with minimal herxing with 1 year of gentle herbal treatment. But that's really only feasible when you catch the bite immediately. The bacterial load was probably low and likely could have been knocked down with a few months of a more aggressive treatment with more herxing.

There are a lot of treatment options that can be used more aggressively. Rife, BVT, anti-parasitics, abx, ozone.

Thanks, project. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Great analogy! I feel like I'm just poking along leisurely when upon quitting the job, I could focus more on healing and do some serious "hiking" up that trail.

I know that I am not able to do all of these therapies at once and expect to live through it, but I do feel like an addition of antibiotics or other modalities could help the bacteria load. I know I won't completely be well for some time, but I'm hoping to lighten the load enough within say a 6-8 month period off from work, so that I could at least be functioning enough to accept a full time job.

It sounds like you might benefit from a trial of various herbs that treat the coinfections.

Lyme rarely travels alone and it's not uncommon for people to have asymptomatic coinfections. If these coinfections are left untreated, they can impede healing from Lyme.

One of the things I like most about herbs is that they can hit a variety of pathogens....not only bacteria but, parasites and fungus.

Byron White has several other tinctures that address coinfections as does Cowden.....Buhner offers numerous herbal recommendations for the various coinfections as well.

And, it makes sense to me to incorporate herbs that address your symptoms, support your immune system and reduce inflammation - all of these contribute to the restoration of health.

Ok cool, I'm glad you have someone to work with! Dr Horowitz is a good mentor for sure, that is a good sign in my book. Dr Horowitz tends to go abx heavy with a mix of herbs, but he is willing to improvise. Hopefully you can talk to your doctor and let them know what your goals are, especially if you take this time off from work you can let them know that want to focus on a more aggressive treatment strategy. And depending on how things go, you may or may not have to taper the aggressiveness of treatments or improvise and try other meds.

MA10

I had a similar path... I suffered 16+ yrs undiagnosed. And then I was hit with a horrible chronic sinusitis and bronchitis from a fungus that MDs treated w/ abx and steroids for 13 months... I got worse and worse, of course. Then the lyme & co symptoms really flared - so much that there was no doubt I had lyme & co. In a good way, this is how I was able to get diagnosed and start treatment (up to that point, MDs blamed me for not managing "my stressful life"). But it also meant that I had a very, very slow and stuttering start to lye & co treatment.

I first had to heal the yeast/fungal imbalances and treat several high viral loads, heal leaky gut and support immune function. None of this is straightforward - often we have to test out herbs or Rx to determine what works best because tests don't always tell us exactly what is going on. Luckily, my LLMD knew to tackle these conditions first before launching into lyme & co treatment. So I focused on this for 5 months or so and was able to start lyme & co treatment in a MUCH better state of health.

Then I started with Byron White herbal tinctures for lyme, babs and bart. I really like these. But I was also working 80 hrs/wk, traveling for work, no management of my stress load and that knocked me back again. Viruses flared and within a couple of months I wasn't able to walk due to hip and knee joint and leg muscle pain.

I ended up starting over, still working. But we stopped all treatment and I went on IV ceftriaxone (rocephin), a very very tough month of herxing but was able to walk again.

I tried to reincorporate the herbal tinctures and crashed again. Started them up much more slowly again and made a little progress.

A couple months later I then started having heart trouble and had to stop everything again until we got it figured out. Months later I slowly ramped up my protocol again.

I then tried to transition from antiviral Rx to antiviral herbal tincture, overdosed and was literally bed-bound for a month trying to recover. I finally learned my lesson and had to stop working and doing ANYTHING else but resting and focusing on my protocol. This has helped tremendously...

Finally, 2 yrs after starting treatment w/ my LLMD I was finally making progress, feeling better, having more cognitive function and was able to keep up w/ protocol schedule.

I've read that abx work a little faster than herbs but I also think herbs often work more comprehensively. I think some people do better with herbs, some do better w/ abx and most of us are doing a hybrid of both. I had NO luck w/ lyme herbs and ended up in ER w/ bart herbs--they were so powerful. Babs herbs were impactful. And I've had luck with lyme and bart abx. But my GOAL is to transition to all herbs by year's end...

YOU
I do support the concept of stopping work for you. I think this will definitely help you progress a little faster. But the key for you seems to be that you need a comprehensive protocol. What you're taking doesn't sound like a comprehensive protocol, which is maybe why you feel like you're moving at a "management" pace. The best way to do this, especially if you are looking to get intensive, is to work w/ your LLMD. Since I was on abx I had to see my LLMD or her nurse monthly. A 6-month interaction w/ your LLMD is probably not enough and you'll need something more frequent to get started and then maybe every three months as you're deeper into a protocol.

I also think you need a more comprehensive detox protocol that covers all the detoxing bases--TONS of info on the forum about detoxing. This will help you balance a comprehensive treatment--whatever you take for antimicrobials, you need to balance it with an equal pace of detoxing so that your herxing is more manageable. I like project's herxing analogy too... and often, we have to experiment a little to figure out what that optimal "antimicrobial vs detoxing" balance is. Too much herxing can be damaging.

Another thing you can do is prioritize what you want to focus on - you don't need to start treating everything all at once and that would probably not yield the best results, anyway. Go by what your most dominant sx suggest are your most dominant issues.

And also, a good antiviral support might be helpful for you.

Many lyme specialists point to uncontrolled inflammation as the main source of pain and discomfort so this is pretty important to address.

Regarding heavy metals, if you think you're having significant issues than I would explore this. If not, maybe it's something that can wait.

If you're interested in exploring possible coinfections, try starting with Jernigan's list and score your symptoms. Share this info with your LLMD and talk about what you might want to explore for treatment.
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3033860

Hope this is helpful! Let us know how things are going...

-p

Pirouette, such helpful information! And it helped to put into words better what I was trying to say about the "management" phase. My current treatment is definitely not comprehensive. And I am definitely considering a new doctor who might could see me or interact with me more frequently than every 6 months. I just hate to leave him, though. He's been super helpful up until this point helping me address Candida, food allergies, adrenal fatigue, Hashimotos, and a little bit of the Lyme. When I last saw him, he had mentioned trying the viral formulas and then doing research about toxic mold. But it just takes so long to tackle any of that because I have to research for 6 months and THEN we get to make a decision about how to treat it. Potentially a second doctor could be used in addition to this one. Not really sure how that would work out.

Traveler, I like your suggestion of focusing on healing rather than killing. For detoxing...definitely need to try doing that more often. I've used most of those detox methods at one time or another, but none of them consistently. As far as supporting systems, I hope to use food and supplements to help the body do what it's supposed to do. As for immune system boosting, I am currently working my way to 4.5 mg of LDN. I definitely feel like it's helping. What do you mean by an anti-infective program?

Thank you both for your input!

hmmm. Okay. I will see what I can come up with. I still like your idea of total healing. I'll try to focus on that more readily.

Thanks so much for your help!