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Posted 7/13/2018 2:52 PM (GMT -5)
Hey everyone! I've been treating with antibiotics since January 2018, along with Samento, Banderol, and a host of various supplements. I've made significant improvement in some areas in this time, and haven't really seen much change in one or two others yet. Unfortunately, the antibiotics really started giving me some severe stomach issues a few weeks ago. My doctor told me to take a week off, and the cramping, gas, and other problems went away fairly quickly once I stopped taking them. He told me to just start one antibiotic back up, minocycline, to ease back into it after my break, which I did.

After about a week or so back on the minocycline I started having pretty bad stomach problems again. My doctor told me if I think it's necessary I should take another week off of everything, and that it may need to be more.

Right now, the only prescription medication I'm on are minocycline and fluconazole (for a rather persistent fungal rash I'd really like to get rid of). I'm not sure if it's just the mino or both of them that are messing with my stomach this time around, but I'm looking at at least another week or two off of the mino probably. My question is this:

Is it time to step away from antibiotic treatment, for the time being? I've been considering starting up an herbal protocol to replace it. Would that be easier on my stomach? Would it be possible to later introduce some antibiotics into the mix after I start that, if I give my stomach time to heal from them?

Or should I look into pulsing antibiotics? So far all of my doses have been continuous, which may account for my stomach's current shape. Still, my doctor and I had agreed to treat aggressively since at the time we started, the infection was only several months old, not years. I would really appreciate any insight you all can provide. What do you think would be the easiest on the stomach, and where would you suggest going from here? In a week or two I'm going to speak with my doctor again and would like to have all the info I can so we can make the best decision.

Thanks for taking the time to help, I hope you're all making progress as well!
Posted 7/13/2018 2:57 PM (GMT -5)
I think taking a break from abx makes sense. Herbals are usually easier to tolerate especially in regards to the gut (but that can depend). I consider a break with goal of stabilizing your gut a good idea, then you could reintroduce herbal antimicrobials one at a time. And so long as that was going ok could look into doing antibiotics again, pulsing them could be a good strategy and might help you better tolerate them.

Are you on any probiotics? Doc had me on 3 different types while I was treating with heavy-duty abx.
Posted 7/13/2018 3:59 PM (GMT -5)
Yes, I’m on 2 kinds of probiotics, pretty strong ones. They’ve been keeping me going this long I think.
Posted 7/13/2018 6:36 PM (GMT -5)
Kind of unrelated, but only a little: does anyone think cutting gluten out of my diet could have caused my stomach to rebel? I’d alwaya tolerated the antibiotics pretty well, and around the same time I cut gluten out as an experiment it started bothering me, or a little while afterwards. Could I have lost a buffer of extra good bacteria in my stomach by cutting that out of my diet? I wasn’t having gut issues before as far as I remember. Both of my parents asked me this, I don’t know if they’re on to something or not. It may be completely unrelated.
Posted 7/13/2018 7:00 PM (GMT -5)
That's a good question on the gluten. Might want to try a little experiment, slowly reintroducing it and seeing if it makes a difference? Did you cut it out all at once? It's so hard to gauge causality with this stuff and we're each different, so sometimes it takes some trial and error!
Posted 7/13/2018 7:09 PM (GMT -5)
Well, I had tried going a week without gluten a month before and noticed absolutely zero difference. And then later I decided to give it a longer try. It’s been about a month now. Maybe it exacerbated the issue. I’ll ask my doctor next time a talk to him. Maybe I’ll try eating a little bit of something that has it in there and seeing if it makes a difference.
Posted 7/13/2018 9:00 PM (GMT -5)
Noah, add lauricidin pellets it will kill the fungus and keep candida away you will love it, it will help it breaks down all forms of borrelia and biofilm too
Posted 7/13/2018 10:00 PM (GMT -5)
I actually just started that supplement a week or two ago! Been pretty spotty with it so far cause my stomach has been off, but I’m gonna get back to it tonight.
Posted 7/14/2018 12:47 AM (GMT -5)
I did the GF diet for awhile when I was first diagnosed.

It didn’t have any effect - no better or worse.
Posted 7/14/2018 9:43 AM (GMT -5)
I am gluten free. I believe it was a partial contributor to getting me in remission. I have read a lot about dietary recommendations and dietary science. You can find numerous articles and documents speaking to the damage and problems gluten can cause. I have yet to read anything about the benefits of gluten.

I believe that is because there are no benefits to eaing gluten. Except maybe the fleeting happiness you get when you bote into a donut or nice piece of bread.

Gluten is mainly found in products of refuned grains and sugars. Stuff that should be heavily limited in anybody’s diet.

I doubt avoiding gluten would exacerbate anything. However, I remeber when i first stopped eating a lot of the things i really loved, pizza, donuts, bread, pasta, italian (oh i miss Italian), there is an initial period where I was “down” for a little while. Mostly emotionally, but that can drag energy levels down too.
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