HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Heading to Klinik St. Georg to support my girlfriend. Should I get the partner treatment?

Support Forums
>
Lyme Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 8/13/2019 11:58 AM (GMT -5)
Hi everyone.

A little background, i'll try to keep it short! My wonderful girlfriend has been battling Lyme for sometime now (~7 years). I've only been with her for half of that time, but i've seen her run the gauntlet of antibiotics and herbs. Last year Lyme hit her pretty hard and she was stuck in bed for nearly 6 months. She had a PICC line installed and, through a series of antibiotics, she recovered for the time being. She is now at about 70% of herself. Since she is feeling better, her LLMD's pushed here to pursue treatment is Germany, which she did and is now scheduled to fly out there for treatment in October.
We've had discussions about our future with kids, and there is concern that if I did have Lyme I could pass it back to her, and potentially our children. I totally get this, and it is the last thing i'd want to do, especially since she's fought so hard to get where she is. I'm a pretty healthy dude, standard aches and pains in my mid 30's, but don't we all have some of those as we get older? I'm still pretty active and haven't had many Lyme like symptoms, or a tleast none that have become a concern. I agreed to get a test, which her LLMD sent to Armin Labs in Germany (she said it's the most accurate, but i'm reading it may not be all that reliable?). We received the results yesterday..lo and behold i'm "highly" positive for Borrelia b. Full Antigen, hitting a 5 SI. I won't lie..this kind of shocked me since I rarely ever feel crumby or sick.
So now instead of being there to support her full time it looks like I should be getting the ~$4000 partner treatment as well. I'm a bit hesitant because I don't want to feel worse overall, why take the risk when i'm feeling healthy? I know it's a great opportunity that not everyone has, but I guess i'm a bit confused.

Has anyone done the partner treatment even though you feel pretty good? Did it make you feel better? Worse?
I don't want to come off as ungrateful..i'm still in shock as I received the results last night.

Thank you everyone, keep fighting.
Posted 8/13/2019 12:28 PM (GMT -5)

Bergz said...
Hi everyone.

A little background, i'll try to keep it short! My wonderful girlfriend has been battling Lyme for sometime now (~7 years). I've only been with her for half of that time, but i've seen her run the gauntlet of antibiotics and herbs. Last year Lyme hit her pretty hard and she was stuck in bed for nearly 6 months. She had a PICC line installed and, through a series of antibiotics, she recovered for the time being. She is now at about 70% of herself. Since she is feeling better, her LLMD's pushed here to pursue treatment is Germany, which she did and is now scheduled to fly out there for treatment in October.
We've had discussions about our future with kids, and there is concern that if I did have Lyme I could pass it back to her, and potentially our children. I totally get this, and it is the last thing i'd want to do, especially since she's fought so hard to get where she is. I'm a pretty healthy dude, standard aches and pains in my mid 30's, but don't we all have some of those as we get older? I'm still pretty active and haven't had many Lyme like symptoms, or a tleast none that have become a concern. I agreed to get a test, which her LLMD sent to Armin Labs in Germany (she said it's the most accurate, but i'm reading it may not be all that reliable?). We received the results yesterday..lo and behold i'm "highly" positive for Borrelia b. Full Antigen, hitting a 5 SI. I won't lie..this kind of shocked me since I rarely ever feel crumby or sick.
So now instead of being there to support her full time it looks like I should be getting the ~$4000 partner treatment as well. I'm a bit hesitant because I don't want to feel worse overall, why take the risk when i'm feeling healthy? I know it's a great opportunity that not everyone has, but I guess i'm a bit confused.

Has anyone done the partner treatment even though you feel pretty good? Did it make you feel better? Worse?
I don't want to come off as ungrateful..i'm still in shock as I received the results last night.

Thank you everyone, keep fighting.

Welcome to the forum!

Good for you being so supportive of your partner!

“I'm a pretty healthy dude, standard aches and pains in my mid 30's, but don't we all have some of those as we get older? I'm still pretty active and haven't had many Lyme like symptoms, or a tleast none that have become a concern”

You’re calling mid 30’s “older” ?
Lol. I never had aches and pains when I was that age....

But you did test positive - it’s a tough decision - as you don’t want to pass it back to your partner... but I understand you also don’t want to open that can of worms.
So what symptoms do u have that could be attributed to lyme?

If you’ve been having unprotected sex - it’s likely you have it now...

Btw - what is the partner version? How is it different?
Posted 8/13/2019 12:32 PM (GMT -5)
Hi and welcome to the forum! that is a very difficult question to answer. Which way are you leaning? if it was me, I'd be rather hesitant to undergo costly hyperthermia treatments if I was fully functioning. But, having gone thru what I've gone thru and seen what other patients have gone thru with these illnesses, I'd also be tempted to do it in the hopes of heading off any potential future issues. If you presume you are only dealing with borrelia and no serious coinfections (which sounds plausible), hyperthermia can be a very good option.

There are some newer treatments also being evaluated for borrelia infections. One of these is disulfiram, a cheap generic which has commonly been used for alcoholics. Initial results seem very promising, might be something to read up on along with some different herbal protocols, so that you can get a sense of your potential treatment options. I do think it would be wise to consider treating before potential disease manifests from the infection, but you should take the time to carefully assess options and then consider whatever strategy makes the most sense to you and your situation. Dr Liegner's recent case report: https:// https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/8/2/72/htm

Have you posted your question in any lyme groups and the lyme/hyperthermia group on facebook? others who've gone thru the treatments might be able to share their experiences and input as well.

Post Edited (sebreg) : 8/13/2019 11:35:09 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 8/13/2019 1:14 PM (GMT -5)
I would consider it foolish to pursue treatment without symptoms. Treatment puts you into remission if your feeling fine your in remission. Dont open pandoras box its not a tough decision.
Posted 8/13/2019 1:44 PM (GMT -5)
Yeah, the other play is if you are fine, don't treat. If symptoms start manifesting down the line, then explore treatments at that point. Some people seem to remain asymptomatic indefinitely, others it is slow burn with right trigger that launches disease.
Posted 8/13/2019 1:54 PM (GMT -5)

skinny_joe said...
I would consider it foolish to pursue treatment without symptoms. Treatment puts you into remission if your feeling fine your in remission. Dont open pandoras box its not a tough decision.

Normally I would agree with skinny joe here buuuuut his concern is that he could give it back to his girlfriend after she is healthy agai. That's a tough question. I don't know what I would do in that situation.
Posted 8/13/2019 2:00 PM (GMT -5)

Wisco woman said...

skinny_joe said...
I would consider it foolish to pursue treatment without symptoms. Treatment puts you into remission if your feeling fine your in remission. Dont open pandoras box its not a tough decision.

Normally I would agree with skinny joe here buuuuut his concern is that he could give it back to his girlfriend after she is healthy agai. That's a tough question. I don't know what I would do in that situation.

==========================

..and mom could pass it on to baby in vitro.
Posted 8/13/2019 3:07 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks for all of the responses. This is the situation i'm struggling with - passing Lyme back to my girlfriend and then our future child. She was the one that wanted me to get tested for this reason. It's possible that i've had it for a while as I have had ticks on me in the past (Dog ticks) and am an avid hiker and camper. I also did not know Lyme could be sexually transmitted until recently, is this confirmed?
My symptoms would be lingering ankle pain from sprains (PT helped it quite a bit, no swelling), upper back pain near the shoulder blade (tall dude, desk job, PT has helped this but it had not gone away entirely), slight brain fog / loss of focus though this may be attributed to a lot of stress at work (in the process of fixing this) and poor sleeping habits lately. Other than that I feel pretty good, walk ~ 1.5 miles to and from work every day, exercise regularly, go out with friends often, etc.
The partner treatment is one hyperthermia session, 4 days total of treatment. I've heard of partners getting the treatment even though they have never been confirmed positive for Lyme. It's the whole not wanting to open the can of worms thing for me. My dad wasn't in the best health (Lupus, seizures, etc), but there were outside influences that affected him. I have some time to think about it, but it is going to come up quick (we fly out Sept 29th).
Thanks again.
Posted 8/13/2019 4:27 PM (GMT -5)
Your assuming your problems would be solved if you get treatment. There is no guarantee a hyperthermia session will kill all the Borrelia bacteria in your body. So you are right back where you started not knowing.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply