Does this sound like Babesia?

Hello There,
This is my first post but I have been reading here off and on for a few years now. I just want to say that the knowledge of the people here is astounding and I thank everyone who is here helping others.

A little over 3 years ago I was diagnosed and treated for Lyme. I was not feeling ill (luckily), but had a new heart murmur detected by a NP I had just started seeing. Over the next few months I started having some heart rate variability and some lightheadedness upon picking something up off of the floor. That coupled with some new rotating knee pain made him suspect Lyme and yes indeed it was positive. I was treated with 1 month of Doxy + Biocidin followed by 1 month of Oregano Oil and my symptoms cleared and post treatment testing was trending in the right direction so he said he thought that treatment was sufficient. But back on day 29 of taking the Doxy I woke up and felt incredibly depressed, like literally I sat up on the side of the bed that day and said, "I don't feel so good." It didn't feel like impending doom, but like a dark cloud was over the top of me. I mentioned this to my NP and he placed me on Mood Food which did nothing. I figured that my microbiome had been wiped out with the Doxy so I worked on building that back up. I was already taking probiotics but beefed up my fiber, etc. No change in mood. I tried multiple things including therapy and there really was no shift. I resisted antidepressants as I just felt as though there was something else going on. I have had episodes of situational depression before and this just manifested differently and I just felt that there was another element to this. A few different doctors treated different things such as HRT, adrenal support, amino acid therapy, heavy metal detox, mold treatment. No change. I kept coming back to the fact that it started at the end of my Lyme treatment and maybe it was something with the Lyme, so I decided to see a LLMD and go from there. He thinks it could be Babesia. On my original testing I was IgG positive for Babesia Microti (Vibrant Wellness - in the yellow not the red zone) pre and post treatment. No specific treatment for Babesia was given at that time. My symptoms are depression, no motivation to do anything, finding no joy in any parts of my life, fatigue, especially afternoon fatigue. I don't have brain fog or trouble with cognition but I find mental motivation to be a huge part of this more so than physical fatigue stopping me from doing things. I also got tinnitus approximately 6 months after the Lyme diagnosis that has not resolved. This past December when I was having trouble finding a reason to get out of bed and many mornings did not, I started Wellbutrin which did help for about 6 weeks, but now I feel it is doing nothing. Two months ago I started on Babesia herbs per the LLMD partly to see if I would have an increase in symptoms. He didn't really want to test as he felt it is so often negative but that doesn't always show the true picture. I have been able to take full doses of the herbs (Crypot+ 40 drops twice daily, MC-BAB-3 15 drops twice daily, Chinese Skullcap 40 drops twice daily, Japanese Knotweed 60 drops twice daily. He also started me out on Artemax and then took me off of that and started the MC-Bab-3 and I took Bolouke for 8 weeks. I did feel more fatigue and some slight headache with starting the herbs which has now resolved. I also had a 1 notch volume increase in my tinnitus when he had me on a high dose of Artemax for a few days. Some finger joint pain has also started. I had a bit before treatment but now it has gone to my other index finger. The symptoms are just so vague and I can take the full dose of the tinctures and they haven't knocked me on my butt which as I have read here so frequently happens. I am grateful for that but also wondering if we're barking up the right tree. Any thoughts from you smart people out there? Do my symptoms seem like Babesia? All insights are appreciated.

I agree with Girlie.

Buhner states infections produce symptoms in a synergistic sense, not additive. Meaning a combo of infections can produce symptoms that don’t match the clinical description of any of them individually. That’s not to say it’s impossible to align a symptom with a specific microbe - but the juice often isn’t worth the squeeze.

Plus a lot of herbal treatments are broad spectrum. Cryptolepis for example (popular herbal for babesia) also hits the other two b’s and is antiviral. So one could herx or even reach remission from cryptolepis but that doesn’t indicate babesia is even there.

The best results (from my perspective) often come from a broad spectrum comprehensive approach for all b’s, viruses, toxins, nutrition, lifestyle issues etc..

Welcome to this great forum. You are in the right place.

And I'll echo both Girlie and Garzie. My tests consistently show Lyme, Babesia and Bartonella. There are symptoms of each, making it, as mentioned, hard to distinguish. That goes back to Girlie's thought of treating the 3 Bs. That can be tough as trying to treat too much at once can make life hard to live because of the release of toxins.

Each of us are so different, it just takes time to figure it out - sometimes it's not possible to truly figure out the best route for a while. It can and has been done, so I wish you the best on it.

“ That goes back to Girlie's thought of treating the 3 Bs. That can be tough as trying to treat too much at once can make life hard to live because of the release of toxins.”

I should clarify - when I was treating Babesia/lyme - I wasn’t targeting Bartonella.
After several months of Lyme/Babesia, my llmd changed my protocol to Bartonella/lyme.

sadinCA said...
Thank you all for weighing in! I appreciate the knowledge here. You know how you just want to know who your enemy is? Not sure why that seems important. But you are all right, it really doesn’t matter what it is as long as you can mitigate its effects somehow.

Does that mean treating at the same time? Since I treated the Lyme 3 years ago and it seems those symptoms have not returned will I have to go back and treat that again, potentially? What are your thoughts on that?

When you treat Babesia and Bartonella - those meds will take care of Lyme.

Thank you Inspiredby3. I haven’t read about it coming on so drastically like it did for you and me as well. It helps to know what others have experienced. I’ll continue with the babesia treatment and then consider circling back to the Lyme. After last appointment, I’ve started Coartem and will add in Arakoda in a few weeks.

Depression, joint pain, night sweats, and fatigue (that have not responded meaningfully to antimicrobial treatment) sound like perimenopause to me. Heart rate changes and tinnitus can begin with perimenopause as well. I saw that one of the things you tried was HRT, but it can be difficult to figure out which hormones need to be tweaked, and which forms work best for you, and on what schedule. Did you try this with a specialist? Unfortunately so few doctors have any understanding of perimenopause. Which hormones, in what forms, did you try? Have you been able to map symptoms to any cyclical fluctuations?

Just an angle to consider.