Hello Everyone,

Has anyone pulsed their antibiotics 3 day's on-2 day's off? I'm currently on my second round of Flagyl w/Biaxin. The first round of Flagyl really knocked me down (major vertigo/pain, etc...) I'm trying to avoid that if at all possible because my daughter made the All Star team and I would like to attend her games.

I put in a call to my Dr. office with this question and sshe hasn't called me back and I'll be surprized if she does.

Is anyone on a pulsing schedule? If so, what is it and what antibiotics are you pulsing?

BTW-I'm coming up on 13 months of oral with some improvement but not enough yet.

Thank you!

Slow down! I can't handle all the quick replies!

I have an appointment Monday with my LLMD and will ask her about pulsing. I think it may be helpful to avoid really bad herx's and I was curious if anyone on here is on a pulsing schedule, Anyone?

Hey jennsen,

Don't you just hate it when you are waiting for a reply? The only person I know on the boards who is pulsing their drugs is ekim. Maybe he hasn't checked in for a few days but I am sure he will respond when he does.

I have never taken flagyl but understand it is one of the hardest meds to take because it does just what you are complaining about. It has really knocked Romans for a loop too.

I hope the doctor allows you to do this and it won't screw up your getting better. If you don't hear from ekim soon post a thread to him personally.
Have a great weekend.
BDFM

Hi Jennsen.

The only thing I know about pulsing is that its purpose is to allign the level of abx in your body with the spirochete lifecycle (I think it's ~ 2 weeks but my brain fog might not recall correctly).

Hopefully your pulsing will kill more of the little buggers than the usual daily doses.

Let us know how it goes.

What abx were you on for 13 months? How would you categorize your improvement (neuro, joint, fatigue, etc)?

Peace and health to you.

Dear 6blues,

I think this sounds great and would love to know more about it. Even Amber said she is instructed to take 1 day off per 12 but I am not sure why. I just know with my luck the spirochettes and meds would miss each other and I would be in cycle hell! :bouncing: I wonder how you time it? If nothing else I think it would give your body a rest. I also wonder why ekim changes meds each time he pulses. When you do this does that mean the meds you are on become obsolete because of stoppage if it is for weeks at a time? Just trying to understand.
BDFM

Thank you for your replies! I thought pulsing was a fairly common routine in treating Lyme. I believe I have begun to pulse (stop & start antibiotics) according to how I'm feeling and what is happeing in life. Last month my husband, daughter & I scheduled a trip to So Cal to visit my older step kids and I really wanted to participate in some level of activity so I stopped my antibiotics and actually felt pretty good until about the 3rd day. I believe I read that 3 days on-2 days off was actually in sinc with the life cycle of the Lyme bacteria. I'm not reccomending this for anyone of course, I just tried it and it seemed to help me function enough for that occasion. Anyway, I'll bring this up with my Dr. on Monday and report on it.

Thirteen months of orals for me, I can't remember all the combinations, but basically it's been:

Doxy for a few months-
Artiminisin for babesia for the majority of time-
Biaxin w/artiminisin w/ mepron
Biaxin w/flagyl
Biaxin w/artiminisin
Another round of Biaxin w/flagyl currently

Three day's on the last mix and I feel like I'm gonna die. Pain level increased significantly, balance problems, headahes, major fog (can't remember what I did 30 seconds ago), dizzyness leaning towards vertigo, major fatigue, etc.....
I'm still herxing pretty bad. However I do think I've made progress since I started treament, I've had increasing number of good day's, even weeks. Flagyl is potent and obviously it's after something in my body (cystic forms of Lyme, Babesia?) So, I'm still having major down times, but am super thankful for the good day's/week's (less pain, better mental clarity, more energy, non-axious, less depressed and an overall feeling of well being, that everything is going to be ok. That's awesom and I wish that for everyone on this board!

So, I made my daughters All Star game today, YA! Came home and took a 4 hour nap and still feeling pretty crappy. Anywho, I think my Dr. tomorrow is going to bring up IV method again and I may give it more thought this time. I afraid of IV.....

Thanks for listening, I hope what I just wrote makes some sense....

God Bless,
Jennsen

Dear jennsen,

I wish that I could have continued the IV for longer but because of the liver enzymes it was yanked. Make sure you take milk thistle for your liver if you go this route. I am a bath person and so it crimped me in that respect but otherwise I would highly recommend it. If you haven't read my post about it and how I freaked out too and you want to ask questions feel free to do so. Good luck. I hope your daughter's team won.

BDFM

Thanks Betterdays, your sweet! I'm sorry the IV caused you to have liver problems. I know I need to seriously consider it, but do you think it actually work's any better than orals? I'm sure there is a thread on this topic, I'll do some looking around if I can figure out how to do it......

Thank you!

Dear jennsen,

I can't really say it works better just know it is much more aggressive. If you look up samaya's posts you will see that after 6 months on IV she is symptom free. Then you read about people on orals that it is taking forever and some that are finally healing. On the other side of the coin you have people who have taken cats ckaw and it did nothing and Amber who is steadily improving. This is such a fickle disease you just have to find your own "magic bullet" as I like to call it. Maybe the IV will be yours but you just have to try to find out. One thing I do recommend is that you make it perfectly clear to the doctor that you don't want to start something that he will pull after normal protocol weeks according to the CDC if you are not completely better but are seeing results. That would be disastrous in my opinion. If you are improving you want to be guaranteed that you can continue until you are 4 - 6 weeks symptom free. This may be why I have taken a few steps bakward since the IV. I just pray the cats claw will do the trick even if it is slow. Lots to think about I know. Just listen to your gut.
BDFM