End of Treatment for Lyme Disease and Co-infections

I had been complaining that physically I felt like I was going backward even before I stopped taking my last antibiotic - Zinnat.  I took a month of Ciprofloxican which treats Bartonella and Babesia when I came back from my three-week visit to Rosebud.  I had my final appointment with Dr Andrew on April 4th and stopped taking Zinnat then and there.  It was not helping me get any better but it may have delayed me going backwards faster.  I felt no effect from the Cipro.

Dr Andrew agreed we had exhausted the supply of antibiotics on the PBS.  And he was not able to prescribe for Lyme anyway.  I wanted to stop the antibiotics too.  However I have a feeling that had the Government not put a ban on him treating Lyme kinda stuff, then he would not have agreed to me stopping.  I have been feeling worse already since stopping but there is a complicating factor - an abscessed root canal treated tooth.  It abscessed while I was on the Zinnat and later again on the Cipro.  It tunnelled through my gum to the exterior forming a lump above the tooth several times. It used to go up and down.  If that channel had got blocked I would have been in a lot of pain but what pain I had was totally bearable which is why I kept postponing its removal giving priority to several breaks on other teeth between December and now.  I probably would have given priority to the right incisor (which had broken off at the gum line) at my latest emergency dental appointment had the dentist not made up his mind for me and took the left incisor out.  He said the infection may explain the extra fatigue I have been feeling.  Now I look terrible.  It is a big loss to have to say goodbye to both incisors and it does not help the depression I still have.  I have been depressed and anxious for 12 months.  Life has not been fun even when I had my health.  It makes no sense at all.

Don't ask me to smile

As the tooth extraction site heals I would like to say I am feeling an improvement with my health but 4 days later I can't say I do.  It is Easter Sunday and all I want to do is go and lie down instead of interacting with Scott and Connor.  I've been so bored living alone and now that I have company I am having to worry about the work that it involves like cooking tea and the effect it may have on me in terms of post-exertional malaise (PEM).  I feel sort of dizzy.  I have had that internal vibration feeling after going to the hydro pool to exercise my knee.  I have been paying the price of doing things again for the first time for a year or more.  It is scary to think it all could come back now that I am not taking antibiotics.  I can only hope that the extra stress on my system with this abscess is the explanation for the PEM.

Here are some Easter photos.

Symptoms of Lyme Disease and Co-infections

One tick bite can cause many infections and each infection has its own set of symptoms.  Lyme disease specifically refers to infection with a bacteria called Borrelia and I understand that there are several Borrelia species throughout the world and that they in turn can take on one of three forms.  A comprehensive antibiotic therapy is directed at each of these forms.  At this point in time, I am being treated with Bicillin which will only stop the spirochete form from multiplying.  The Plaquenil and Minocycline that I was on prior to this were meant to deal with the cyst and L-form (cell-wall deficient form) bacteria but I was taken off them due to my gut problems.

There are so many symptoms that can be attributed to Borreliosis alone but when you include symptoms that may be also caused by co-infections the symptom list becomes overwhelming.  An individual in the early stages of Lyme disease is not going to present with all the symptoms but very slowly over time more and more symptoms are likely to appear as the disease spreads to different organ systems.

I found a web-page that has tried to put these symptoms in some order.  Here is what Mum was looking for.  Read More

The most likely co-infections are Babesia and Bartonella infections but I have not been tested for these.  They are expensive tests only done in the USA. I have a positive history for Mycoplasma Pneumoniae but I have tested negative to Rickettsia (scrub typhus), Q-Fever, Leptospira and Chlamydia.

The following is Dr. Burrascano's 2005 Symptom List Chart

Some relevant quotes:
"Like syphilis in the 19th century, Lyme disease has been called the great imitator and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of rheumatologic and neurologic conditions, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, somatization disorder and any difficult-to-diagnose multi-system illness."  Ref: http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/about_lyme1.html