3 months into Babesia treatment

When I started treating Babesia, I thought I was seeing a great deal of improvment.  However, I did notice some intrusive thoughts starting around the same time as treatment.  I ignored them thinking they would get better or go away.  Ignoring them clearly isn't the way to go because the thoughts have continued to grow and are becoming very difficult to ignore.

I consider myself to be lyme literate.  I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any means.  I do notice when my symptoms flare, I question every single thing that could be causing these issues similar to what my doctor does.   I'm currently experiencing intrusive thoughts accompanied by anxiety, vision issues and head pressure.  All are pretty typical symptoms, but the fact that they are getting worse as I go through treatment is concerning.  Becasue of that, I have been running down the list of possibililtes.

Herxing?  If it was herxing, it should be letting up by now, not getting worse
Candidia from my recent antibiotics?
Lyme/Coinfections emerging full force again?

Whatever it is, it's miserable and very discouraging.   I stopped taking my drugs about 4 days ago simply because I was convinced it just might be the drugs making everything worse.  I also thought if I am herxing, I need to give my body some time to rid itself of the toxins.  Time for my second trip to the doctor this month.  Hopefully she will have some ideas as to what is going on.  


Update:  April 21st, 2013

My doctor and I still aren't sure what was causing such horrible symptoms, but I detoxed heavily for 3 weeks and the symptoms did back off some.  I'm still concerned that after 3.5 months of treatment, I'm having more bad days than good.  I'm not really seeing much improvement.   Maybe it's time to think about changing my treatment?

Babesia Treatment

My LLMD decided that we need to focus on treating Babesia for the next three months - unless something else decides to act up in the meantime.

My treatment will look like this:

Week 1 (7-10 days)
Artemisinin- 2 pills twice daily
A-BAB 5 drops per day on an empty stomach
Babesia Tincture (LLMD mixed) - 10 drops 3x per day
Lumbrokinase - 2x daily


Week 2 (3 days)
Coartem 2 pills twice daily for 3 days
Lumbrokinase - 2x daily

Then restart Artemisinin protocol

For Herx:
Charcoal 2 pills 2x daily and/or coffee enema (oh the joy of lyme disease!)

Babesia

My fight with Babesia

I started the Byron White A-BAB formula in October - it is now February.  My LLMD wasn't kidding when she told me that it is extremely potent. While we didn't necessarily need an additional confirmation of my diagnosis, we got it anyway simply by my dramatic increase in symptoms.  The most prominent symptoms are noted below.

Headaches
Severe upper neck pain
Brain Fog (which I also describe as not feeling "normal".  The "brain fog" term is just what most doctors use since it is difficult to gauge what "normal" means)
Extreme Fatigue
Wrist pain
Anxiety
Depression

From what I have read, the A-BAB formula kicks your own immune system into high gear to work at fighting off the Babesia infection.   Babesia is treated very differently than other lyme and co-infections.

My herx reaction on A-BAB have been a complete increase in all symptoms.  However, I have also noticed that it doesn't seem to lift as quickly as it did while on antibiotics.  Instead, it seems the symptoms just increase and stay that way.  It could also have something to do with the lumbrokinase.  If you want to read more about this, I recommend the article found on this page.

I just started the lumbrokinase last month and have my monthly visit with my LLMD tomorrow.  I am going to be sure to ask her if the increase in symptoms without relief is normal or if we need to back off a bit as we move forward.

If I've learned anything over the past 8 months, it's that lyme treatment is definitely not a fast treatment.  It's a slow, steady yet aggressive treatment.