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babesia treatment the worst


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Going 1 week without antibiotics, so just starting babesia treatment with herbs--Byron White's A-Bab (all of these Byron white formulas seem very good) and artimisinin. Yikes, feel terrible (headache/fatigue), probably not killing as many bugs as when I started lyme treatment, and feel as bad or worse. What will it feel like when the clindamycin and malarone get added in a few days?

 

So the pharmacist said, "sure, I can get you liquid clindamycin, of course, you know, it is the worst tasting of all the antibiotics certainly, and probably the worst tasting drug of any class". Now there's something to look forward to. I remember discussion on here on clindamycin before, anyone come up with good ways to get it down?

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I am assuming that swallowing pills are an issue? Clinda comes in a capsule, best bet- swallow it, but, my ped told me we could open the capsule and mix with something, and that would taste better than the liquid. My dd swallowed it- so we didn't have to do that.

 

Other thought- my older dd had adult sized capsule- pretty large. My little one had a mini capsule- maybe you could swallow those?

 

Good luck- taking medicine stinks :)

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I have felt your pain. It was by far harder than when I started Lyme treatment. The crypto-plus and Enula for babesia treatment had me down for the count and I started those in beginning of Feb. I am just now getting up to full dose on the crypto. Started clindamycin one month ago and I am finally feeling better than ever. Its taken a good three months to get here. I see the Dr. next week and suspect they will crank up the protocol once again and most likely experience a set back.

 

I can assure you it was worth feeling rotten. Good luck... with the herxing

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Clindamycin has always been the best antibiotic for my son, maybe a clue we really need to treat babesia. But it is the worst tasting so we skipped the liquid and hide the powder from the capsules in "pockets" of ice cream or sorbet. Which can be limiting when the dosing is 3 times daily but the results were always great, they just did not last for us. Good luck!

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I am assuming that swallowing pills are an issue? Clinda comes in a capsule, best bet- swallow it, but, my ped told me we could open the capsule and mix with something, and that would taste better than the liquid. My dd swallowed it- so we didn't have to do that.

 

Other thought- my older dd had adult sized capsule- pretty large. My little one had a mini capsule- maybe you could swallow those?

 

Good luck- taking medicine stinks :)

 

 

Oh yes, never have been able to swallow capsules or tablets whole. Don't know if it's lyme related, but I know that if I ever become able to do that, I'll be sure that the lyme is gone, that's been a problem since childhood and now it would take training my muscles differently beyond whatever the real reason is that I couldn't swallow them.

 

Tablets I just chew with a little water and swallow. But capsules I empty into my mouth and then mix with water. I have tried chewing them and the capsule itself just gets all gunky and stuck in my teeth, so that's no good. I used to mix the contents of capsules in a little water in a glass, but stopped that long ago as my number of pills grew and it all got stuck to the side and I just grew impatient with it all, so now I just empty them straight in my mouth, but thought if it tastes too bad that wouldn't work, I'd be gagging before I got the water in to wash it down. Since the clindamycin capsules are gelatin and I'm a vegetarian, that's another reason why I prefer the liquid.

 

It's surprising to hear the capsule contents would taste better than the liquid, the drug has to be the same, and then it's just whatever fillers are added. Liquid probably has fillers to at least try to make it taste better. The compounding pharmacy adds stevia for me for all my compounds which helps a little. When they have accidentally added flavor as well, it did taste bad, sort of artificial/chemical type flavor, so perhaps that's the problem with the liquid...

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clindamycin?

 

I thought mepron was the drug of choice for babesia? Is this a relatively new choice by the doctors?

 

Found this on wikipedia though: "The combination of clindamycin and quinine is the standard treatment for severe babesiosis."

 

bill

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I hear the quinine caused some problems for many, and most docs are moving away from it. Standard treatment now is more like combination of either malarone or mepron and some abx ending in -mycin (some class of antibiotics). I think the mepron is stronger and also much more expensive. Don't know which of malarone/mepron is more commonly used, but they are both kind of on the list.

 

By the way, added back red root and vitamin B in to my supplements and they have helped deal with the herxing from the herbs. Adding the actual malarone and clindamycin into the mix tomorrow morning. Looking forward to the worst tasting drug ever!

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hmmm I know it's not ideal to take w/juice, but something very strong and acid like grape juice might work

Or how about having something like a strong mint beforehand... or something VERY cold so that you can't taste it as well? There is always the old "hold your nose" trick too, or smelling something like tea tree oil (smelling is what, 90% of your taste? so if you can fool your nose...)

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Well, took the first dose this morning with breakfast. Didn't know what way to make it better I wanted to try, so just did it straight from the teaspoon measure spoon. Wasn't good but wasn't all that it had been made out to be. Perhaps I'm pretty good at getting it on the back part of the tongue and so missing some parts of the tongue. Rating on how bad the taste is, really is in the same ballpark as tinidazole liquid compounded. Tinidazole might even be slightly worse. But, made it through, no gagging or hurling, no big deal really, just bad taste and move on, that's all.

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Guest pandas16

I am assuming that swallowing pills are an issue? Clinda comes in a capsule, best bet- swallow it, but, my ped told me we could open the capsule and mix with something, and that would taste better than the liquid. My dd swallowed it- so we didn't have to do that.

 

Other thought- my older dd had adult sized capsule- pretty large. My little one had a mini capsule- maybe you could swallow those?

 

Good luck- taking medicine stinks :)

 

 

Oh yes, never have been able to swallow capsules or tablets whole. Don't know if it's lyme related, but I know that if I ever become able to do that, I'll be sure that the lyme is gone, that's been a problem since childhood and now it would take training my muscles differently beyond whatever the real reason is that I couldn't swallow them.

 

Tablets I just chew with a little water and swallow. But capsules I empty into my mouth and then mix with water. I have tried chewing them and the capsule itself just gets all gunky and stuck in my teeth, so that's no good. I used to mix the contents of capsules in a little water in a glass, but stopped that long ago as my number of pills grew and it all got stuck to the side and I just grew impatient with it all, so now I just empty them straight in my mouth, but thought if it tastes too bad that wouldn't work, I'd be gagging before I got the water in to wash it down. Since the clindamycin capsules are gelatin and I'm a vegetarian, that's another reason why I prefer the liquid.

 

It's surprising to hear the capsule contents would taste better than the liquid, the drug has to be the same, and then it's just whatever fillers are added. Liquid probably has fillers to at least try to make it taste better. The compounding pharmacy adds stevia for me for all my compounds which helps a little. When they have accidentally added flavor as well, it did taste bad, sort of artificial/chemical type flavor, so perhaps that's the problem with the liquid...

 

 

I originally wasn't able to swallow pills either, although my reason was due to OCD. I eventually just forced myself to do it because I couldn't stand the taste of the liquid. My parents said " You're how old and can't swallow a pill?" In my head, I thought wow 10 and I can't swallow a pill, yeah that's pathetic. I just did it and now I have no problems. When you think about how illogical your fears are, it might help you to get over them. How old are you and not able to swallow pills? Think of it like that perhaps. That's what helped me. I seriously doubt you would need to train your muscles any differently- it's the same muscles you use to swallow food.

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Pixie learned with dry crackers (you could use nuts, cereal.. whatever- I think dry is the key for some reason, maybe makes you make more saliva?) Chew up the food until you are having that instinct to swallow and then put the pill in the chewed up bite in your mouth and take a drink to wash it all down. We started with tiny things like Pearl probiotics and worked our way up. She swallows handfuls now and I have to tell her to slow down and do them one by one so she doesn't injure herself. :huh:

 

I used to not have ANY issues w/pills and even swallowed things without liquid in highschool when needed (I had severe migraines) but now don't even want to swallow food and often choke on even small bites, and crave smooth foods like smoothies, applesauce, etc. I also have a chronic sore throat (uhhh we've tested positive for strep for over a year now, so no surprise, I guess.) I actually think the throat/swallowing stuff got worse for me after my tonsils were taken out about 7 yrs ago (and I'm 33.)

 

I think you should do whatever works. If pouring the powder in your mouth is working, dont' stress about taking the pills- just focus your energies on getting well. Why add more anxiety? That seems silly.

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I was about to post here that it is not fear or OCD, rather that I just can't swallow them. But, there is a reason the muscles are closing when I know there is an unchewed pill there, and so there is something going on in the brain about that, really like making sure everything is all chewed up well enough. So, perhaps it is fear, whether conscious or not. Need to get a hypnotist or something, trick myself into thinking it's okay :). Thanks for your suggestions.

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I used to not have ANY issues w/pills and even swallowed things without liquid in highschool when needed (I had severe migraines) but now don't even want to swallow food and often choke on even small bites, and crave smooth foods like smoothies, applesauce, etc. I also have a chronic sore throat (uhhh we've tested positive for strep for over a year now, so no surprise, I guess.)

 

Uhhh-sounds an awful lot like another family member may eosinophilic esophagitis........

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I don't want to derail the thread, but I TOLD you I had all the symptoms!! It keeps getting worse too- I don't know if the treatment is bringing it out or what, but.. !!!! I do think the more aware of it you become, the worse it is- it totally compounds itself-- you choke, then you're afraid you might choke, so you choke again which makes the fear worse. Geez.

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