Lyme/Bart Treatment

[Santi]

After about 6 weeks of treatment, my son's anxiety/rage is beginning to decrease. This by far, has been the worse to deal with. What's interesting is that his ADHD is through the roof. He is happier (giggles a lot more), but extremely hyperactive/impulsive plus his tics (which we haven't seen in a very long time) have reappeared. It reminds me of when we did a trial of Celexa. When he was on this med his anxiety decreased but he became almost manic like. Has anyone else experienced this while on lyme/bart treatment?

[NancyD]

We have seen an increase in hyperactivity/impulsivity since starting treatment for Bartonella. Neither tics nor rages have come back (thank goodness) but she is a bit more explosive when she gets stressed. Anxiety and scrupulosity is much more manageable but we're waiting for the day it disappears! We're 1 year into Lyme treatment and 3 months into Bartonella treatment. DD originally started out with Rifampin for Bartonella but it elevated liver function too much so we had to switch to Doxy (she is also on Augmentin XR and pulsing of Tindamax/Azyth). I'm not sure the Doxy is as powerful as Rifampin., but she is tolerating it amazingly well. Only person I know who can take Doxy on an empty stomach and not have any GI problems!

[philamom]

We have seen an increase in hyperactivity/impulsivity since starting treatment for Bartonella. Neither tics nor rages have come back (thank goodness) but she is a bit more explosive when she gets stressed. Anxiety and scrupulosity is much more manageable but we're waiting for the day it disappears! We're 1 year into Lyme treatment and 3 months into Bartonella treatment. DD originally started out with Rifampin for Bartonella but it elevated liver function too much so we had to switch to Doxy (she is also on Augmentin XR and pulsing of Tindamax/Azyth). I'm not sure the Doxy is as powerful as Rifampin., but she is tolerating it amazingly well. Only person I know who can take Doxy on an empty stomach and not have any GI problems!

Great to hear she is tolerating the doxy. I took it for 2 months and was also able to take it on an empty stomach. Did your daughter's LFT's go back to normal when you stopped the Rifampin?

[momcap]

We are 2 months into lyme treatment and seeing amazing improvements in OCD / germaphobia. We started bactrim for bartonella a few weeks ago, and initially we saw the same thing - very ADHD-like. Very hyper, which might even be considered hypo-manic. (He's experienced true mania in the past, and nothing quite compares to that monster.) But as we upped the dose of bactrim he got worse and worse - stabbing and stinging sensations, terrible foot pain that prevented him from walking one morning, OCD came back, germaphobia came back, etc. He was back to only wearing 3 specific pieces of clothing, and sleeping on the floor in the hallway because his bed wasn't right. He was obsessively trying to control everyone else again. It felt like we went right back to square one. We stopped the bactrim and doubled up on detox for the past week. Yesterday he was calm and focused for the first time since in weeks. He was able to get dressed normally yesterday and today. He's sleeping in his bed again. He did his homework last night. So I think we're back to where we were before going after bart - back to great improvements on lyme treatment.

 

There are too many variables for me to say for sure what that was all about. I've been really sick the last 3 weeks with a terrible chest cold, but I'm wondering if I have walking pneumonia? I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better. Was he reacting to this exposure (PITAND)? Or was this part of treating bartonella (herx?), or did he have a bad reaction to bactrim. We had also started artemisinin when we got bactrim up to full strength. We had way too many things going on to be sure of anything, so we're starting over, one thing at a time, and at a much slower pace.

 

Either way, we really saw those ADHD symptoms pop up when we went after bart. It's interesting that you are experiencing the same thing.

[KaraM]

We did have a period (albeit shorter) of major rages when we started the Bactrim/Zith combo for Bart. When that went away, yes, major, manic, hyperactivity. This lasted a few days, then went away. We kept having these three or four day major herxes of one symptom, followed by a few days of relief, then another major herx of another symptoms. So OCD intensified, then rages, then hyperactivity, then depression. After about 4-6 weeks, these super herxes have gotten increasingly shorter and less intense. They were always followed by some sort of improvement though.

[NancyD]

I've been taking Doxy for almost a year and still can't take it on an empty stomach! Yes, DD's LFT went back to normal fairly quickly once I took her off Rifampin and put her back on Milk Thistle.

 

We have seen an increase in hyperactivity/impulsivity since starting treatment for Bartonella. Neither tics nor rages have come back (thank goodness) but she is a bit more explosive when she gets stressed. Anxiety and scrupulosity is much more manageable but we're waiting for the day it disappears! We're 1 year into Lyme treatment and 3 months into Bartonella treatment. DD originally started out with Rifampin for Bartonella but it elevated liver function too much so we had to switch to Doxy (she is also on Augmentin XR and pulsing of Tindamax/Azyth). I'm not sure the Doxy is as powerful as Rifampin., but she is tolerating it amazingly well. Only person I know who can take Doxy on an empty stomach and not have any GI problems!

Great to hear she is tolerating the doxy. I took it for 2 months and was also able to take it on an empty stomach. Did your daughter's LFT's go back to normal when you stopped the Rifampin?

[Santi]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Our stories all sound alike. His LLMD took him off Rifampin to check his eosiniphil count tomorrow (which has been raised). It will be interesting to see if count goes down, then he is allergic. If so, we will need to change abx. Not looking forward to a ramp up in behaviors. Guess its all part of the game. Andrea