Michel12 Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 Well here are my options for treatment right now. I can go ahead and do the plasmapheresis or I can wait and try antibiotics for longer for lyme. I have been on antibioitcs for 2 years now from Minocycline to Augmention to Keflex to now Zithromax and ceftin. Dont you think this would be enough for lyme? My pdoc said plasmapheresis wouldnt work if there was infection. My lymes teszts and all coinfections have come back negative. I could wait it out but im doing terribly and the new antibiotics im on dont seem to be doing anything. Why should I chase an invisible infection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowingmom Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 (edited) If you have never been tested for lyme coinfections, you might want to give that a go first. The antibiotics you mention will not treat either bartonella or babesia (the 2 I am familiar with), especially not as monotherapy. There are others - ehrlichia, anaplasma, mycoplasma, viruses. If underlying infections have not been properly treated, plasmapheresis will not get rid of them as they tend to sequester in bone marrow and spleen. When people think of Lyme they think of Borrelia burgdorferi, but "Lyme" infection almost always includes one or more coinfections. Whether they were acquired along with lyme doesn't matter. The immune suppression caused by Borrelia will allow many different bacteria the chance to proliferate. Edited July 21, 2015 by rowingmom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama2alex Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 My first inclination is to say keep trying antibiotics, because these infections CAN be invisible and false negatives are common on the tests. But you sound like you are leaning toward stopping antibiotics and this could actually be informative. If you start to feel worse off abx, you know you've still got bacterial infections going on. Also, while you're off abx you could do the Lyme culture test from Advanced Labs, which is more definitive than immune-based testing. Other considerations when you are not improving with abx alone are chronic viruses, methylation, food allergies and mold toxicity. Have you explored any of those? In any case, don't give up and you will find your way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr40 Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 it seems you have the option to do plasmapheresis and then, if it does not work, continue other treatments, including abx. I would, therefore, try plasmapheresis. examine the downside. is there one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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