levaquin and lyme disease

I saw a Rheumatologist today hoping to get some answers and they just did more blood work and told me to come back on April 14. He said that it could be Lyme Disease but I did have a Lyme test shortly (within a day or two) of being on prednisone for over two weeks and it came back negative. I am at a loss. He is doing a Western Blot along with a lot of other blood work. Could this be Lyme Disease? If not, what other options?

Herxing from the flagyl could certainly cause neck and joint pain. Flagyl is a cyst-buster, and it breaks up the cysts and biofilms Lyme creates to protect itself from the immune system and the antibiotics. You have to take it along with a Lyme-killing antibiotic to kill the spirochetes as they come out of their cysts. Be sure to continue treatment until you are symptom free for 8 weeks.

Both levaquin and Cipro gave me 'tendonitis' ALL over the body. Not just the Achilles tendon! Not a rupture, which is what a lot of the articles are about---- 'just' pain. For years. Still bad. :( Not what everyone gets---- so until you try them you won't know. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.

There are two Virginia Sherrs in Pennsylvania who write about Lyme. One is a psychiatrist (retired, I believe) who has written stories about how she got Lyme and was told by various MDs that perhaps she had a psychiatric problem. The other one is a GI doc and wrote this article to explain what Lyme + Bartonella do to the gut. Burrascano's Advanced Topics paper also talks a bit about Bartonella. http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/B_guidelines_12_17_08.pdf Hope this helps! P.S.

It was suggested to me by another Lyme group (ps mojo, this Lyme and confections group is grossly negative and depressing, so much so that I left the group due to the horrible posts. Glad you don't frequent it anymore and I know I recommended it when I first joined. I got a little bit of good info out of them in the beginning, but it wasn't worth the rest.) that the "scratches" in my throat could've been bartonella markings.

Thank you for that link. And a sarcastic thank you to the FDA for FINALLY putting that warning out! Since at LEAST 2001 people have had terrible and long-lasting and sometimes horrible side-effects from the use of those drugs. I don't know if people here remember the anthrax scares after 9-11 when several high officials were sent anthrax in envelopes. "Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks.

I was on levofloxacin (Levaquin) for my Bart, and I had to stop after six weeks when I developed pain in my left achilles heel. I was disappointed as my anxiety pretty much disappeared on it. Levaquin is known to cause tendon rupture, especially in the achilles tendons, even weeks or months after a person stops taking the drug.

How did it all shake out? I'm experiencing a very similar experience in 2010 and I have vertigo. I'm 37 and everything-crazy. I'm on my third, Levaquin, and want to know what to do next. How did you finally conquer it?

After I switched from Rifampin to Levaquin, the stomach pain decreased and the heartburn went away. Levaquin seemed to do a better job of clearing up my Bart anxiety and neuro symptoms than the Rifampin did. It triggered tendon pain after about 2 1/2 months. I took it again recently for an unrelated issue and it caused nasty foot tendon pain by the 3rd day. Seems I can't take it anymore.

I lean towards agreeing with Jackie that I wouldn't necessary change my course of treatment based on this comment. I take it more as a recognition of the complexity of tick-borne diseases and acknowledgement that the Lyme disease of the '70's when it first hit the USA is not the same as what many patients face today.

I have Bart's and yes it is a co-infection of Lyme. Every lymph node in my body is swollen and painful especially of a doctor palpitates. . Doxy will not kill Bart's. I am on Rifampin, was on Zithromax until the warning of heart problems came out, now I am on Biaxin and Flagyl as well as an herbal supplement specifically for Bart's. I would keep my LLMD appointment. Keep us posted.

I am so sorry to hear about. Lyme does create other issues in the the body. It sounds like you need and IV and I know it is so hard to pay LLMD's. Do you have insurance? I know mine will pay 70% out-of-network, others pay anywhere from like 30-80 percent. I think JackieCalifornia gave you some good suggestions and I hope you will get the treatment you need.

I am sorry you are going through all of this. Thank God you got through the surgery, sorry it was so difficult. Sending healing thoughts your way....

Am I scratching myself in my sleep? And if so, why? And how do I stop? Is it from stress? I just started college. And some times the scratch marks are bleeding.

Wags: I have over 20 lesions on my brain and that's not a typo! Mine are small and scattered throughout my brain. The first thing the neuro asked me was "have you had lyme disease"! They ran every test under the sun and everything including the LP came back normal (thank goodness I guess). Anyhow, it also did not show Lyme disease. I was then tested at Igenex and came back positive for lyme and erlichosis.

(UTIs are well known to make biofilms, resulting in stubborn and relapsing infections.) Levaquin is often good for treating Bartonella. I felt noticeably better on it, but then developed tendon pain and had to stop. These drugs now have a black box warning due to their tendency to damage tendons. Makes sense to me... biofilms contain collagen, which helps camoflauge the bugs from the immune system.

wughead My LLMD would say that you have lyme specific bands and if you were having symptoms of lyme disease, he would treat you. He says that antibiotics help like 97% of people with specific bands for lyme with symptoms. Do you have a lot of neurological symptoms??

the tests to determine this was an ELISHA TEST and a WESTERN BLOT TEST. same tests used for HIV. could it be at all possible that I could have HIV and not Lyme disease and they were diagnosed wrong? Im freaking out and very worried.

Thanks for the help, but I got some bad news today (in my perspective), I went to an ID doctor and he says that the other doctors were wrong and I don't have Lyme Disease, and he doesn't know what I have. He said that I was positive for IgM antibodies , but not the right ones that indicate Lyme. I really don't know. He thinks I might have a rheumatic problem. If anyone has any ideas I'm welcome to any opinions.

I had an old friend who had had Lyme some years before, so I knew a bit about it, and took the positive test results to a Lyme specialist, who tested me again and diagnosed both Lyme disease and another infection often carried by the same 'Lyme' ticks.

In your situation, I would take my child to a Lyme specialist for diagnosis and treatment *now*. Infectious disease MDs are, sadly, some of the docs most resistant to the idea of Lyme as something to be taken seriously. You might take your daughter back to the doc at Emory who at least considered the possibility of Lyme or ask him/her for a referral to a Lyme-friendly doc.

To be honest, even though I tested WB/IFA CDC positive through Igenex, I was a little skeptical about really having Lyme disease with all the contradicting information and since I had no rash. I can now say with confidence that I atleast have a spirochetal infection, because these J-H reactions are like nothing I have ever felt. I saw some videos on YouTube of other people having severe J-H reactions, and it's comforting to know that I am not alone.

Levaquin and lyme disease

Common Questions and Answers about Levaquin and lyme disease

levaquin