February 9, 2013

• The Next Phase

    I saw the Lyme Whisperer this week. Time to proceed to the next phase of antibiotic treatment: Tetracycline.  Tetracycline is an inexpensive antibiotic to manufacture. Being a generic, no one in the pharmaceutical industry is making much money on it. The response of the manufacturer's? They don't make it anymore. In order to obtain Tetracycline for the treatment of Lyme Disease, one must have the prescription filled at a Compounding Pharmacy. Fortunately, there is a very good one not far from me in Rutland, Vermont. It is Wilcox Pharmacy.  So Wednesday morning, LW called a prescription into Wilcox for me for Tetracycline. It arrived in the mail Friday morning. The roads were cleaned up from the pre-Nemo storm precipitation and Erik went to the General Store where our Post Office is situated and retrieved the mailer. I swapped out the Amoxicillin from my pill boxes and poured the Tetracycline. 

   i was trying to post a picture of the General Store and the Post Office, but Xanga will not allow. The links are here and here.

   

   

     When starting antibiotic therapy anew, the medication is titrated somewhat slowly so the die-off of the bacteria is not so overwhelming that one can't function as well through the Herxheimer reaction.  Because I work four days a week, my doc decided tp start me off at the lowest dose: two hundred-fifty milligrams twenty to thirty minutes before supper. I am not supposed to have dairy products to eat or drink for two hours before and after the medication. Which for now is quite manageable, but in the future may see me somewhat groggy in the morning without my coffee with cream to awaken me. This is a minor travail if it means I will eventually see an improvement in my energy and other Lyme symptoms. 

     I am excited that I am a bit improved- more than I could imagine, actually.  Excited and filled with trepidation at having the body aches and fatigue and brain fog back stronger. So for now I will need to sleep more, not have much activity outside of working, and probably have to figure out some way to make sure I take the medication at the proper time as I start taking it with more meals. The goal is a total of five hundred milligrams three times a day. The side effects associated with this medication include nausea, gastritis (an inflammation of the stomach) and heartburn. I'm to call if these occur. I pray that they won't. 

      Last night I had my first dose of Tetracycline. Today I am a little muzzy-headed. But considering that I completed and filed the taxes, made a beef stew and washed the bathroom floor, I think I am doing rather well. The Lyme Whisperer said I might not feel much at first and if so, to please call for an increase. The motto here: One must become worse in order to become better.  Kill off the bacteria without killing the host. That would be me. 

  Blessings abound

  • 1:17 pm
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