Stopped All Antibiotics! Candida Treatment Time!

What a scary time when I realized I had to make this hard decision.  To be completely honest much of my decision is financial. With Kayla's broken ankle and all the surgery etc the bills are flooding in and it's been overwhelming to say the least. We have no health insurance so you can imagine hat our bills are looking like, currently in the $20.000's!

Knowing we have to keep up with those bills caused me to realize the best thing to give up is the monthly prescription costs.

I have been doing re markedly well and I was able to take over a month of the Minocycline with no herxing at all! Third round was a breeze. So I believe with months of Rifampin and then 3 rounds of Mino, we have knocked out the Bartonella that was making me so sick from Feb.

As of right now I have no Lyme symptoms, no reactions to stopping all abx cold turkey. Today is day 5 of no abx.

I am treating candida overgrowth which I am convinced I have as I have a very bloated, pregnant looking belly and since starting abx I have gained 20 pounds. Candida overgrowth causes the SAME symptoms of Lyme so some of my nightly aches and pains I believe are candida and not Lyme. So no sugar or carbs right now and using powerful probiotics from Natures Sunshine. My eldest son and his wife are distributors
Here's a great place to read about candida overgrowth and it's symptoms.

I still am using my Thieves essential oil every night. I plan on adding oregano and Basil to my natural Lyme treatment when money allows.

So that's my latest update. I will continue to update as I live without abx for the first time in 10 months.  If you also have stopped abx please comment below your story so others contemplating this route can have other's stories to make their decisions. This certainly wasn't an easy decision for me, but 10 months of abx is a long time and I have had much relief from symptoms and like I said, I am not convinced any joint pains and other Lyme-ish symptoms are still Lyme, but candida at this point. Only time will tell and so my journey continues......to be continued......

Over a Month on Minocycline!

Wow! May 26th I started back slowly on Minocycline and now I am still taking 150mg a day and having absolutely no herxing or pain or anything, matter of fact I have been so well for over two weeks I almost feel healed of this dreadful disease!

Now I know, I am not going to jump and down and declare I'm cured, I know better, but I can't help but smile so big because I honestly feel almost normal. My last flare up was June 9th and that is in my daily journal.

I am so thankful I kept a daily journal as I can go back and read my journey and see how awful I was and how much better I have become. Feeling good for quite some time does cause one to forget the trials I just went through, so these daily journals have been great.

I seriously doubt I am cured but it sure is encouraging after herxing so bad on Minocycline, and here I am a month into Minocycline and I feel wonderful.

Much of my symptoms I experienced was also due to low iron. The itchy skin, metallic taste in my mouth, extreme fatigue was all from low hemoglobin. Since starting iron tabs those symptoms are gone!

Also some of my joint pains etc could be related to candida which I am pretty sure I have an overgrowth of candida that I need to start treating.

I started exercising again on my treadmill because I felt so good. However unlike before, I could jog for 3 miles and not feel anything, but right now when I do fast walk or lightly jog, I do feel it in my body as I think I have been so weakened by Lyme that it will take time to build these muscles back up again. But I am ready for the challenge!

So almost one year into abx therapy and I am finally feeling good! My LLMD said he feels that I would have to be on abx for at least a year so it's coming to that time. I hope to be off the abx in September when it is the official one year mark, but we shall see.

So that's it for now folks until the next update!