This is Spencer, Melody's husband. She continues to struggle a great deal, so I will fill you in on what is going on with her.
Melody was able to talk to our Doctor on both Thursday and Friday. Based on her reaction to going off of Cipro (at the end of March), her Doctor thinks Melody should go back on antibiotics to slay the awoken Bartonella Beast (that is my interpretation at least). After going back on Cipro for three days earlier this week and getting severe tendon pain in such a short amount of time, she was forced to stop. Cipro is part of a drug class called fluoroquinolones that are notorious for causing tendon pain and possibly tendon rupture or permanent damage. Melody has not taken the Cipro since Wednesday morning, but she is still experiencing severe tendon pain all over her body.
As we prefer to keep her tendons intact and functional, she now needs to use a different antibiotic to attack the Bart. On Monday, she will be starting two antibiotics, Rifampin and Clarithromycin (Biaxin). The Rifampin is a heavy duty antibiotic commonly used for tuberculosis and is what will primarily be attacking the Bartonella. The Biaxin is used to prevent the development of Rifampin-resistant bacteria and the combination is also more effective than one antibiotic alone. Rifampin was chosen because of Melody's continually worsening neurological symptoms and its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. The combination will probably cause a fairly strong die-off reaction, but hopefully will be quite effective in beating this infection.
The Rifampin and Biaxin can both be very hard on the body, so Melody is being started off on a low dose. Melody had a blood draw Friday morning, prior to our Doctor's decision to go ahead with the new antibiotics, to check on the status of her liver. Thankfully it was doing well enough. Melody will continue her detoxification regime. After these past two weeks of enduring some of the worst pain and disability she has experienced in her eight year struggle with Lyme Disease, we are very motivated to treat this very aggressively. As usual, things will likely get worse before they get better and we are bracing ourselves for this next phase of treatment. Hopefully once we get the Bartonella out of the way, Melody will then be able to tolerate aggressive treatment for Lyme and be on her way to being a whole person again.
We thank you for your continued prayers.
10 comments:
We've got your backs. Always. Love, Dad
Thanks for keeping us in the know Spencer. I don't know you on IL (internet life), but I have become fairly close to Melody over the last few weeks.
Please know I am praying for your Mel (and you too Spencer).
Thanks for the update Spencer! Please let Melody know all the girls are praying for her!
I will continue to keep our girl Melody in my thoughts :) <3
Hope all goes well with the new antibiotics. Thanks for the update. I will keep checking back to see how she's doing. I pray all will go as smoothly as possible.
Dear Melody and Spencer,
You are in my thoughts and prayers as usual. You are both so BRAVE.
Kirstin (from ENN).
Praying that this new combination of antibiotics will be effective, with no harmful or painful side effects, and that there will be no damage to Melody's tendons from the Cipro. It's very sad that the treatment drugs are that hard to tolerate and have such awful side effects. I saw in a comment dated April 7 by Joyfulajh, to "another detour" on "Wait Quietly", a reference to a particular Rife machine called Lifeforce 2000. What do you or your doctor think about the use of the Rife machines in treating Lyme or its coinfectors?
I'm praying! Thank you for the update, Spencer. Take good care of yourself too.
Thanks for updating Spencer. As always, you and Melody are in my thoughts and prayers.
Kristen (KNDavis) from the ENN
still praying!
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