Doxycycline OK ??? After Being Toxified by Leviquin/cipro/avelox

Posted over a year ago

About a year ago I started having symptoms of Lyme Ds. Initially I was treated for prostatitis and diverticulitis with Cipro and Avelox after which I became so sick and weak with the classic floxing symptoms that I had to close my business and move in with my mother-in-law. Lyme and floxing have many of the same symptoms however you have a small window to treat lyme effectively. Lyme can become quite debilitating if untreated. I went to a Lyme specialist that wants me to start taking Doxycycline long term at 200mg per day. I am very scared that if I was indeed floxed which i believed I was that the progress I've made it may cause relapse, but I don't want to take a chance with the Lyme destroying my life either. Does anyone out there have experience with taking other safer antibiotics after being floxed????Please help me ...Thanks D. or email me ******

6 Replies

Neurotic6 - This is going to sound crazy but here goes....It depends on how newly floxed you are. If you have been severely floxed then your Cytochrome P450 pathways in your liver have been damaged, especially the CYP3A4 pathway, and the ability for your system, mainly your kidneys, to clear the drugs out of your system. Your basic blood tests will not show any damage to the liver or kidneys even though the flox damage is still there. Also your central nervous system will have damage also. Alot of time this CNS damage will not become evident for 18 mos or so. In my opinion it will depend on two things, First, how heavily the antibiotic uses the CYP3A4 pathway, and Second, how your CNS is currently acting. Certain antibiotics such as the tetracycline class can act as an irritant to the nervous system, thereby causing all kids of unpleasant side effects. If you are newly floxed and currently not experiencing too many CNS issues or side effects from other medicines that you could get by with doxycycline. If you have been severely floxed and are experiencing alot of side effects and CNS issues then to be brutally honest, there are no safe antibiotics for you to take because they all have serious risks associated with them and the chances are too high. Are you sure you have Lyme disease. Did you have a Lyme titer test for the antibodies? You are right floxing can mimic Lyme disease and has caused misdiagnosis before. I hope this will resolve for you.