Re: Albendazole Safety Question

I'm so sorry to hear about your dog Flossy. Thank you for sharing your experience. It seems that with a lot of these illnesses treatment has to be persistent and of rather long duration. Drug combos also seem very important, as these parasites are tough as hell and can't always knock them back with just one med.

The herxing has been brutal in my case, but in a way has helped guide me in knowing what meds seem effective. Usually the herx involves a huge flare-up in pain of my original symptom (painful lymph node behind ears followed in conjunction or followed by exacerbated fatigue). Once herx subsides I'm achieving a much higher baseline than before, but still get knocked back a few steps each time I dose.

Initially I was a little disappointed by only dosing once a week thinking that might not be enough, but now I feel more comfortable doing that than taking the med every day. I think this protozoa (dx'ed with protomyxzoa rheumatica) I'm dealing with is rather slow growing so the once weekly dosing should be ok.

I'm also curious about trying alinia for this thing. Sounds like people have had success with this drug for this particular protozoa. I sort of wish I had a more conventional dx, as protomyxzoa isn't very well known and not a lot of research to corroborate this thing but I guess I'm just happy that there are drugs that are able to help me and grateful to have a dr I like and trust and am able to work with.

For so long I was just dx'ed as Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome and told I would get better with rest, I had terrible fatigue and chronic lymph node pain behind ears. It was hell, 0 quality of life, bedridden. It's really nice to finally be doing something and regaining quality of life and feeling more like myself. Still going to take time, and I'm very positive about the meds helping, I think I can get close to "normal" eventually, I just hope the meds don't damage my system!

I just hope that one day there will be more research done in this whole arena so patients will have better/more accurate lab dx's and treatment options. As it stands right now many patients are often left to their own devices or ridiculed by conventional medicine for even thinking they have parasites. What we need is better Science and better lab dx methods to id these buggers or rule them out, then hopefully patients won't be left on an island to fend for themselves. I'm curious as to how many people with chronic conditions, cfs, lyme, etc might also be dealing with unidentified parasites. If they are, what role are these parasites playing? maybe the parasites are not root cause of issues but serve to exacerbate original disease? or they are opportunistic and come to life when there is a weakened immune system?

This stuff leads to other questions: what % of healthy population has parasites vs people with chronic illness?

Sorry, just rambling here...

Good luck and best wishes to you and your dog!!!