Did your child take rifampin?

When I asked Dr. J about a possible medication switch for my 4 year old for what I suspect is bartonella (anger issues), he mentioned that rifampin works well on bartonella in children.

I thought this was a pretty tough drug to tolerate, but would love to hear if your child took it and if there was improvement. What symptoms resolved under it?

Did he/she take it on an empty stomach?

Thanks,

tickbattler

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the info. Sorry to hear you are dealing with this as well with your daughter. I hope you are seeing some improvement, at least in some areas. Does she have a headache by chance? That is my son's worst symptom. It never goes away. I think he has head buzzing too, but am not sure since he's only 4 and there is the communication issue. Does your daughter have that?

Can you share a bit more about Dr. K? Is this Dr. D.K. in Washington? Where is this doctor located and what is his specialty? If you don't feel comfortable sharing here, you can e-mail me at belval@comcast.net.

I know my son has two strains of bart (Hensealea and Quintana) and really hope to try the rifampin. My husband has bart quintana and the only thing that seems to work on him is levaquin, but I would expect rifampin to work too if he tried it. My husband has backslid on doxy and omnicef, as well as on Mepron and zithromax and on ceftin. I know zith and doxy can sometimes help bart, but not in my husband's case. He has a constant headache and head buzzing as well.

I think we have made progress against my son's babesia microti, as his fatigue, stamina, strength and appetite have improved immensely. Also improved is insomnia, bed wetting, and muscle tone. But his headaches seem to have gotten worse, along with his behavior. It seems he actually feels worse than when we started treatment 10 months ago. The slightest thing sets him off and he starts kicking things and saying he doesn't feel well and just acting horrible. He no longer wants to go to preschool and he used to love it.

We are trying taking him off the artemisinin, as Dr. J said it could cause behavior issues. I just don't think that is the problem. I don't want to wait until early April at our next appt. to get a med change. If my son's behavior is not better in a few days, I may request a med change. I hope he will agree. I have been worried about him not improving for the past 6 months and I don't want to wait even one more week if the meds aren't working!!!

I do agree that Dr. J is wonderful and am very happy with him.

Thanks again for your input. Good luck to you.

tickbattler

Thanks for the warning GLbaby...that is very scary! I will be sure to ask Dr. J about that issue.

tickbattler