Starting AP tomorrow!

[246bride]

The wait is finally over. My son has been weaned and I am starting minocycline tomorrow!! I am both excited and nervous…Wondering when/if the herx will visit etc. and how long it might take to feel a difference. I will be taking 100mg bid…maybe I should only start with 50mg?

A question for all of you. Currently, I am taking 200mg of plaquenil and 15 mg of Mobic. I have read about the need to wean from mxth and pred, but not much about plaquenil or Mobic. Can anyone chime in on this? At what point should I try to wean from these two?

Thank you!

[Maz]

@246bride wrote:

The wait is finally over. My son has been weaned and I am starting minocycline tomorrow!! I am both excited and nervous…Wondering when/if the herx will visit etc. and how long it might take to feel a difference. I will be taking 100mg bid…maybe I should only start with 50mg?

A question for all of you. Currently, I am taking 200mg of plaquenil and 15 mg of Mobic. I have read about the need to wean from mxth and pred, but not much about plaquenil or Mobic. Can anyone chime in on this? At what point should I try to wean from these two?

Thank you!

Hi 246Bride,

Just wondering what rheumatic disease you’re dealing with, Bride? The starting doses can be variable depending upon a lot of things, such as drugs currently being taken, disease and degree of severity. Have you had a chance to read The New Arthritis Breakthrough yet and the materials on the main site? These should help to explain the rationale for AP and the type of low,pulsed dosing that Dr.Brown used.

I checked back to see if you had posted before and you mentioned starting on azithromycin while still breast-feeding. Will you remain on this abx, too, when beginning AP?

Actually, a really great protocol to be on includes minocycline, azithromycin and plaquenil. Plaquenil isn’t such a terrible drug to be on initially or in rounds, because it’s actually an anti-protozoal and has some nice anti-inflam props, too, if tolerated. This combination hits a number of microbial forms: cell-walled, cell-wall-less and protozoans. I did really well on the mino and zith combo and have used plaquenil in my Lyme/protozoan treatments.

Changing too much all at once doesn’t usually seem to be a good idea when beginning AP, because herxing and drug re-bound can create more pain than is necessary. The goal of most APers is to ultimately wean from their other drugs, but because AP is a slow therapy with no overnight miracles, taking things in slow measured steps is more often the optimal way to go. There have been new APers here who have dived right in (me included!) on the 100mg BID mino dose and also stopped their usual drugs to begin AP, but within a month they are herxing out of control and suffering from the effects of drug-withdrawl on top of this. So, the general rule of thumb is to start AP low and slow, to reach an optimal dose, to stabilize, and then gradually wean from other drugs, one at a time. People usually try to get rid of prednisone first, as it’s longterm side-effects are not so good. In the case of Mobic, an NSAID, I think my personal preference would be to wean this one first and leave the plaquenil in place, later weaning from this once stablized.

“When” a person begins to wean from other drugs is a very individual thing and depends largely on response to starting AP. Some people herx a lot and others have little or no herxing. To find dosings that Brown often started RAers on (if this is what you’re dealing with), there is a video at the top of this forum you can watch and the starting protocols are outlined right at the end of the video (in the context of what is described in the movie, 100mg doxycycline is equivalent to 100mg mino and 250mg tetracycline).

Hope this helps, Bride, and looking forward to chatting more and hearing how you’re going as you progress. Have you got yourself a good probiotic to take while on AP? 🙂

[Patricia.Ann]

Hi Bride 🙂

How exciting for you 😛 I am now into my seventh week of AP. I have started very slowly because my illness is very inflammatory. I am doing MWF but started on MF 50mg for two weeks, then added in W50mg for two weeks etc. I have had a couple of hiccups along the way but nothing I am unable to manage. I am on prednisolone so I think this has helped with the herxing. I want to get off this as soon as possible though but before we come off our ‘drugs’ I do think we need to have stabilised a little more than we are 😉

The information on here is absolutely brilliant if you have the time to look back over old posts. A little difficult I would think with a baby ~ but if you can it will build your knowledge and confidence in the protocol.

I wish you well on your AP journey and look forward to ‘hearing’ all about you getting well again.

Take care.

Patricia x

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