Doxycycline and eye pain

[adreno]

I'm on doxycycline for a tick infection, most likely rickettsia. It's giving me eye pain, or pressure around mostly the right eye, and I also feel some pain/pressure on the cranial nerve going to the ear. Anyone try this?

Doxy also at times give me quite severe headache and nausea. I do worry if this is all related to increased intracranial pressure (hypertension), or something else. I tried stopping the med for a few days and the pain subsided.

 

[duncan]

I have eaten lots of doxy. I probably could blame five pounds of fat swinging around my waist on my doxy diet. The only symptom I am familiar with, and intimately so, that you note is the nausea. That could be because the instructions tell you to swallow the doxy on an empty stomach.

After heaving my stomach up for several days in a row, I finally got up enough courage to call my doctor. He told me to eat first, then take the doxy. I followed his instructions and no more nausea. Now, whenever I receive a doxy prescription, I eat before taking it.

Not sure about the eye or head pain. Drugs can be nasty. If doxy isn't right for you, your clinician has other options. That's a phone call you may wish to consider.

 

[Gondwanaland]

hypertension

Abx are known to deplete magnesium.

 

[adreno]

Abx are known to deplete magnesium.

They can also bind to magnesium, which makes them unabsorbable. I don't think magnesium helps intracranial hypertension, anyway. It's more related to increased production of CSF.

 

[adreno]

Not sure about the eye or head pain. Drugs can be nasty. If doxy isn't right for you, your clinician has other options. That's a phone call you may wish to consider.

Two doctors have already dismissed my complaints. So...I don't know.

 

[adreno]

How doxycycline causes intracranial hypertension is not known; however, case reports abound of increased intracranial pressure associated with drugs including tetracycline,7 minocycline8 and doxycycline.

No matter whether the disorder is idiopathic or secondary, it is known to be anything but benign. Corbett et al found that idiopathic intracranial hypertension often persists up to 41 years after the initial diagnosis, and that over 25% of patients have severe visual loss.12 Patients with secondary forms of intracranial hypertension such as those using doxycycline are also not immune to visual loss. In 12 patients with minocycline induced intracranial hypertension 25% had notable visual field loss.8 Therefore, patients who complain of headache after using doxycycline should be examined carefully, including their visual acuity, and formal testing of the visual fields. Funduscopy after dilating the pupils to look for papilloedema is mandatory.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1125522/

 

[duncan]

Two doctors dismissed your doxy reaction and your concerns??

That is unacceptable. Fire their asses!

Not sure that you can, though, so you might want to just ignore me. lol But it's a nice thought, isn't it?

Here in the US, technically, I can fire them, and I have. But there are ramifications to such a move. For instance, you get the reputation as being a difficult patient, because doctors talk among themselves. Also, then you still have to find a doctor - from scratch - that does not treat your problems with uninterest or disdain. Easier said than done. And you are still left out in the cold with a treatment that is causing you difficulties.

But I have to tell you, when I fired my first clinician for disrespecting my symptoms and worries, it felt wonderful.

I would look into possible rickettsia treatment options so you can perhaps suggest to your doctors alternatives of which they were unaware. If it were Lyme, for instance, you could just move outside the tetracycline family. There are tradeoffs in terms of efficacy etc, but, they may be worth it. I don't know enough about rickettsia to make good recommendations, unfortunately.

 

[minkeygirl]

I recently had a weird problem like that with Bactrim.

The first time (after successfully taking it) I felt like someone was jamming their finger in my face next to my right nostril

Stopped and tried again and it happens on the left side.

 

[rosie26]

Are you taking a high dose @adreno. I was given doxycycline many years ago at 100mg, I had a lot of head pain and eye pain at the time from the ME so it could have been masked in that for me. I found doxycycline to not be the right help for me at the time, other antibiotics were better, but I think the low dose I was on was too low and so not helping. I stopped taking it after a few days and was given another antibiotic.

I would stop the doxycycline and try another antibiotic if there is another one that works for the tick bite.

 

[minkeygirl]

Abx are known to deplete magnesium.

Thanks for this. My calves have been cramping for a few days. I've tried potassium and electrolytes but nothing helped.

I took extra magnesium and that helped a lot. Yeah! Unfortunately I don't have glycinate so I can't take much since I already have diarrhea, probably from the doxycycline and Valcyte.

I ordered some today. I never would have figured it out. Thanks.

 

[Gondwanaland]

@minkeygirl be careful because as adreno said your abx will loose efficacy

 

[minkeygirl]

I was told that I'd be ok if I took them apart. It's kind of a conundrum.

I didn't know to take them separately when I first started the doxi. As soon as I did my sinus infection cleared up almost immediately.

 

[adreno]

I was told that I'd be ok if I took them apart. It's kind of a conundrum.

Taken 2 hours apart it shouldn't be a problem. Same goes for calcium. Even foods high in those minerals can decrease absorption.

Another issue with calcium /magnesium is that they build biofilms. This is the real conundrum.

 

[adreno]

I would stop the doxycycline and try another antibiotic if there is another one that works for the tick bite.

I believe doxycycline is the most effective one, but it is hard to find good information on this. Rickettsia seems quite understudied, compared to Borrelia.

 

[Hanna]

@adreno, perhaps could you switch to an other tetracycline ? Minocycline or Tetralysal for example...
People seem to react differently even from ABX from the same family (adjuvants etc).

 

[adreno]

I am getting more convinced that the problem is due to intracranial pressure. Coffee makes it worse, and caffeine is known to increase intracranial pressure.

 

[xrunner]

Doxy also at times give me quite severe headache and nausea

It only upset my stomach and gave me nausea. If the nausea is stomach related it helps taking it on an empty stomach followed by food half an hour later.

Rickettsia seems quite understudied, compared to Borrelia.

That's right. In Europe it shows up a lot as a Lyme co-infection. Have you been properly tested for Lyme?

 

[Valentijn]

Doxy also at times give me quite severe headache and nausea. I do worry if this is all related to increased intracranial pressure (hypertension), or something else. I tried stopping the med for a few days and the pain subsided.

I had very bad nausea as well ... but it was in my brain, not my gut. If I laid down and closed my eyes I was fine, but if I tried to look at the TV or my laptop, it would trigger something like motion sickness and then vomiting. Eating anything made it worse in my case, as it gave me something to throw up, though eating helps for others.

I didn't get a headache from doxycycline, though I do sometimes from either tetralysal or rifampicin. In my case it lasts for a day or two at a time, and then I'm fine for a week or two. It can be a part of the Herxheimer reaction, or it might just be a side-effect of the drug itself. If it's too nasty, it might be worthwhile to try a different antibiotic which is also effective against the intended bacteria.

I'd be a little curious to know what your blood pressure is doing when the headaches hit.

 

[juniemarie]

I'm also on Doxy for bartonella, along with Plaquanil and Zith. It doesn't give me eye or head problems……stomach and sun problems.
If I don't eat before taking I always throw up. No calcium or dairy products 2 hrs before and after taking.
The sun thing is very serious. I never wear real shoes in the summer, just sandals and flip flops…big mistake.
It seems to do something to my stomach around food. Aside from the throwing up . Its almost like being pregnant where some foods just don't appeal and make you queasy just to think of them. I find because of that I am not eating as much as I did before the doxy.
Its helping though. Brain much clearer, fogged reduced
Minocycyline is an alternative and I have heard it does not cause as many stomach and sun issues as doxy…plus it crosses the BBB and for some people produces a remarkable reduction in brain fog.
My doc wouldn't give it too me though because although it is used in low doses(Roadback Protocol) for autoimmune illness it apparently has a small potential to increase and/or cause autoimmune problems.

 

[Martial]

Do you think it is possible that the infection itself could be causing the intracranial pressure, or at least adding to it? I know that borrelia and other tick borne pathogens can trigger it, sometimes with treatment you get an inflammatory response to infection called a "herx". Could possibly be a combination of both, or from the infection itself. Sinusitis seems more likely then cranial hypertension though, given antibiotics can also worsen it, the bacteria can definitely as well. If you have any kind of fungal issues the abx will make that worse too. Though that might be a worthwhile effect to deal with, given its extreme effectiveness in eradicating infection in at least the acute stage.