How do you know the difference between Herxing and experiencing real flares of your disease?
I guess Herxing is a flare of your (Lyme) symptoms brought on by ABX.
But while you are on ABX, can you also experience some flares that are not necessarily a result of taking ABX?
Am I making sense here?
I have a few conditions, including Lyme, some of whose symptoms overlap, while some symptoms could be easily attributed to a particular condition, or so I thought.
I am slowing increasing Biaxin, and so far my LLMD said the severe headache and TMJ pain I had were Herxing.
Now, I am having a bad lower back pain that radiates all the way down to my toes, which I used to blame on Arachnoiditis (clumping of several nerve roots) and other nerve damage in L-spine.
To make things more complicated, I have Reactive Arthritis that was triggered by Salmonella (in my bloodstream) and Lyme (and Ehrlichiosis.)
Can Lyme cause back pain? If so, could my pain be part of Herxing too or simply a flare of Arachnoiditis or even reactive Arthritis?
I am very confused. Any idea?
shizuko
Posted by elley0531 (Member # 9434) on :
when I had lyme as a kid, my back was not affected.
This time around though, my back has been one of the most affected areas. Sometimes its low back, sometimes flank, middle, upper, neck, sometimes it aches, burns, stings, pulses...could def. be lyme.
Posted by Jill E. (Member # 9121) on :
One thing that might help is keeping a diary and seeing if certain symptoms worsen somewhere around the 28-day time period.
I rarely herx on oral antibiotics but then suddenly got lots of new symptoms when I went on intramuscular antibiotics. I had been keeping a diary and it was my Lyme doctor who looked at the worsening of the new symptoms and said they were almost the classic 28-day flare cycle. So he considered them herxes.
I know it's not as simple as that because you, I and probably most of us are dealing with multiple diseases. But I'm plotting out symptoms to try to see patterns.
Take care, Jill
Posted by Tracy9 (Member # 7521) on :
Provides a web based diary that will graph your symptoms, and highlights herxes so you can easily track them.
Posted by shizuko (Member # 8213) on :
Does herxing usually come in certain cycle?
I feel like I have no break though. I always have something going on, although it might not be so intense all the time.
My pain (lower back and below) definitely gets worse at night, particularly when I am trying to sleep, and this is pretty much every single day.
Also, it seems to be getting worse now with the slight increase in Biaxin.
Pain in other locations seems to come and go at different times.
I used to keep a diary but stopped it when it got just too much, but I guess it's good to find out if there is a certain pattern/cycle.
Thanks for your suggestions.
shizuko
Posted by shizuko (Member # 8213) on :
Does herxing usually come in certain cycle?
I feel like I have no break though. I always have something going on, although it might not be so intense all the time.
My pain (lower back and below) definitely gets worse at night, particularly when I am trying to sleep, and this is pretty much every single day.
Also, it seems to be getting worse now with the slight increase in Biaxin.
Pain in other locations seems to come and go at different times.
I used to keep a diary but stopped it when it got just too much, but I guess it's good to find out if there is a certain pattern/cycle.
Thanks for your suggestions.
shizuko
Posted by elley0531 (Member # 9434) on :
having cycles doesn't necessarily mean you will be symptom free or that some symptoms will disappear.
My motnhly cycle had me feeling crappy most of the time, with about 3 normal feeling days-even these days I was achey and stuff but felt basically ok.
The rest of the time symptoms came and went in severity, but there was def. a huge increase in symptoms for the first few days I was on abx, and then felt just lousy afterwards...but not on deaths doorstep like I did during the herx flare.