After the initial fairly long rocephin herx, I had had some modest improvement overall ... probably even more than I had realized .... though I still had a long way to go.

Four days ago I started feeling really crummy again. My joint and tendon pain is very pronounced again, neck stiffness, skin soreness, and increased nerve pain.

Does this sound like babs reacting to the artemesia? It doesn't feel particularly different than past lyme symptoms. Would I be herxing on artemesia a month after starting it?

Or could this be the post-rocephin 'relapse' I've heard mentioned here?

I guess this could also be a 'step back' after a 'step forward' ... but would it last this long and be this strong?

Am feeling a little defeated right now

He did 10 weeks of IV rocephin. Herxed for nearly 7 weeks. He's now doing IV zithro, and mepron/art, though at smaller doses because he herxed on the stuff right away. Eventually, we'll be ramping it up so it's tolerable for him.

I think your reaction is probably a herx, like my son's. When he first did the IV zith, he'd get really tired, and flushed, while the IV was in progress. We called the doc who stated it was a herx. The babs was being stirred up.

My son was making some progress as well, then the night sweats developed, so the doc switched to babs treatment. Seems like he's been set back again.

I guess any hope he or I had, that he would be able to go back and finish his freshman year, has been tossed out the window. He has 3 months of mepron, and zith scheduled, and with his reaction to it so far, he'll be lucky to attend his sophomore year.

It was his birthday saturday [age 15]. So I put together a surprise birthday party for him at a local pizza parlor. About 20 kids were scheduled to show up, but naturally, we had a blizzard so only about 10 made it. They were all buddies from his football team.

He enjoyed himself eventually, and one of the boy's stayed over at the house. My boy talked about getting back to school, and playing football next year.

Then, this morning, reality set in again, and he was pretty much confined to bed most of the day. I'm wondering now, if having the party was a good idea, just made him eager for something he can't readily have.

Guess I haven't cheered you up much, but I'm so damn sick and tired of this thing. This child has missed almost his entire freshman year, and has for the most part been isolated.

He's sick of the supplements, he's sick of the IV's, he's sick of being in pain, he's sick of not being able to function as a normal 15 year old boy.

I'm sick of watching him limp around the house with a cane. I try to keep his spirits up, but everytime I tell him that things will be looking up, he sets back.

Didn't mean for this to be a bummer post, but maybe it's better I vent here, and keep a positive attitude in front of my boy.

dr. jones got her through it! Now after 2 adn 1/2 years she is doing great. She continued to get better adn better. Her junior and senior years were great..she played lacrosse adn was in school plays adn did great at school.

She even got a scholarship for women's lacrosse to Emerson Collge in Boston Mass where she is a FREshman right now and doing great , without abx! Dr. jones made her a person again.

I guess i'm telling you this just so you know NOT to give up hope..I know when you're in the middle of it it seems endless and like he'll never get better...but after a year of pure hell, Kady did, and is now doing great!

I"m sure your son will too...hang in there mom...

Sounds like your daughter rebounded nicely. Children are tough, no doubt. I'm sure my son will turn the corner one of these days as well.

What's aggravating is that you take a step or two forward, and then one back. You measure success in millimeters instead of inches.

Monkeyshines, my son is off of mep for a week after doing his initial 3 weeks, albeit at a reduced dose. He'll continue his zith IV's 5 days on, and two off.
Our LLMD called today to see how he's doing, and didn't like the report we had to give. He was hoping the mepron would have given him some improvement by now.

Doc said he may replace the mepron with something else, if he doesn't start showing some improvement soon. According to our LLMD, all of his old symptoms coming back is more attributable to a herx, than any rocephin relapse.

BTW Lisa, to avoid confusion, I'm a Dad!

Artemesinin was good for babs, but we did the mepron/zith too. The art herx, for me, was mostly a truly awful headache, sudden surprising rages (different from Bb rage), and achiness. This all intensified when we added mepron/zith.

NP40, If it's any help at all, I felt completely terrible the first 4 months on mepron/zith/art; got upgraded to lousy in the 5th month; and felt OK by the time I got off at the end of the 7th month. My main sx were pretty significant pain in my legs, miserable headache, lousy mood with lots of anger, and complete exhaustion.

The hubby felt pretty bad the whole time on this tx, and in addition to the pain and headaches got a lot of diarrhea towards the end of his tx (10 mo on mepron/zith/art).

But -- after we got off the meds (well those ones; I'm still on bicillin and ketek, and just added tinidazole), we really did improve, physically and cognitively. We both had another improvement after bart tx. The hubby noticed another major reduction in pain after the bart, which really surprised us.