posted
Seems like every time I start a new type of pill, I have a few days of feeling like crap. Do others have this happen too? Is really this normal?
It's not necessarily herxing I don't think, just jittery, exhausted, foggy, and really really toxic.
I started Biaxin yesterday and between the awful taste in my mouth and a terrible night of "sleep" I'm honestly questioning how poisoning my body, making myself sick with all these harsh chemicals is going to heal anything.
Posts: 63 | From Catskills, NY | Registered: Mar 2012
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Ellen101
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I have the exact same thoughts sometimes. I hate what I am doing to my body and sometimes question why it is so neccesary to feel so awful in order to feel better...
Posts: 1750 | From United States | Registered: Dec 2011
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posted
do you guys also get lots of side effects too in those first few days? or, should I count this as a herx?
it's worst in the first three hours after I take the Biaxin, so I'm thinking side-effect, but if so, I don't know if that means that I'm having a bad reaction and I shouldn't be taking it, or if this is totally normal and just something I should grit my teeth through.
I guess the answer is that if it doesn't subside in a few days, I should review it with my LLMD, but it would be great to know in the meantime if this is par for the course, or out of the ordinary. Thanks.
Posts: 63 | From Catskills, NY | Registered: Mar 2012
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posted
I'm on Biaxin; it is brutal. I had effects from day 1. I can feel it kick in in about an hour. The next 3-4 hours are bad with lots of neuro and physical symptoms.
It goes away now (3 months taking it) until I start pulsing Tindamax. Then it's like the whole cascade of these symptoms come back.
I take Tindamax two weeks on and two weeks off. For me, I think it is a herx. First the Biaxin and Ceftin stirred up a hornets nest of Borrelia.
Now every two weeks when I add Tindamax to the mix, I think I'm busting a bunch of cysts and dumping more toxins than my body can detox--thus the herxing symptoms.
Posts: 331 | From West Coast | Registered: Jan 2012
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I started Biaxin yesterday and between the awful taste in my mouth and a terrible night of "sleep" I'm honestly questioning how poisoning my body, making myself sick with all these harsh chemicals is going to heal anything.
- Biaxin is known for the terrible taste in the mouth. Drink tons of water to counteract it.
It also affects sleep in a negative way.
Any time you begin a new drug you will herx on it, but sometimes there are known side effects you are dealing with.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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TF
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posted
It is typical for a lyme patient to feel lousy each time the doc changes their meds.
Each med has its own "killing profile" as they call it. So, each time you change meds, you are killing germs differently or killing different germs, etc. So, you react to it.
You have to just accept that this is what happens in lyme treatment.
You don't have to accept unbearable side effects of meds. Just know that each med change is going to make you feel lousy for a few days. If it doesn't, consider that a blessing.
However, if it doesn't, it could also mean that that med isn't doing anything for you.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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Ellen101
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posted
It can be extremely hard to accept and funtion when you have a job, family etc that depend on you. While I can understand the desire to hit the infection with a big blast of abx, throwing a patient into a full tilt herx may prove to be too difficult for some and I do wonder the effects of a strong herx on the body as a whole.
Posts: 1750 | From United States | Registered: Dec 2011
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posted
Ellen101 - I wonder too. Long-term affects to my system are exactly what I'm trying to avoid. I'm hoping I'll be done with abx within six months, hopefully not too much damage will have been done.
Posts: 63 | From Catskills, NY | Registered: Mar 2012
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TF
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I never had any "strong herxes" and once I got done treating lyme, I was perfectly normal.
So, that was 7 years ago and I can say that no damage was done to me by 3 years of lyme treatment.
Instead, what happened to me is I lost my life and lyme treatment gave me my life back. My husband says the lyme doc gave him his wife back.
A really strong herx should be reported to the lyme doctor so he understands how the patient is reacting and can plan further treatment accordingly.
I don't see antibiotics as poisons or strong chemicals. Strong herxes are generally pointing to a person's inability to detoxify. The doctor can take that into account and add in detoxifying agents.
Dead germs are toxins which means poisons. The body has ways of dealing with dead germs. It has to. It is a normal bodily function. But, with lyme, if that system isn't working well, the person gets very sick when the germs are killed.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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Ellen101
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Wow, no satrong herxes, what ere your detoxifying rituals?
Posts: 1750 | From United States | Registered: Dec 2011
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posted
and yes...I'd also love to know what you did to avoid feeling so badly. thanks.
Posts: 63 | From Catskills, NY | Registered: Mar 2012
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TF
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Member # 14183
posted
My lyme doc told me to eat 4 lemons per day and drink lots of water. He said lemons are God's natural cleansers of the body and water flushes everything out.
So, I just cut up lemons and squeezed them into water and that was all I drank during my entire lyme treatment. No other drinks of any kind.
Lemon water. That's all I needed to detox. (I never got up to eating 4 per day, but if my herxes were worse, I would have.)
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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Ellen101
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If I didn't have ths strong herxes and did not have to feel incredibly worse in order to feel better and just drinking lemon water would help me throught it I could do this, but unfortunately for many of us it is much worse.
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