posted
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
Posts: 110 | From Northern Virginia | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 594 | From NJ/NY | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
Jill E.
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9121
posted
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
-------------------- If laughter is the best medicine, why hasn't stand-up comedy cured me? Posts: 1773 | From San Diego | Registered: Apr 2006
| IP: Logged |
Tracy9
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7521
13 years Lyme & Co.; Small Fiber Neuropathy; Myasthenia Gravis, Adrenal Insufficiency. On chemo for 2 1/2 years as experimental treatment for MG. Posts: 4480 | From Northeastern Connecticut | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 594 | From NJ/NY | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic