posted
250mg x2 a day and I just got hit by a truck overnight. Is this the 3rd and final part of my diagnosis? Would a healthy person get this reaction? Slept 10 hours and am so out of it I can barely walk around. 2 days ago I walked 5 miles and felt great, not a chance of that now.
Posts: 501 | From Cleveland Ohio | Registered: Apr 2009
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sixgoofykids
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11141
posted
Sounds like confirmation to me. I usually got hit on day 4, so you're right on schedule.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
Same happened to me. Congratulations you are sick!
Eventually you will tolerate that and they will up that dose probably to 500mg 2x day. Everytime I had an increase in Biaxin that happened to me.
Posts: 103 | From Northern VA | Registered: Apr 2009
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btmb03
Unregistered
posted
Don't forget to keep yourself well hydrated - esp detoxifying with freshly-squeezed lemon in cool water. Helps a lot...here's to more 5 mile walks! (I can only dream)!
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Vermont_Lymie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9780
posted
The fatigue from biaxin passes after a couple of weeks; it is a herx. I had the same thing.
Posts: 2557 | From home | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
It passed quickly and I feel like I never took it now, time to up the dose I think, will talk to llmd next week anyways.
I almost want to say I feel improvement but placebo is more likely than feeling better after a year of this.
Posts: 501 | From Cleveland Ohio | Registered: Apr 2009
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posted
I started biaxin ystdy and just posted about it last night, because within a few hrs of taking it I was in a world of pain and exhaustion, have also had nausea (almost barfed), chest pain/palps, etc.
It's good to read this thread and see this is a typical herx.
My LLMD started me at 500mg 2xday but I am backing that dose way down to 175 mg 2xday and then will ease my way up.
Wish I'd seen this post earlier!
So, yeah, sounds like a herx to me.
-sharon
Posts: 223 | From Western Mass. | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
Interesting that you say you almost barfed. I was thinking that the closest I have come to throwing up since I've had these symptoms in over a year was 3rd day on Biaxin. I still don't know how I didn't toss my stomach that day.
So the question is would a healthy person have these reactions? I don't understand abx all that well.
Biaxin is good stuff I would have to say. I feel like my daily nausea is almost gone but that would be impossible so I won't say it.
Posts: 501 | From Cleveland Ohio | Registered: Apr 2009
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Glad we can experience this journey together! Helps not to feel alone.
>> So the question is would a healthy person have these reactions? I don't understand abx all that well. <<
before i got lyme & co, if i took abx, i usually didn't notice any reaction, positive or negative, unless it was a loooong time ago and it was for something acute and obvious, like strep throat. then i would slowly feel better every day.
since lyme & co, any time I start an effective tx, which is almost always abx, within a few days I have major sx flares, and i usually feel like utter crap for about 1-2 months, and then i level out, and then i start to feel better.
i'm thinking now if i started at lower doses, instead of full strenth, the herxes wouldn't be so severe and so long.
so, to answer your question, i've never heard of a healthy person herxing on abx, no.
my first herx experience was right after dx, when i was in the acute phase, on amoxicillin. at the time, i didn't know the term, "herx."
I just knew that my symptoms got worse, and some that i'd read about as lyme sx that i hadn't had suddenly appeared, and i thought, "I bet this means the drug is working."
and i felt so relieved because I thought, "In a month or two, I will be cured completely."
Oh well!!
but, after about 2 weeks herxing on amoxi, i did start to improve, and i got much better, but i never got all the way better, and thus began the long miserable chronic lyme journey of many drugs and many herxes.
so, hang in there. i am now way way way better than i was last year, or even 4 months ago. even tho they feel lousy, herxes are good because 1. they tell you the drug is working. e.g., when i was on cefuroxime, i didn't herx, and i eventually got much worse, so i know that didn't help me. 2. you know they won't last forever.
peace, sharon
Posts: 223 | From Western Mass. | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
p.s. yeah,i was sitting on the bathroom floor with my chin on the toilet seat. felt like barf was imminent, then it subsided. but i have been continually nauseas since starting.
mostly mild nausea. that time was bad i think because i had just taken it and not enough food with it.
[ 06-14-2009, 04:53 PM: Message edited by: swachsler ]
Posts: 223 | From Western Mass. | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
this is crazy. everyone tells me I'm self diagnosing and I have computer "terminal" illness, when in fact it's the opposite and I found this through the internet and confirm my symptoms/reactions with all of you.
this should be called the disease of opposites.
thanks guys keep in touch
Posts: 501 | From Cleveland Ohio | Registered: Apr 2009
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posted
This is good to know. I just started Biaxin yesterday (yay - my first antibiotic!) and am so tired today it's amazing. Ran some errands this morning and didn't feel like i should be driving. I started on 1/2 the 500 mg (so 250 mg) dose and will up it when I feel less tired. Not much nausea, some, but I'm having what I believe to be gall bladder issues, so that could be why. Getting that checked in a week.
-------------------- dx: MS in 1998 2007 - Lyme suspected 2009 - Positive Lyme, MS worse. Now: Copaxone shots for MS gall bladder out 7/09 Ceftin, Zith, Septra LDN Acyclovir Monolaurin, DHEA, Pregnonelon, Curcumin Posts: 243 | From New Mexico | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
FYi, an update here: I went down to 1/4 dose, and my severe severe herx eased up a bit, stayed on that a few days, then upped to 1/3 dose, and I'm now at 1/2.
I hope to be at the full dose within a few days. It has definitely been the right thing to ramp up slowly. I'm tolerating it much better now.
Take that, bugs!
-sharon
Posts: 223 | From Western Mass. | Registered: Nov 2008
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