I was diagnosed with lyme in october, then subsequently bart and babs. I had a PICC line run 7 days ago after the first 3-4 months of oral treatment produced minimal progress. I'm pushing 2g of rocephin a day, in addition to oral mepron and zithromax.
I was fully expecting a harsh reaction to the new treatment and was not disappointed. By the second day I was in full-blown herx mode, with major flu symptoms and a generally increased symptoms across the board. I don't mind putting up with anything, but have a tendency to overlook even things that are dangerous in my enthusiasm to just plow through all the side effects without complaining.
There's a few brand new things that have me concerned. The armpit on my PICC arm and the areas of chest adjacent are irritated to the point where I don't know how long I can bear it. It's not pain strictly speaking, but more of an irritation that is slowly building in intensity, like an itch I can't scratch or a pressure that can't be relieved. I can calmly sit through grinding bone pain and joints so painful I can't use them days at a time, but this is wearing me down.
I had a visiting nurse here 2 days ago to change the dressing, as I had an allergic reaction to the first one. She seemed happy with the way everything looked then and it doesn't appear any different today. Is there some other way for me to check for possible problems? Does this sound like part of the healing process or maybe even a herx?
Secondly, I woke up this morning with the unmistakable sensation of icewater being poured from the middle of my head down the back of my head (but not to my neck). It lasted for maybe a full 20 minutes; I was groggy and panicked so I don't know how much more information I could provide about it. Facial numbness is one of the few things I've never had to deal with over the years, but I understand new symptoms may arise with heavy treatment. Is this sensation I described consistent with the facial numbness symptom cluster, or is this something different that I should be aware of?