Sudden severe joint stiffness with severe pain, PLEASE HELP

I need some advice, please help if you have any experience with joint pain or stiffness. So I've told my background story in other threads but I'll sum up quickly.

Im 24 years old and I was diagnosed with lyme exactly 3 weeks ago and started treatment at the same time. My main symptoms were severe anxiety, panic attacks, occasional joint pain, occasional testicular pain, random pains all over, floaters in the eyes, chest pains, low body temperature, etc. I eat extremely healthy and other than lyme stuff I've always been very healthy. I live a healthy lifestyle. Prior to starting antibiotics I basically had an excess amount of anxiety on a daily basis, at times it was bad. The worse joint pain I ever had was a few weeks to a few months before treatment when my knees would occasionally hurt pretty bad and I would have trouble walking down stairs when they did. This pain was random and didn't last long, though obviously I've suspect Lyme for a while.

My treatment is omnicef 300mg two pills twice daily. I take probiotics ever day along with mainly fish oil, vitamin C, resveratrol, quercetin, and lutein + bilberry for preventive eye health. 2 days after starting antibiotics, I came down with a fever, extremely achey lower back pain, headache, etc. 6am is about when I really noticed what was going on. Flu symtpoms. This disappeared the same day after about 10 pm; fever disappeared over a half hour span and symptoms went with it. In addition to the flu symptoms (minus nausea and vomiting) I had severe stomach cramps and was constantly going to the bathroom with little success, lots of watery loose stool and mucus. This continued all day and has popped up about 2 or 3 days but other than that its a very loose, small to medium stool maybe twice a day. I excercise daily and I follow the lyme inflammation diet. My doctor over the phone told me to cut the dose in half so over the past 2 weeks or so Ive been taking 300 mg cefdinir twice a day (600mg/day).



Last night (about 21 hours ago) I started getting a muscle pain/soreness on my left upper thigh where it connects to my hip. It got progressively worse over a 2-3 hour period and I went to bed. I wokeup a few hours later with sever muscle pain and stiffness. Could barely walk and just laying was painful. Fearing a potassium deficiency my girlfriend drove me to the hospital this morning around 8am ( about 13 hours ago). Told the doc everything about the lyme, my history of good health, and he did bloodwork for electrolytes and minerals etc and everything came back absolutely perfect so he told me its muscular, could be related to lyme, and to go home and take advil. Well I started to stretch a little and was able to slowely walk to the car. After getting home around noon I felt somewhat better but around 2pm the pain came back in full strength and has gotten progressively worse of the past 7 hours. Basically what It feels like at this point (9pm saturday the 14th) is extremely severe muscle stiffness in my shoulders and the upper arm muscles, and the same deal in my left hip/left upper thigh muscles. My range of motion has become so restricted that I cant move my arms more than about 6-8" off my body before the muscles contract and its extremely painful when they do, impossible to get through it. Same thing with my hip.



I've been taking hot baths (3 so far), the first time with epsom salt and peroxide, this last time just epsom salt, and it was helping with the stiffness temporarily but the last bath barely did anything. The pain is very uncomfortable and if I try to move extremely painful. Sharp aching pain, much like a charley horse. I'm very scared at this point because prior to treatment I've never had any serious symptoms like this, so I'm thinking its definitely from the treatment. 24, 25 hours ago I was doing yoga and had full flexibility and felt good about myself, and now im stuck here like a "cripple" unable to move and scared about whats happening to me and when it will ease up.

My parents somewhat understand lyme from what I tell them about all of the lyme research I do and books I read, but theyre very worried about me because theyve never seen me like this. I've never been in a situation of extreme pain with no idea about how long or how bad it will get/last, and its really worrying me. Has anyone else ever gone through anything like this? Is this somewhat normal for lyme treatment or should I be worried? My parents want to take me back to the hospital tomorrow if I'm still feeling like this, if I can make it that long. I'm not even sure what they could do. My next appointment with my LLMD isnt for 7 days and I wont be able to contact him on the phone for two days. Any advice about what I should do would be very much appreciated. I'm afraid to fall asleep and wake up so still that I am basically paralyzed with my muscles, which at this point doesnt really seem far-fetched. What should I do, what should I be thinking? for now I'm just trying to lay in a position with the least pain and not move at all. Please help if you can.



-Mark

I know this can be so scary - for me it always offered a strange relief to know that others had been through the same thing and came out in one piece. A lot of people - myself included - stiffen up A LOT during a herx - with the fevers and increased pain you mentioned, it sounds like you're herxing pretty strongly, which is pretty common in the beginning of treatment. I've had periods of time where I couldn't walk because of how hard my body stiffened up, but it does get better with time.

Just a few suggestions I can think of - if you're taking very hot baths, try making them a little cooler. Too hot of water can induce additional herxing. Magnesium can also be helpful with stiffness, as well as potassium (my levels are technically within range, though my doctor keeps telling me I need more potassium). Making sure to drink enough clean water to flush out the toxins, resting, and trying not to get stressed about the chaos in your body also help more than you might think. Another thing to consider is that exercise is great for moving around lymph fluid, but if your system is clogged up with toxins, it can exacerbate symptoms - I often find myself in much worse pain after exercising in any way, even though it feels fine while I'm doing it. Hang in there! I hope you find some relief soon!

So its now been about 38 hour since this sudden extreme stiffness and pain started, and I still am not capable of moving my arms more than a few inches away from my body. My thigh and hip pain is slightly better than last night, but im not sure if its improving or if its just because pain is always worse at night. If I move my arms past a certain point the muscles in my upper arms, the ones which connect to my shoulders, get extremely tight and contract and the pain is incredible.

It seems as if my thigh muscles/hip will start to feel better, but then my arms and shoulders feel worse. The intensity and frequency of the pain seems to rotate around between the affected joints throughout the day. I'm starting to wonder how long this will last. My LLMD said that the Herxheimer reaction would peak at 2 weeks after the start of treatment, which is right now. I'm trying to be positive but it really freaks me out that I'm not capable of using my limbs.

For those that have experienced this type of thing after starting treatment, how long did it last for you?

Hi Markus,

I'm an old timer that checks in time to time and I noticed this post about the joint stiffness and pain.  Years ago when I was very sick from chronic lyme I also had the joint pain as well as stiffness, hip bones, knees, etc.  I had so many problems with my legs that eventually I couldn't walk so I understand...  Been there.  Today I walk just fine and have been doing aerobic exercising for a long time.

Personally, I don't believe that antibiotics help and I became well using alternative medicine.  Detoxing is great yet it's still a vicious cycle, take the antibiotics which are poisons (antibiotics means against life) and then detox to try to get rid of the poisons...  Doesn't make sense to me. 

Anyway, I believe the more knowledge a person has the better off they are.  I am not suggesting to you to switch to alternative medicine but please know it's out there and it does work as I am living proof of that.  Also, I believe that people have built up a resistance to antibiotics from the foods we eat (they are injected with abx besides other chemicals).

These articles below are very interesting and may help you understand what's going on inside your body and brain:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_285/ai_n19170382/?tag=content;col1

http://planetthrive.com/2011/07/horror-herxes/

http://www.drjerniganblog.com/articles/infections/622

Hope this helps,

Denise