Need encouragement

I started antibiotics (omnicef) three months ago. At first, I had a bad herx reaction (severe anxiety) but have been getting progressively better. My family has been impressed with my improvement (it's hard for me to see it sometimes). I feel like I am 70% improved. The doc added allicin a month ago hoping to avoid a second antibiotic. I have not seen any additional improvement. In the last two weeks I feel worse. My depression has increased and in the last few days my anxiety is out of control. It seems to come out of nowhere and makes me want to jump out my skin. It also ruins my outlook on life. I am very frustrated because I am not sure what to do next. Yes, I had a positive lyme test but all of these symptoms (which are primarily mental) began immediately after the birth of my fourth child. I had lyme as a child and was treated. I have been fine up until one year ago. I am not very ill compared to many of you. Am I giving lyme to much credit? Am I in the middle of postpartum hell? I do not have any physical pain just mental stuff so it is hard to tell if I am recovering. I had been doing so well so I am not sure how I can slip backward after two decent months. My doctor is great but he is a lyme specialist only. It is hard to find a good doctor who can assess the whole picture...
Any thoughts?

Have you thought about talking to a counselor about your feelings of depression? Maybe one who could work with your lyme specialist to help access the side effects of the medication?

Sending you lots of encouragement and support!!!

Although talking to someone other than a LLMD is a good thought, if they don't understand Lyme disease, it can sometimes back fire, as things like depression and anxiety are very real symptoms of Lyme.

Being pregnant and having a child is very stressful on the body, and frequently "brings out" a Lyme infection into the open. Relapses happen. Maybe you've hit a plateau in your treatment, or you changed something and you are herxing? Lyme frequently comes with co-infections also. Do you have any of the symptoms of Bartonella? I ask specifically about Bart because it too can cause a whole host of mental/psychological issues and requires a different treatment. It would make sense that as your Lyme infection load goes down, the Bartonella symptoms become more pronounced.

Are you taking anything for the depression and anxiety? I had to stay on antidepressants and anti-anxiety med (pharma and later switched to natural) for several years until I could get my infections treated.

Sometimes it's too easy to blame the Lyme infection for everything that is going on with us, but Lyme does cause all kinds of havoc in the body!

For some, plateauing is common as the bacteria figure out how to recognize and avoid the abx. This usually just means things need to be changed around some - a different abx that will attack the cystic form of Lyme disease usually works best.

Are you seeing doc's that really know about herbs? Or are they saying those things because they don't know about herbs? If you use a Holistic doc, they can usually help you find something that can be well tolerated even when you are taking other meds. I've healed by using only herbs, so I never did run into issues like that, so I'm not very knowledgeable on what you might be able to use without having interaction issues. Sorry! If you are able to research this yourself and check carefully for interactions with ALL of the medications you are on, you could check into SAMe supplement, or Motherwort tincture for starters.

Watch for other symptoms to arise, as lots of times as one infection load goes down, the symptoms of other infections become apparent. There are a few "lucky" souls that get "just" Lyme disease - not that they are all the "lucky" it's just that they don't have to deal with even more complications due to trying to figure out which infection is causing what symptom!

Most importantly, keep asking questions!! That's how we know we are on the right track to healing!!