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Delayed Recovery From Herx

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Posted 5/31/2023 4:44 AM (GMT -5)
Hi everyone,

Does anyone else feel like when they start to Herkes that they may not find relief till the next day, or a couple days afterwards? I’ve been questioning this, because I often never find immediate relief when feeling terrible. Nothing ever works in response to whatever I’m feeling, and it sucks. I’m also feeling very out of it and forgetful lately, more so than usual.

Second question, is it normal to take an antibiotic and simply feel nothing from it? I can think of a few reasons why that might be, but I love to hear peoples thoughts.

Take care, I hope you have a good day if you’re reading this.
Posted 5/31/2023 11:44 AM (GMT -5)
for me herx like reactions from abx like doxy and azithro was relatively mild - and would take a while to build up - and then last a few weeks and then gradually dissipate after i had stopped taking them
so i felt worse on the first 6 weeks of doxy before feeling somewhat better

again for me - and it may not e te same for everyone - herbs tend to have stronger and more rapid hex like reactions ( i wonder if this might be because most abx have been tested on animals in early stages of trials and any that made the animals lay down and act sick would typically have been discontinued as unsuitable)
it was also dependent on how much i took

so if i took only a small amount - say just a bit more than i could tolerate it would show up as herx like reactions (which for me were symptoms like: all over aching, fatigue, sore head, poor sleep etc) perhaps 2-3 days after starting - 3 days max

whereas if i took a large dose - ie much more than i could tolerate - it could show up the same day or maybe the next day and be much stronger
as a result i was generally much more careful to build up slowly with herbs - whereas with abx they are usually given at standard doses so we tend to take normal dose or not - rather than ramp up.

a herx for me takes up to a week or so to clear after stopping - maybe up to 2 weeks if its severe

but i think if a persons immune system is very upset, eg you are sensitive to many things like foods, medicines, chemicals etc and you get severe herx like reactions it can throw a bit of a spanner in the works and it can take longer than this to settle down fully
Posted 5/31/2023 3:39 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks for getting back to me. So I was referring more to things like calming a herx. I will often do warm baths and other forms of detox, but I do not feel better doing so. If anything, I often feel worse from that.
Posted 5/31/2023 3:58 PM (GMT -5)
its similar for me

i know people swear by things like burbur pinella and epsom salt baths - but for me - once they start very little i have tried seems to help me reduce them much - just time and rest
Posted 5/31/2023 3:58 PM (GMT -5)
That's how I am, Forest. Herxing never really stopped the whole time I was doing antimicrobial treatment, no matter how small the dose. Detox methods tended to make things even worse, almost always. My LLMDs said that meant I was especially sensitive, especially toxic, etc. and said to keep doing everything. Eventually remedies and practices geared toward MCAS helped, at least somewhat, in some circumstances.

So you took the antibiotics? And you aren't feeling any effects yet? That's very fortunate! You must be so pleased.
Posted 5/31/2023 4:20 PM (GMT -5)
What about when you're not under treatment? It makes me wonder if that is just the illness part, and not a herx. But often times I would find myself getting so bad and trying everything from Gupta and BrainTap to the basics like bring in the dark under a warm blanket with a heating pad or something.

I just want to feel more hopeful. I am like a scared child. 30 years old or not, this is freaking tough. I am not sure why (for me) it feels like I am the sickest human being on this planet, but I often do. I feel this annoyance inside as if I am put off by every doctor or even person. I am so optimistic usually, but these days even when I force it, it just doesn't happen how I want it to. It's not like I don't want treatment, it's that when I even use supportive therapies beforehand, they don't work - unless they aren't supposed to. So how do I ride it out? And while I am being treated, will there be a time where in some days, weeks, or months where I can say "wow, I actually do notice myself feeling better than before"? I just want for that. I want to be able to say I did it for a reason. I have spent since 2011 trying to figure out the random panic and these issues that came up out of nowhere. Then going back to circa 2008, I was sick all of the time. Maybe I had PANDAS, not sure, but I was always dealing with strep throat or something.

All I can say is I really want to have people around for me taking these antibiotics, mentally, physically, spiritually, etc. I know the feeling all too well of feeling extreme loneliness. I want to be able to help others too but I truly mean it when I say it is so, so hard to do that these days. I often hope for the ones who have healed, or are at least in good enough shape to reply, but I also realize some of these folks have moved on with their lives or are like me, which carries irony within itself, really.
Posted 5/31/2023 4:29 PM (GMT -5)
And to the meat of the question: No. I can't lie about this, still terrified. Just preparing myself because I am looking to do this between 12 AM or when I wake up. I honestly don't feel the aftereffect of the tooth infection too much but I still am trying to avoid anything. Never know. It's not always something you feel, and I am smarter than that. Been looking into my prescription history and I recently found I had this kind of thing happen April 2, 2018. That is important considering I don't know what illness I had at that time. Can't seem to know the actual difference between this and that considering benzo withdrawal, lyme, mold, MCAS, they look a lot the same. Coming from each world I can tell you it's truly confusing because it's not like you know if you have benzo withdrawal by just taking ap ill and feeling better. That is one of the misconceptions. Same with lyme. You take antibiotics and you should just feel better. Not quite for a lot of folks! If I have this "setback from benzos even if I haven't taken them years after, it could still be withdrawal. If it's lyme, you need to treat it. If I treat but actually have benzo withdrawal, my brain goes back into benzo withdrawal due to it not fully healing. See my problem? Not to mention the other stuff. But is it any of that? Where does MCAS fall into all of this since it is part of all of them. It's crazy.

I often wonder if I have what all of you have. I sometimes wonder if my issue is larger or smaller, as in... what is this? Maybe it seems more severe because it is more like an acute thing, but it is acting chronic. Then I think maybe I have more than just the chronic illnesses I have and have more stuff going on. Well, we see dental is one of those issues now. My fears come from logical reasoning though, I don't want to die. Too many cytokines and my body can't handle. I am a strong guy, but I feel very weak these days. I know I think a lot but dammit, I had to! My doctors were awful and I have been though so much. To have my heart going 150 BPM while they just looked at me. They didn't wanna give me anything, they just said it would take some time. Or to be offered terrible solutions that only made me feel worse. So whenever I had a chance to get back to life, I did, and I simply ignored the rest. I'm sure there's folks that relate to this too. I just feel like an alien a lot because truthfully I am such a weird person. Even in daily life, the way I talk and such, people often think of me as such a deep out-of-the-box thinker who is either super clear at explaining, or too much for people and I confuse the hell out of them. There's never any mediums. Sp believe me when I say I am trying when I listen to people here and I try to chill out and accept things. Working through that now. I took charcoal without any bad effects. I took ibuprofen without any bad effects. I'm even eating so much more and I'm managing. My CNS is better in many ways, so I gotta keep telling myself these things to push through to the next step.

Attn saraeli: I had emailed you this last week, just wanted to let you know.
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