Hi Joanie, hmm lets see, well you said you started in April well I actually started my treatment with my llmd in April as well but year 2014 (when I joined this forum too). I remember it was very rough for me from April until about
August. I had started with a high dose of amox from which I herxed very hard ended up in hospital twice. Then following my doc switched my regiman to Rifampin, doxy, flagyl and I started right away at the full dose of rifampin and the Doxy (held off on the flagyl) but it through me into pure NUT-SO mode! In hindsight, I wouldve never started both of those meds at once but I didnt know any better back then. My doc treats very aggressive and thought I was superwoman I suppose. I hit so much so hard at one time with that regiman I woke up in the middle of the night crying hysterically and couldnt catch my breathe. I ended up having the worst emotional/anxiety/physical herx ever from hitting so hard.
I was in an almost constant state of dark thoughts on/off throughout the day. Same with the breathing, I would have bouts throughout the day and night where it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest and hard to catch my breathe but a qtr of klonopin/valium would mysteriously help me breathe! It told me it WAS anxiety related from the herxing when couldve sworn it was not. I also had horrible nausea, sore muscles, every large joint very achey, weakness etc etc I could go on. I recall crawling to the fridge just to nibble on a bite of food.
The heaviest of the herxing and very bad darkness lasted about
2 months. Oh and did I mention, I didnt even resume the Doxy/Rifampin combo but my herx was still ongoing afterwards Im assuming because my body wasnt detoxing fast enough AT ALL. Looking back, I was taking pain meds around that time and they would constipate me some and I know that had alot to do with my heavy herxing. Things just werent "flowing" like they shouldve. I was all clogged up. Now I dont take pain meds and oh what a difference. If I take a pain med now and im say only 'kind of' herxing, well that small herx will then turn into a big herx and my lymphs in my neck immediately start getting backed up along with my BM's, liver and everything else I have learned. Not worth it IMO, but thankfully the pain isnt as bad as it used to be anyway.
I wanted to share that part in case anyone else may be dealing with similar but to get back on the timeline, so the hard herx lasted about
2 months. June came along I was feeling somewhat better but it was still messing with my head (I think I was literally traumatized by what I went through) so I opted for the anti-depressant at this time. I took the zoloft 25mg for about
a month and a half and it helped so much because I wasnt constantly obsessing about
omg am I going to get better, this thing is gonna do me in, and of course the other 'bad' thoughts.
When I was on the zoloft I couldnt even cry. Apparently thats what it does though-deadens your emotions. So basically after being on that 1.5 mnths I felt I didnt want to be on it anymore and stopped taking. By this time it just gave me a break from my thoughts and essentially pulled me out of my depression.
So the worst was up until about
August. After that, things were just very slowwwww with any little improvement here or there. Still bouts of crying and depression def going on but not the constant dark stuff. As long as the bugs are still in us, theyre still gonna mess with our head but it gets better the more bugs that are killed ;)
The best month yet was January 2015. Ive been between like 60-80% since then and up until now.
So thats my timeline! As you probably know Joanie, no two lymies are exactly alike but it gives you a ballpark idea.
Its a matter of getting the bacterial load down to where you can finally start seeing say a certain symptom that you had for a while finally lessen up or go away is how you will know. Its just so darn SLOW. Also, making sure ALL your body detox systems (lymph's, liver, kidney, bowel's, lungs, skin) are flowing properly as youre going along. If not, this is what causes the herx because of the overload of toxins that cant be released.
Also, it depends on how long youve been ill and how disseminated the disease has become. Ive been ill since approx 2010 btw.
Certain antimicrobials whether it be abx/herbs hit everyone different because of the mixed soup of infections we have individually so it also is a matter of getting that right combo too it seems to make one turn the corner with starting to feel better.
It sounds like you have a great Doc and you trust him so that is Awesome
Hope you start seeing some improvement real soon ;)
~Hang in there~~~~~
-Courtney