Herxing

The Herxheimer reaction was discovered by a pair of brothers, both dermatologists, who found that when treating syphilitic patients, the patients got significantly worse after treatment began, and then got better. By worse, I mean nausea, drenching sweat, fever, rigor, vomiting. Interestingly, syphilis is an infection of spirochetal bacteria, just as Lyme is. And monitoring and evaluating the Herxheimer reaction is the way a good Lyme doctor figures out the next step of treatment.


I knew to expect some herxing once I started the course of antibiotics, but I tried not to think too much about it beforehand. Once it began, I searched all over the internet for patient stories, because I wanted some company, and some reassurance that this particular misery was expected, and more important, was going to have a happy ending. I didn't find much though. On forums, people post about herxing, others who have gone through it respond with compassion as they shudder at the memories, but nobody goes into much detail. So I am going to.


The first week, I had a marked increase in neurological symptoms. The bottom of my right foot was almost entirely numb, so that I limped when I walked, not that I was doing a lot of walking. My left arm felt asleep, my left thumb tingled all the time. I had shooting pains in my torso and up my right leg. Diarrhea. Joint pain in knees and elbows. Intensifying of brain fog so that it was difficult to make conversation. Bad fatigue, but that was nothing new. Achy all over. Periods of feeling a sense of impending doom, where I would sit on the edge of the bed, waiting for...I wasn't sure what. But it was going to be bad.


On doctor's orders, I increased my dose of Neurontin -- now I'm taking 200 mg in the morning and at night. This helps a lot with the numbness and with sleep. I'm so resistant to taking any kind of prescription meds, yet here I am, on ten of them. At least. And in that bad place of taking meds to counteract the side effect of other meds. But I'm telling myself that this is different, because the primary meds are the antibiotics that are killing the bacteria, not a drug that simply tamps down symptoms. The point of the Neurontin, and the Ativan, is to calm my central nervous system down enough that I can sleep. Because without sleep, there is no getting better.


In subsequent weeks, my arms and legs twitch suddenly and without warning, so that I look like a marionette. Nausea is especially bad on the days I take Flagyl. My short term memory is really impaired, making reading too taxing much of the time. My tongue and throat are covered with thrush. And fatigue -- I try to make the kids breakfast in the morning, fold/hang/do a load of laundry, and then I'm done. Until tomorrow.

Don't you just gag looking at that heap? That's only the first handful of the day, with more to come.


I'm writing this post for people who are facing treatment and want to know what someone else's herx looks like, and for myself, because once I get healthy I want to look back and think WHEW, glad that's over! And to complete the before-and-after record, here's a photobooth from this morning. 

So that's what herxing looks like. At least I don't have syphilis.