Herxing

I think I'm HERXING! :)

"Herx" or "Herximer Reaction": occurs when large quantaties of toxins are released into the body as bacteria (typically spirochetal bacteria -- That's what LYME is!) die due to antibiotic treatment or rapid detoxification. Typically the death of these bacteria occurs faster than the body can remove the toxins via the kidneys and liver. It's manifested by fever, chills, headache, and myalgia (muscle pain).

My doctor basically explained that for me I would probably just have an intensification of my symptoms (which would definitely include muscle pain).

For the last few weeks I've had pain in my left shoulder blade that is more intense than my regular pain. I thought that maybe I tweaked it or slept on it funny (I didn't want to get my hopes up!) but now it's lasted for a few weeks. I started a 2nd antibiotic (amoxicillin) on Friday. On Saturday the pain kind of flared up again in my left shoulder. A few hours before we went to bed, the pain kind of migrated over to the right side of my back, just under my shoulder blade (sorta like the back of my rib area). I also got a pretty bad headache for all of the evening and night. Saturday was the same story - headache all evening and pain in the same spot on the right side. Then I had a few days of "normal" - meaning MY normal, not normal-normal, with the exception of slightly more pain than usual in my left shoulderblade. Last night after work my left knee and the area right above my knee was hurting. It would kind of go from a little bit sore to quite painful. By the time we went to bed my leg was hurting pretty bad but not like "CHOP IT OFF!". During the night my leg continued to hurt and pretty much radiated to my whole left leg - enough for it to wake me up several times during the night (I kind of wanted to chop it off at that point). But I am HAPPY because I believe now that I'm truly herxing which should mean that my meds are WORKING!!! YAYYY! I'm yet to have a "good" day so we'll see. I'm waiting for that day.

So, now that I'm taking like - a bazillion pills a day - I got one of those super-dorky old lady daily pill separators/holders with "am" and "pm" slots. AHHH! But mine is actually pretty cool! You can detach each day from the rest of the days and JUST take "Monday" with you or whichever day it is. That way I don't have to lug around a huge old lady pill box in my purse. Love it! :)

Anyway, I just thought I'd give an update on my health status since there has been a change, finally. This is the first change I've had in many, many years. Yayy! Pray that this is TRULY a herx reaction and that I will soon be better.