another newbie looking for advice

Hi
Great forum, thank you in advance.
I live in NJ and have been having Lyme symptoms for several months now (I was bitten by tick without rash). At 1st I was just sore with joint pain then i could feel muscle soreness in my gluts and shoulder. Was annoying but I blamed age, about a month ago I started to feel a real heaviness in my hands and feet also felt loss the of dexterity in hands.
Spoke to my doctor and was put on Doxycycline 100 2X a day. Within a few days my hands started to feel better but joints and muscles still were very sore. After 2 weeks of basically feeling the same I was told to come back in another 2 weeks to run the full month on the Doxy.
Now 1 month and no improvement and actually feeling worse for the 1st time since starting the Doxy. heaviness in hands again. Since I have not been through this before I'm at a loss. Is it possible I feel worse from the Doxy working? Also my symptoms seem to get worse upon muscle strain, then knocks me out for the next day.

Do you feel perhaps the Doxycycline should be 200 X 2? seems that is more the norm
What else is recommended? I am in otherwise great shape with a mostly vegetarian diet.
I will take a detox bath tonight with epsom salts and peroxide.
I am drinking as much water as I can stand and trying to stay active.

I was bit by tick this year probably April. No rash
Blood came back Lyme positive
Doxycycline 100mg 2X day

Muscle soreness, weird sensations around head (electric feeling? not sure), joints pain, my body feels like it has a drink in it (alcohol). Kind of off balance. Very recently I am having pain swallowing, like i have acid reflux but i don't

Thank you, sorry to start another thread for newbie advice.

Thank you for the info.

200mg of doxy is considered a pretty low dose - enough to be bacteriostatic (inhibit the reproduction of the bacteria) but not quite enough to kill it off sufficiently. Going to a LLMD really is your best bet - I'm in NJ as well so I an send you some recommendations for doctor if you enable your email address through the profile section or email me.

Some LLMDS will take insurance - most don't, but are often covered with out of network benefits, if you have insurance. It really is a complicated illness that requires so much more than just a single antibiotic, as Summer said. Your doctor may mean well but he/she probably isn't trained properly to help you through this.

I'd also suggest going through the "New to lyme" thread - there's a lot of really useful information there put together by our members here, including information about detoxing which is absolutely crucial when it comes to dealing with tick-borne infections. When the spirochete dies off, you're left with toxins - when your body has more toxins than it knows how to get rid of, you'll have a herx reaction, which is why a lot of us feel worse when we take antibiotics. It's so great that you're maintaining a healthy lifestyle - that'll go a long, long way in helping you get over this thing!