for those that healed or are close

I am the same way, I would like to know that too.

thank you.

justme

When I had Lyme, it was so severe that the antibiotics showed immediate improvement. The migrating pains stopped almost immediately and the other symptoms slowly subsided. I was on antibiotics for 5 months. For Babesiosis, gradual improvement with new symptoms popping up along the way. I'd figure out what was causing the problem, correct it, and continue. I'd take appropriate herbs and feel much better and then have a relapse after discontinuing them. I'm close to well now but can't rid myself of the protozoans. I seem to be able to address individual issues but not what's causing the problems.

My doctor says I am 98% well now, and expects me to be 100% by the next time I see him in 7 weeks, so I guess I am qualified to answer your question.

There have been times in the past 6 years that I thought I was well, but now I feel so, so much better. I guess I just didn't really know what being completely healthy felt like, I got used to always having something wrong!

My progress has been in fits and starts with plateaus and suddenly turning a corner and feeling much better. I have also had some backsliding and relapses. But at one point I realized that my worst day was much better than my previous best day had been.

My doctor would keep me on any one treatment until we stopped seeing progress and then he would add something. And when I started slipping backwards he would increase doses or completely change medicines. Each change would result in herxing, but in time I would feel better and better. At some times new symptoms would be uncovered, which was a little disheartening and, well, a bit frightening.

I guess my healing was less a path than a maze, with blind turns, confusing choices and few scarey monsters and no way of knowing whether I was getting near the exit. Another analogy is that of climbing the tallest of mountains, with separate stages, the way getting more difficult as you run out of energy and oxygen, the loneliness of it and the need for support from others.

I hope your maze/mountain is easier than mine has been!

achieving grace - that's wonderful!! this is a great thread!

lymepickle, your last paragraph is perfectly worded.

hunter - you sound a lot like me. when I started treatment, which was back in February (after having lyme for 4 months), I responded very quickly, except I herxed badly and got worse before I got better within a 10 day stretch.

Louise, you know my story, but I will share it here anyway for the others to read.

I was extremely sick back in January - low grade fever, nauseous, flulike symptoms, lost weight, had numbness in extremeties, muscle pain, nerve pain, muscle weakness, muscle twitches, cystitis, joint pain, the works. I was slowly getting sicker and within a three week period - BAM all of the nerve and muscle stuff hit me like a brick. I stopped running around to Doctors and started doxycycline 100mg twice a day until I was able to see my LLMD, within two weeks (thank goodness).

I herxed badly just on that dose alone. She put me on vitamins and teasel root and I slowly got better, with bad herxing days inbetween. I was in such extreme pain one night my husband almost brought me to the hospital bc he was so frightened. (My pain tolerance is very high)

Four weeks after my first appointment, she increased the doxy to 100mg three times a day. Then four weeks after that she increased it to 200mg twice a day. Four weeks after that she clinically diagnosed me with bartonella bc of my foot pain, rib pain, and extremely dry hands. Not a very clear picture, but she saw that the doxy alone, although it was helping, it wasn't enough, so she believed I was up against two bacteria, not just one. So she then added Zithromax to my regimen. This really, really helped, for it got rid of the shoulder pain I was having, and the morning stiffness I was experiencing.

Then four weeks after that, I could not tolerate the doxy anymore. It was causing burns on my hands from the sun and it was too toxic bc it was causing peripheral neuropathy. She was going to switch me anyway bc I still had stuff going on. So she switched me to Bactrim. So that is what I am currently on. Bactrim and Zithromax, plus nutritionals and herbs - teasel root, AL complex, serrazymes (biofilm buster), and Grapefruit seed extract (cyst buster).

I am 95% better. All I have left is a little muscle fatigue and muscle twitches. Its been a heck of a few months, but I am lucky its only been a few months, my heart goes out to those who have had this for years.