Steroids as prescribed for hives/allergies will suppress the immune system, thus giving the Lyme/coinfections an
open door to invade the body unchecked.
Suggest your friend get to an LLMD as soon as possible!
While waiting for the LLMD appointment, he should stop the steroids, and also stop eating gluten, dairy & sugar (all 3 of these increase harmful inflammation and decrease the body's ability to fight the infections).
Also, if he can do anything for detoxing, that would help reduce the severity of his symptoms. The thread at the top of the forum for those new to Lyme contains many suggestions for detoxing.
Anything he can do to support his immune system would be very helpful. Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, B-Complex, Zinc, Magnesium, probiotics are all very important for this.
Omega-3 EFA's (Fish Oil) is also important for a lot of things - anti-inflammatory, helps heal & maintain the integrity of the mucosal barriers (gut, etc.) - important for the immune system (70% of the immune system is in the gut), cell wall integrity, etc.
Other herbal stuff that may help:
Astragalus (immune system stimulant)
Garlic (kills yeast & bacteria, supports immune system)
Oregano (strong antimicrobial)
Cat's Claw or Samento (kills Lyme)
Japanese Knotweed (kills Lyme, supports immune system)
Eleutherococcus (supports immune system)
Teasel (kills Lyme)
Banderol (antimicrobial)
Nettle Leaf (blood cleanser - reduces die-off/herxing severity)
See
buhnerhealinglyme.com/ for doses on the Buhner Core Protocol (Cat's Claw, Japanese Knotweed, Eleutherococcus, Astragalus).
Nutrimedix makes the Samento & Banderol (Cowden Protocol). See
www.nutramedix.ec/ns/lyme-protocol for details.