I really need some encouragement..

LOL!! Well we can't PUSH you to take them, but look at it this way:
The alternative is to stay this ill, and almost certainly get worse and be house bound, or worse yet bed bound and not able to function well enough to participate in any kind of activities - not even cooking a meal due to your debilitated state? I've been there and would do most anything to not go there again!!!

Are you detoxing quite a bit? What all are you doing to help your body detox? The fewer toxins you have in you, the less you will herx. Herxing is a 'healing crisis' where they body is being overrun with toxins. By detoxing we keep the toxin load down and there is less of a herx.

Once you start, and if you should herx to the point that you are miserable for more than just a few days, you can always stop the treatment for a few days (except when using flagyl, I believe) and allow the body to work on lowering the toxin load as you increase the amount of detoxing that you are doing.

Then just take a deep breathe and do it!! Tomorrow will still come and you will need to take more doses, but it's that first one that is kind of scary - but you can do this!! And the alternative isn't pleasant!!

Okay, I checked my email - it's zithro.
I found zithro not too bad - re: herxing. But, everyone responds differently.

So, you could start with 250 mg once daily...try it for a week...if okay, then go to the full dose you were prescribed - 250 mg twice daily.

And detox, detox, detox. Be gentle, kind to yourself during the herxes.

It's okay, we are here to help with that as well!!
I would encourage you to start with the detox soaks. Do you have a bathtub? Those are the easiest and oh so relaxing!! You should only stay in the water for about 10 minutes the first time to be sure that you won't herx - as detoxing moves more toxins into your blood stream so that the body can process them out. The key to it so that you don't herx though is slow and gentle in all things with your treatment and your detoxing!!

Take about 2 cups of Epsom salts and 16 ounces of peroxide and add them to a bath - the water shouldn't be hot, just nicely warm. There are detailed instructions in the "New to Lyme?" thread, but just soak for about 10 minutes and then you may wish to rinse off (the Epsom salt sometimes drys the skin), and you're done!! If that seems to be too much to get you started, use the Epsom salt/peroxide foot soak instead - they are quite effective considering you are only soaking your feet!

Dry skin brushing is very good, and is best done with a soft bristle brush, just before you use your detox soak.

Drink as close to 64 ounces of lemon water a day as you can get! This helps to detox as well. Be sure to drink it through a straw and to rinse well afterwards - the lemon is hard on the enamel on the teeth.

I use coconut oil for oil pulling. You just put about 2 tsps of oil in your mouth first thing in the morning and "pull" it through your teeth and swish it around for 10 minutes - then spit it out in the trash can (it solidifies in cooler temps, so the sink and toilet aren't the best choices). This has been helping me amazingly well!

I also use activated charcoal - but I take mine in the middle of the night, as my bathroom trip in the middle is almost a guarantee!

And REST! The body heals the most when it's at rest. We all know that we must exercise when we can begin to tolerate it, but we have trouble resting!!

Some buy a different type, but I've only used the basic peroxide that can be bought in Dollar stores! And yes, 10 minutes is good for the first few times, then you can slowly build up to 20 or even 30 minutes as you tolerate it.

I use the "Good 'N Natural" brand of activated charcoal that I get from my health food store - not likely the best brand, but I take so many things that I must keep costs down, or I have to start making choices of what to stop.

Watch your diet - no sugar, and no fast foods. You should eat a few processed foods as you can figure out how. And be sure to take a good probiotic. I prefer kefir, but most like to just take the pills. Be sure that the probiotic is refrigerated and you should be taking at least 30,000 units a day unless your tongue has a coating on it, then you need 50,000 units a day or higher. When you start the probiotics, be careful to ramp up slowly, as with all things.

Don't worry, detoxing will soon be easy!! You'll see that by doing the detoxing, you feel better too!

haha yes traveler it's RN belle. i work as an rn. LOL

hi traveler! just got this message! wow, i wonder how shes doing! maybe she didnt know how critical it was that late stage lyme can be very detrimental to your health! i need to get going with this abx. this weekend has just been so crazy that i forgot to take them, in case i herxed!

I'm not sure how she is doing, as I said, she's no longer part of the extended family. I talked with her for over 4 hours, explaining all kinds of things, including how not getting enough treatment would be bad. I really thought when I explained to her that no doctor would ever stop abx in the middle of treating pneumonia and tell the patient to just live with it, that it would make an impact on her, but that's when she told me that she would feel like a traitor. I knew at that point that she would never listen to 'little ole me' if she thought that highly of her work companions.

Agreed Carolinpa! I hope that your appt comes soon!! Especially since you are having symptoms bad enough to keep you pretty much house bound, I would greatly encourage you to start detoxing now and work as many ways to detox into your daily routines as possible. It's the toxins that drive our symptoms and when you start treatments, you will be adding in a large amount of toxins each day!