Question about herxing vs no symptoms - regarding my daughter on Buhner.

ok, I am at a crossroads.

You know how alot of people say that when you have lyme or coinfections, and you treat it with a particular antibiotic or herb, and you herx, that is a sure sign the person either has lyme or coinfections? Well, could the opposite be true?

I have been treating my older daughter with the assumption that she has some lyme remaining due to very minor and borderline symptoms. She has definitely improved in the area of mood and memory, so I strongly believe she does need some sort of medicinal therapy. I have had her on japanese knotweed and cats claw (Buhner's herbs) since November. I added an herb commonly used for bart, and I was told by other members that I will know if she has bart or not by the way she responds to the Hottonuyia (sp).

well, when i started it for her, she complained of a sore throat initially and was extra tired (possibly due to the alcohol content of the herbs or possibly a herx). Now she has strept throat again for the third time in 2 months. Her symptoms are so minimal it is so hard for me to tell whether or not it is a herx and whether the sore throat is due to a possible high strept titer.

she started good old penicillin sunday night instead of all of the other fancy antibiotics and she is as good as new already. I can't believe how fast she bounced back. I called her LLMD and he suggested she take serrazymes to break any strept biofilms that may be lingering. So i am going to do that. But I don't know what to do about the Buhner Protocol. I don't mind keeping her on the basic lyme protocol, but I am nervous about doing the full bartonella one if she doesn't need it - bc there are a good number of herbs on the list for that.

So what if....I just stop giving her the H. now and see what happens. What if I stop the buhner herbs altogether in august, let's say, would I notice anything? what if she is fine and I don't see a change? is that a pretty good sign that she is done with the therapy? And if symptoms begin to return, are there any resistance factors to worry about?

This is so hard bc I was using her sore throat as a "symptom" or herx, but now she needs to see an ENT bc she does have huge tonsils. So I am thinking maybe that could be the cause of her sore throat, or maybe not.....??

help anyone?? thanks!!

yeah, its just so hard for me to figure out what to do - I just don't know if I need to treat her for Bart or not. sigh.

could i ask you - would it hurt to give a few weeks off from Buhner? are there any resistance concerns?

Hey Chapelle!

Sorry to hear about your dilemma. Personally, if your gut is pointing to taking her off the Buhner herbs I'd try that and see how she does. You can always add them back in if needed. Was your question about resistance to the herbs? If so, based on the reading I've done on the herbs I personally would not be concerned about that as herbs are typically made up of dozens or even hundreds of individual chemicals which work synergistically together - so it is virtually impossible for the "bugs" to become resistant to all of those chemicals - whereas antibiotics are typically one isolated chemical, which is quite easy for them to become resistant to.

Chapelle -

Does your daughter spend time with a pet? There are several causes for repeated infections but just wanted to relay an experience from my childhood.

My poor sister suffered strep throat maybe 8-10 times one year when she was 6 or 7 (and of course, that means she was on abx that entire time). The finally realized she was getting re-infected from the family pup, who snuggled with her at night...

-p

Sorry - my lamebrain didn't finish my post LOL

Anyway, the MD said any contact would create an issue because she could be petting and then touching her eye or something (so maybe sleeping together isn't a requirement for this kind of "sharing"). Once the dog was put on abx, the infection was cleared in both. FYI.

-p