How long did it take you to achieve some improvement?

Please share your stories how long have you been doing treatment and noticed some significant improvement. I know time will vary as we are all different but I have to ask such question because I'm starting to lose my mind. I started about 9 months ago and everything is worse now.
Nine months ago I had those symptoms:
- pain / inflammation in foot (metatarsal part) and in knee
- periods of brain fog and fatigue
Now my symptoms are:
- pain in foot increased (various parts of foot and changing location)
- pain in knee pretty much the same
- pain in the back (along the spine and other places) appearing for some time, then disappearing
- fatigue and brain fog is much worse
- problems with sleep, periods of depression and crazy thoughts
- feeling like my body and mind is falling apart
I'm doing herbs, essential oils and rife sessions, I think part of my symptoms is just effect of huge toxin load to the body as herxes are still strong. I'm doing sauna up to two times a week and epsom salt footbaths few times a week to detox. Few times I stopped treatment for week or two just to feel better but it didn't give much relief.
Since last few weeks I'm going crazy partly because of all these questions without answer: why there is no improvement yet? am I missing something big? shall I visit ILADS doc and start taking abx? how much longer I will handle this?

Yellow Cat,
Have you been focusing on Lyme, or have you also been working on coinfections? I've only had improvements when I've changed my treatment to attack different things. There are so many different coinfections, parasites, and other toxins that help Lyme keep us down. I've gotten a big boost from a parasite cleanse, like Klagh mentioned. Other things that have helped have been treating babesia and liver flushing. Now my ND is helping me heal my spleen, which is also helping.

Keep in mind that along with parasites, leaky gut, Candida/yeast, metals, can hinder healing. I've been spinning my wheels on healing for 2 years of antibiotics and herbals

Hi Yellow Cat -

I am so sorry you are struggling. It's a crazy journey. But I agree, you should have SOME level of improvement by now.

Generally, when people are stuck, it's good to evaluate a few areas of healing:

Dx
First - it's unclear what you're treating for - Lyme? Lyme and coinfections? This is where I'd start - perhaps you need to be treating something else or maybe you have a dominant infection that you're not aware of. Most of us are treating more than just Lyme - the white footed mouse is the main tick host - not deer so you can imagine how filthy wild rodents are…

And I like the idea of exploring parasites - just be careful as this can overwhelm you, too.

Antimicrobial
Yes, you might do better on abx, you might not. I would certainly try a different protocol - Buhner's or Nutrimedix. I started off with Byron White tinctures, I'm now doing Beyond Balance. It's Ok to shift to different herbs over time. Our bodies are dynamic, this illness is incredibly complex and treatment probably needs to be dynamic, too.

Immune response
Is your immune system also overwhelmed with a high viral load? yeast/fungal overgrowth? Is your GI health good? Do you have any GI damage that might affect your immune system (70% of the immune system IS our gut)? Is your treatment being absorbed effectively through your gut?

Detox
Try to hit all the typical detox areas:
liver/kidneys - sometimes a flush is helpful, a lot of us are on milk thistle see, burdock root
GI - binders are pretty important for a lot of us
brain - Nutrimedix bur bur and pinella, huperzine, good gut health (due to gut-brain connection)
lymph - red root, dry brushing
skin - detox soaks are good - skin is our largest organ

Hope you can find something good to explore and make some progress. Please ask another questions you may have.

-p

Thanks Klagh, I'm going to start this protocol soon, just have to check if I'm able to buy this in Europe. After quick search I guess it's Dr. Hulda Clark protocol, original one also suggest taking ornithine and arginine for better detox, do you use those?
www.drclark.net/cleanses/beginners/herbal-parasite-cleanse/parasite-chart-for-adults

Pirouette, I focus only on lyme now, I most likely have babesia but this is only confirmed by bioresonance testing, I guess I need to make more tests focusing on coinfections.
Regarding gut health and immune response - I've never had any problems with gut / GI.

"Is your immune system also overwhelmed with a high viral load? yeast/fungal overgrowth?
I have lots of fungi detected by bioresonance testing (many candida types, aflatoxins and others). I'm on antifungal diet (or at least trying to).
Is your treatment being absorbed effectively through your gut?"
Well I have no idea, how can I tell?