Possible herx or drug/herb reaction, is it okay to stop?

Hello 👋 there,

I’m fairly new to Lyme treatment so am unsure of what to expect. I have Lyme, Bartonella and Babesia and started taking herbs prescribed by a a Lyme herbalist a couple of weeks before I started taking Doxycycline prescribed by my doctor. I had some mild ups and downs during treatment, but during my last week of Doxy I started to feel massively unwell. I have terrible pressure in my head, dizziness, nausea, zero appetite, I’m unable to function at all. It’s very confusing though as all of these are listed as Doxy side effects but I also haven’t had what I would think of as a herx, and would it be usual for a herx to come in the final week of antibiotic treatment?

I have had bad reactions to medications in the past and it does feel somewhat similar. Like the worst hangover ever times ten. I finished the antibiotic treatment yesterday regardless and started doing a ton of detoxing but it hasn’t helped. I’m wondering if I could be having a Babesia/Bartonella herx from the herbs despite being on them for over a month without increasing the dose?

I’ve been like this for a week now and small amounts of herbs seem to exasperate it. I know a few of them increase the effects of Doxy. Would it be okay to stop the herbs for a few days without it doing much harm to progress? I’ve never felt so ill in my life and it’s really becoming unbearable.

I honestly don’t think I could take anything at all right now to be honest, I can’t handle it. I’m detoxing with Epsom salts, activated charcoal, lemon water. Is it okay to take painkillers?

Thank you so much for getting back to me. It continued to get worse and worse, I honestly thought I was poisoned by the Doxy/herbs as I was on week 3 and hadn’t had a herx before. I ended up going to hospital and they had me stop everything. I took a tiny dose of herbs when I got home and got the head pressure back immediately so stopped again. I started to feel better yesterday but have woken up today and my Lyme/co-infection symptoms are back so the antibiotics obviously haven’t worked and I can’t get anymore. I know I need to start the herbs again, it’s just if that was a herx it was absolutely terrifying. I had no idea I was supposed to detox every day, I thought it would strip the antibiotic out.

That’s great advice thank you. My herbalist has put a ton of different herbs into one tincture so it’s impossible to distinguish what might not be agreeing with me. It seemed to be really helping for a while but might be worth asking for single bottles of everything. I have so much respect for all of you that have been dealing with this for a long time, the determination and strength it takes.

"others say it’s okay to have a break as they’re slow growing. "


Yeah I'm with the "others". My symptoms are now pretty minor and they come and go whether I'm treating or not. I don't think you're likely to get a whole lot worse delaying treatment for a few weeks if you're already in the chronic phase.. just be sure to take care of yourself (get good sleep, eat well, light exercise if possible, etc)

It's good that you are trusting your instincts. Powering through w treatment can actually set you back even further

Post Edited (potsnpans) : 8/9/2021 11:22:40 AM (GMT-6)

I’ve been taking:
biberry fruit, blackseed (nigella satvia), black walnut (juglans nigra), Chinese baikal skullcap, cleavers, echinacea, elecampane (inula helenium), Japanese knotweed, milk thistle, reishi, and cryptolepis sang..
All together from one bottle at 5ml x 3 per day. This one is designed to be taken alongside antibiotics and is given to everyone to start with to stop spread. I was then given a support mix with:
St John’s Wort, milk vetch root (astragalus), gotu kola, sida acuta and artemisia annua
When she learned of my blood results and symptoms. I’m supposed to take that at 5ml x 3 also but I never managed to get above 1.25ml on that one as I felt like I was crawling out of my skin.
I trust the herbal clinic, all of the Lyme herbalists are overseen by a respected Lyme researcher here in the U.K, but I prefer Buhner’s instruction of testing small amounts one at a time etc.
I appreciate you guys sharing information
with me so much. My doctor refuses to acknowledge that co-infections exist and tells me I’m cured now I’ve had a meagre 22 days of Doxycycline, and my herbalist hasn’t really given me any explanations as to what’s happening to me, she just says that recovery isn’t linear. To be fair, she has many Lyme patients and treats us all at massively reduced costs via charity contributions so I shouldn’t complain.

Interesting, thank you! I’m half tempted to just buy Buhner’s protocol and go it alone.