Flu like symptoms

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum. I've been reading others posts for a while now and thought it time to come in.

 

I was just diagnosed with Lyme disease this May after 20 plus years of progressing symptoms (and I am only 30). My most troubling symptom has always been that I feel like I have the flu on and off throughout the day and since starting my treatment I feel that way all day long.

 

In all of my readings I haven't come across anyone else with this symptom. I also have the body excrutiating body pain, but along with it I feel feverish and body chills. The feverish feeling is about to make me go mad. Does anyone else have experience with this and if so is there anything you do to remedy it? It has been excrutiating during my treatment because it has turned into super flu at times.

 

I'm currently on three antibiotics and many herbs and my only co infection is bartonella which I am grateful for because I have read of the many co infections and how terrible they can be. I give my sincere concern and amazement to those of you who are battling the many co infections. You are true fighters.

 

I read where a Dr. said he sees more co infections with Lyme as the years pass and I'm wondering since I was probably bit as a young girl in the eighties if some of the co infections did not exist yet. Just a thought.

 

I wish everyone well and lots of endurance through this tremendous battle.

 

 

Hi BeatLyme!

I felt flu-like off and on for months before I started antibiotics for Lyme. Achey, chills, feverish (sometimes with an elevated temp. or fever). Ibuprofen helped a lot. I was taking it fairly often to deal with feeling bad. After starting treatment, I have felt flu-ish a couple times, but not nearly as much as before.

If you've had Lyme for 20 years, that may be why it is taking you longer to get rid of the flu-like symptom.

Are you running a fever at all when you feel like that? What does your doctor say?

I had the teeth chattering thing shortly after starting Doxcy. I'm sorry you've been going through all that for so long.
: (

I've been getting very sick every 2-3 weeks for the past 7-8 months. Many times I have flu-like symptoms, and its estimated that I had Lyme for maybe 12 years (I'm 24 now). I just got over a bad case of Laryngitis. I also got mono back in June or July, so it could be that virus lingering that's been making me sick. I am also very cold all of the time, but I wouldn't say I have chills - but my hands and feet are always cold as ice.

Lyme and co-infections decrease the strength of our immune systems. You could either be having a herx or be picking up others' colds, or it could just be your body's reaction to everything going on inside it. Do you take Vitamin C?

I find that Tylenol Extra Strength took away my feverish symptoms and swollen glands and headache. Other than that I just try different cold medicines. I'm not sure how they would react with the particular drugs you are currently on, so you might want to look into that - especially with anything alcohol based like Nyquil.

Hi there, BeatLyme - welcome! Have you looked at the "New to Lyme....Start Here!" thread yet? There's a lot of information there, including a symptom list and suggestions for detoxing which are easy to do and can help with some of the flu-like symptoms.

My interpretation of the flu-like symptoms is that it's a good thing! Those are symptoms produced by your body directly while fighting an infection. Consider when you actually get the flu and you don't take abx or anything to make it go away - the reason you feel crummy isn't because of the actual bug, but because your body is fighting it! All the exact medical terminology tends to just float around somewhere in my head, but I think it's something like inflammatory cytokines that are produced by the immune system? Anyway I know that feeling like you have the flu is terrible - I spent all of last week feeling that way - but I do believe it's a good sign, a sign that your immune system is strong and fighting!

Vitamin C is always good, and plenty of fluids - just like they tell you when you have the actual flu. I try to follow a good diet, but I still cheat from time to time (although I usually pay for it!). I think it definitely helps - and making the effort alone is a great start!

I get the flu-like feeling too. I usually have a temperature of 94-95.5 when it happens yet my face is bright red and I feel hot. A few minutes later I'll be freezing cold. Sometimes I have to sleep in a winter jacket.

Mine used to come the most at night, but since I started antibiotics, it comes throughout the day as well.

Nothing really works for me yet, but I just started official treatment, so I'm hoping it will help. I have been eating extremely healthily for the past several months, but so far that hasn't really remarkably improved anything.

Wearing heavy fleeces works for the chills some of the time. I have a few that I can wear at work and then take off when I get hot. I have a pretty physically active job so some of my symptoms like joint pain really get in the way. Several times one of the symptoms has gotten pretty bad at work. I can usually keep it together, but once in a while, I just go in the bathroom and cry for a minute lol. I can't say whether or not that helps :).

Summer 3 I think it is good to let it out once in a while, I feel that it is cathartic. I hope your treatment alleviates things for you sooner than later.

Traveler thank you for the welcome. I read the starter forum and it was great. I've been studying up on Lyme for years now. I felt strongly that I had Lyme way before I was diagnosed. I wanted on this forum to get connected with others and trade knowledge on how to help ourselves. There is no better advice than from those who are suffering the same as you.

I do have other more serious symptoms but the flu symptoms seem a constant that are testing my sanity. They come on strong and they don't let up. I will celebrate the day it ends.

I agree with you as well, Beat lyme! And we are happy to have you!

Golly gee whiz, LymeDefier!!! **Kicks dirt with toe of boot** Now you've embarrassed me!!! Giggle! You're welcome though! I was sooo very ill at one time with these tick-borne infections and this forum was my saving grace. I want it to be there - just like that if necessary - for others as well, with an easy, open exchange of information and discussions of safe treatment options. I do hope that all of us Mods here help to make that happen for the members! We are all linked by this in a very unique way - way not take advantage of it?

I did want to address your question about your symptoms increasing - are you detoxing? This is incredibly important in our recovery. There is a really wonderful post in the "New to Lyme?" thread at the top of the forum. It's the second post down and is about 1/2 of the way through the post. Do be sure to do the dry skin brushing as well - it really helps!

The other thing I wanted to say - I also am going all natural. My acupuncture therapist is also a well accomplished Chinese Medicine and Western Herbalist and she doesn't want me herxing at all. I - on the other hand think that I can do with a bit of herxing, but I won't put up with much!! LOL!! Anyway, I would say that you body is telling you that right now, at this point in your treatment, your body is saying whoa, slow down!. LOL!

Have you changed anything recently besides going gluten free? Did you just start something or just raise your dosage of something? If so give yourself a day or two and if it doesn't ease up, I would suggest that you back down a bit on whatever was changed. Maybe you just jumped up your dose a little too much, or maybe you are under a bit of stress.

We are so glad to have you as well, LymeDefier! It's the members that make this the place that it is, and our members rock!!!!

Oh man! I hate getting the flu! As if we really needed to feel more aches and pains! Good news is that it's short-lived! It is quite common for those with Lyme to catch colds and flues more often and sometimes get more ill than others. I use hand sanitizer every time I come out of a store (that's the only way I'll get the flu) or any other time when I feel like I need to and it seems to have cut down on the colds and flues that I get.

It's a good thing that you know your body so well! It'll be much easier for you to know when you really do need to see a doc or if it's something that you just need to ride out. Although I would highly suggest that you be sure to keep your doc in the loop of what you are going through - it'll help him/her to determine what to do when.

One of our biggest issues with Lyme Disease is all of the misinformation out there, so don't let those that don't know yet deter you from doing what you feel is right. My doc has kept me from having any major herxing - and I love that! I went through some very serious herxes during the 1 year I was on abx - the only thing I got was more ill, to the point of stuttering so bad no one could understand me and I would always loose track of what I was trying to say because it took me so long to say it, and I even started having seizures - minor ones fortunately, but I got the message my body was trying to tell me, that's for sure!! Just listen to your doc, as my doc is telling me the same things and I'm feeling better than I have in at least 20 years.

I haven't ever tried A-BAB, but we have had quite a few member use it. From what they've posted, it works pretty well I guess. You should use our search function and just enter the term "A-BAB" and do the search. I'm sure you'll come up with a lot of info that way!

The further you get into treatment, the more clear things should become as to what to do - your body will tell you if what you are doing is working, or if you plateau.

Don't forget to read, read, read! The more you know about Lyme and the other tick-borne infections, the more you'll be able to understand what is going on inside you, and the better position you will be in to make those decisions!!

Also, don't forget - we are here to help you with this journey! With so many different opinions and views, you can be fairly sure that you will come away with a well-rounded understanding of the situation that you can evaluate.

Hi Kern,
Something I have both read and experienced is that these herxes can increase their frequency and severity each time something gets changed. It's not just when something changes in our treatments either! It can be from changes to our diets, changes in the weather, changes in our supplements, changes in your stress levels, or maybe you finally are getting through to the cysts or the biofilms that these lovely bacteria can form! Heck even detoxing more can bring on a herx!

First thing I would encourage you to do is to detox and/or step up your detoxing schedule. Although this can cause a person to herx more at first, it shouldn't take long for it to become soothing once again. Unless your detoxing pathways are blocked or you just have that heavy of a pathogen load.

Just trying to present things that you may not have considered yet!

It is, thanks Traveller!!!