Can doxycycline worsen your symptoms for over 2 months?

Hello,

First a little introduction:

I'm 33 years old and i'm diagnosed with Lyme (especially neuroborreliosis) about a month ago after having been misdiagnosed for about 14-15 years with panic disorder/anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue syndrom etc etc. My doctor didn't want to send me to the special Lyme division of the hospital, cause he didn't think it was Lyme. After a lot of struggling he did send me there. And the test was clear. Igg western blot was positive on bands p31 and p83. The doctor also listened carefully to all my symptoms and she said for 99% sure i can say this is Lyme.

I had been tested in germany in 2007 and then i was positive on bands p39+p41. Because they're not Lyme specific bands the test was negative at the end. But i know for sure that the ticks were there already and that they've altered now.

My question for now is:
I'm using doxycycline for about 7-8 weeks ( 2 x 100mg a day) now and i'm only doing worse. Is this common with people that have lyme for a long time? I had doxycycline from november to december 2013 also (for 7 weeks) and then i did notice some improvements but worsening as well.
Is very difficult to stay on the doxy when feeling more miserable. My doctor says it sounds good to her that the symptoms are worsening. With symptoms i mean: more headaches/headpressure, more anxiety, more tired legs, feeling tired inside head, feeling more depressed, quicker exhausted after doing little, feeling unreal a lot, feeling that i'm going to die soon, etc etc.

She added plaquenil previous week to the doxy, but that was really wrong in my case. My nervousness, anxiety, heartrythm changes, etc reached out of the sky. And on top of that, after that 6th day of using i did see flashes, purple spots, seeing more vague, couldn't focus so had to quit immediately.

A long story but hope there are more people that had worsening symptoms for over 1-2 months, that got better after a few months.

Thanks!

Post Edited (jayz) : 4/7/2014 12:34:54 PM (GMT-6)

Yes my heart is also out of control. Especially at night when trying to sleep i have some rythm problems and get shortness of breath :(

Hi JayZ,

What kind of doctor are you seeing?

At first, with lyme - it is necessary to go slow. 100 mgs 2x a day of doxycycline however, is not a high enough dosage to kill all of the lyme bacteria. Many physicians follow using that dosage because it is what is in the IDSA guidelines but it is not adequate.

If you are seeing someone from the hospital I would encourage you to branch out and find a lyme literate medical doctor- someone who was trained through ILADS. I see that you used doxy in the Winter of the past year and it made you feel better, I had an almost identical experience because I was told when I went on doxy for 30 days in Oct 2012 - that it would cure me of lyme disease. Then I put myself on it in the end of January and until I got in to see a lyme dr - however the disease was progressing and I really needed a higher dose/different antibiotics.

Let us know if you have any questions. Lots of useful members here!

~beth

I'm at a special Lyme division of the Radboud Universaty hospital. They're are the best recommended in holland.

She told me to try doxy for another month and if it wouldn't get any better by then we could maybe switch to another med.