Traveler-- helping my friend

Hi Pat!!
That is absolutely wonderful that you have gotten her in to see an LLMD!!

Unfortunately, many LLMD's (& others) don't accept insurance when they don't want the insurance co's dictating how they treat their patients. Also, it's been the insurance co's that have been reporting the doctors for long term abx use and that's how we have lost some very valuable LLMD's!

In my view, detoxing is about as important as the treatments are - and for people like me, more important because if I don't help my body detox, I can't tolerate any of the treatments.

I'm actually quite impressed that this doc understands how important detoxing really is for us, as most don't! So she should start off very, very slowly!!! Be sure she only starts/changes one things at a time and she gives herself 3 - 4 days in between each thing she starts/changes. Many of us have a 'delayed reaction' to changes and it can take up to 3 or 4 days for the effects to be felt.

She also needs to start off on very low doses of things and build up slowly - never raising her dose of one thing and starting or changing something else though. This way she will know immediately what caused what reaction and she can deal with it swiftly.

Talk to her, have her email me, or come on the forum to vent or ask questions - it's really important for her to start slowly to avoid a very dangerous situation known as a cytokine storm. This happens when there are too many toxins in the blood stream - the body basically freaks out and wants to shut down. Knowing this keeps many from crossing that line, but many of us push too hard anyway. When a person is herxing, their body is dealing with the crisis and it takes energy away from the healing that needs to happen. So herxing much or long slows down our healing at minimum. Tell her that this will feel like an eternity, but will all be worth it.

Not everyone herxes, but many do, and usually the more severe their symptoms are, the harder they herx. This is because it's the toxins that drive our symptoms, so when we 'release' more toxins (by detoxing) or 'create' more toxins (with treatments), our symptoms become more intense or new ones show up. It appears that this doc understands that and that is why he/she has her doing all of these things to help prevent the serious issues.

Yes - she should expect to continue to detox throughout her treatment and then for a while afterwards - then she can back down some, but should never completely quit detoxing as her body will need help in keeping very healthy from here on out so that she doesn't relapse. This is the phase I'm in now - continuing to detox and ease back into 'real life'.

She may very well be bad enough to require lots of help during the time she is trying to get started detoxing and trying to start treatments. She can also stop everything (even detoxing) if symptoms get too rough and give her body time to recover.

It's incredibly difficult to relay this online - but, when her symptoms get scary, stop. You can't go to slow at first. If I remember enough about your friend's situation, it will likely be quite long and drawn out at first, but it can still be done. Just remember, even the longest of journeys start with one step at a time. Same goes for this. And it has to be taken a day or even an hour at a time.

She has to be to a point where she can take a few set backs before she can start detoxing. How long that takes and what you have to go through differs for each of us though. One step at a time is how you find out though.

So say she starts off with a few diet changes like no more sugar and switches over to stevia - if she has yeast issues (candida) this could cause a herx, so we don't want her doing other things that could also cause a herx, as she is already so ill. It's one step at a time.

Once her symptoms have settle back down, she can add in the B-12, if there is no rise in symptoms (shouldn't be) then in 3 days she can add in probiotics and wait for 3 days to see if there are any rise in symptoms or new symptoms that she needs to deal with before going on.

As I said, this will be a long process, but it's the only way out and it can be done. I know because this is what I had to go through and I really did heal.

I'll be happy to exchange emails with you and/or her at any time - or we can communicate on the forum. Just remember the story of the "Tortoise and the Hare" - slow and steady wins the race!!!

And what about you? How are you doing? Can we help you in any way?

You definitely deserve kudos for helping your friend out like this!!!

Okay, let's take the headaches for an example.

If her headaches have increased in intensity or in frequency, it can indicate a herx - especially if it coincides with the start of, or an increase in any medications or detoxing. It's not a matter of whether it puts her in bed - is there an increase?

The more the increase in severity or frequency, the "harder" she's herxing and the more she will need to gain control of the symptoms - or more aptly, the toxins. Detoxing is the only way I know to decrease the amount of toxins - but detoxing alone can make those with a high toxin load herx, so you have to move very slowly with everything.

The same thing with nausea, if there is an increase, then it indicated a herx if it coincides with the start of, or increase of meds or detoxing. It's not a matter of if she is violently throwing up, just if her nausea is increased - even if it just goes on for a few more hours than usual.

I got the impression that she was herxing, so move carefully. And let me know if I can be of more help!! I'll keep explaining until you both can understand what it is that I'm trying to communicate!! Hang in there with me!!

And feel free to email me directly any time you or she wishes.

It should take her a little while to get all of that started and at that point her symptoms can be evaluated to see if she still needs to do more detoxing or if that's enough. If her symptoms are just barely being controlled, then more needs to be added - and she should likely be tested for gene mutations that can prevent a person from detoxing well or easily.

Just remember to take it all VERY slowly - most feel it's agonizingly slow, but it's to help the body slowly adjust to the changes, which will cause less herxing.

Just remember, slowly, one step at a time, one day at a time. And we are here to help!