feeling worse since beginning treatment 3 months ago

sorry for longish post

mid June had stomach bug and after had unusual fatigue

blood tests revealed lyme, all bands positive, but i was definitely still functioning, just oddly tired (did doxy for 25 days in march for lyme and had supposedly recovered/felt fine)

since then have been on doxy for 3 months (upped to 400mg past month)...doing japanese knotweed and cats claw (though stopped cats claw bc it consistently made me have twitches all over and head/neck herx)adding ashwangda and eleuthero- also all the supplements that the ilads guideline recommends

now seeing naturopath, who will begin herb treatment- awaiting appt with real llmd, not for months though (which is why ive begun pulsing doxy 2 wks on 2wks off on my own, bc thats all current doc will prescribe, and i know of dr sapi's research on doxy)

my question is, do you see it as a good sign or bad sign that i feel worse now that ive been treating than when i tested positive?

my symptoms increase all the time it seems

my fatigue is making holding a job difficult, got constant ache from betw shoulder blades upto back of skull, left eye twitches continually, brain fog, headaches all over etc...now getting arch issue left foot (bart?)

i dont feel like ive herxed (except on cats claw), unless this is a long gradual herx- or its bringing out the infection thats been dormant and the inflammation is making me feel worse and worse?

been detoxing with lemon water, dandelion tea, alka gold, milk thistle, pinella, burbur, jernigan neurodetox, lymph self massage, and naturopath has started me on 4 different things for toxins (chorella and 3 homeopathic things)

just starting to lose hope that this is just the gradual progression to what my life will be...i know its a marathon not a sprint...but i wonder if i never went to get tested for unusual but liveable fatigue that my immune system couldve handled this

but im getting to the non-functional place...i have some minor hope when i see a real llmd there might be some improvement, but in CT they are all booked for months, or dont return calls at all for appts....sorry for going off, but any input is appreciated

If I had a graph of my healing it certainly would be low in symptoms to begin and go up while doing treatment. It was like not all of the symptoms appeared right away. They all came slowly one by one and some stayed and some were gone as quickly as they came.

There is no rhyme or reason to lyme symptoms. One minute you don't have a head ache, the next you do have a alarmingly bad head ache and an hour later it is gone. You cannot figure out this symptom thing, no matter how hard you try.

As I look back, about the middle of my treatment was when my symptoms were the most horrible and varied. Then very slowly and almost unnoticeable, the symptoms did not come back. One by one they finally were leaving me. Then finally a day came with no symptoms. It actually scared me. I wondered what was going to happen next.

It was a scary day and I "tried" to be happy, but I was so apprehensive. Even after a couple of months with no symptoms, I still was apprehensive of symptoms showing up. It just showed me how conditioned we get to having symptoms and symptoms become the "norm."

Hang in there and just keep on treating. You can do this!!!

I just wanted to add that I had to quit work a year and a half ago due to symptoms getting to the point that I could not manage it anymore. I was not in treatment at the time because I didn't know it was lyme. So it wasn't the treatment making it worse.

When I started treatment in March, I did have symptoms continue for a time. But gradually the fatigue and nerve pain got better. My worst symptoms, the loss of strength in my leg with ataxia and my vision have not healed so far. In fact my leg is getting worse. But I am hopeful!

For me the fatigue was bad and the eleuthero really helped with that. Along with losing the constant fatigue I just had so much more hope. Just the ability to get through the day without dreading everything I had to do meant so much.

I hope for you that you will find what you need to continue working. Have hope because you will gradually see improvement!

It seems a lot of folks have months of difficulty when starting treatment. I know with DS he had at least 6 months of feeling terrible most of time and having lots of new symptoms emerge to now 9-10 months later and he's doing 70% better at least - mainly has breathing issues still, some central nervous system involvement and some fevers very sporadically - after having daily fevers etc for many months.

We found he had to keep trying detox methods to find some that helped. The miracle for him was activated charcoal taken as soon as a herx started.

I definitely felt worse before I began to feel better - when I integrated something new, and herxed, I figured I was on the right track.. it took around 2 months to notice a difference with each little angle I've taken. Hang in there!