Anyone have insomnia on buhner bartonella herbs or lyme/coinfections?

Unrestful sleep. Going to bed very late. 4 hours of indecent sleep. How long will this last? I know its symptom of hexing. Detoxing doesn't help the insomnia.

Might want to consider tapering down on the dosing, see if that helps. Especially in the early parts of my treatment process I'd get terrible never-ending insomnia with the antimicrobials, the herxing was mind-boggling and insomnia was a tough one. I'd get frustrated I couldn't be more aggressive with treatments, but at the same time getting sleep is very important for recovery, and for me it helped to remember that these journeys are marathons. Have to find the right pacing with the treatments, and sometimes the best option is to lower dosing so herxing can be contained and we can avoid burning out!

Seberg- did you insomnia subside eventually and are you at full dosing yet?
Opugirl- was it stimulating your adrenals too much?

Oh yes, insomnia has gotten soooooo much better over time with treatments. Night and day. But it was often challenging to treat given the level of my herxing, generally I'd pull back on dosing or give myself a short break if the herxing was continuous at too high a level for me. Otherwise I would burn out on treatments.

I've generally been able to eventually do most treatments at full dosing, especially if I ramp up slowly, but there are still certain drugs that make me herx super strongly (like malarone). I can't take those every day, the level of continuous herxing drives me bonkers. Best strategy imo is keep finding ways to chip away at a pace you can manage!

I remember one llmd mentioning he used milk thistle at pretty high doses, like 1 gram several times a day (or something like this). Could be worth looking into? maybe it will help with detox?

Post Edited (sebreg) : 6/28/2018 3:42:58 PM (GMT-6)

it was helpful for me to hear from others who improved their symptoms as well. Sometimes I'd get overwhelmed and feel it was a hopeless and impossible task.

Absolutely imo, slow and low is often the way to go. I've constantly had to remind myself this is a marathon, and generally sought a middle ground with treatments that would engender a herx (and I always took this as a sign meds were effective) but at a level that wasn't so overbearing that it drove me crazy and burnt me out.

Hopefully others will chip in with their views, some patients can treat more aggressively but many have to be more careful with how aggressive they are with treatments. Especially if you are experiencing high-level herx symptoms and they aren't subsiding. Sometimes we may herx badly, but it's a marathon, have to find ways to keep it to manageable levels.

I tend to have insomnia and staying up late due to 1 of 2 things - herxing or hormones whacked out. I'm in it now. This time I think it's hormone related, as I recently started having hot flashes and night sweats.

I had the most awful insomnia while herxing from babesia but also when my babesia was most intense and untreated. On my worst nights I was taking 2 tsp GABA, 2 glasses of red wine, 2 tsp valerian root, 3 tsp ashwagandha, 3mg lexotan (bento similar to Valium), 10mg melatonin, 2 tsp motherwort. Not all at once obviously, but over ~3 hours from me going to bed and being unable to sleep. It was hell on earth and I practically had to sedate myself into sleep. I’m about 90kgs so I do need my supplements doses higher than some, but still.

Point being - intractable insomnia is commonly caused by babesia and is made much, much worse by herxing. There is no real way through it but to ride it out. I can say what I did worked but it would be irresponsible to recommend it. Although sleep goes a long way in helping you gain some physical and mental reprieve from a herx.

So load up on sleep stuff, don’t go too crazy, and do the best you can to ride it out.

You could try pulsing dosages 2 days on and 1 off to give yourself a restful night’s sleep in between bouts of herx induced insomnia. But do remember that the more continuous time you spend herxing and the longer it goes for, the more bugs you’re killing and the less herxing you’ll have to go through down the track.