Infected finger, feel terrible on abx....Lyme related??

Hey all,

I've had some swelling in a finger, they have thought it is an infection. Antibiotics are making me extremely fatigued and unable to deal with life.

Is this a typical response for non-Lyme antibiotics..... Keflex and Bactrim ...... could the side effects be worse because of my Lyme? Is it a herx?? etc

4 weeks into finger swelling / pain, mostly better now but not entirely. Could the swelling (fluid buildup as far as I can tell) / infection actuallly be a manifestation of Lyme? I do get some joint pain, but haven't had swelling before.

What do you think? I'm sick of all of this, but I don't want an infection to spread either.



Long version (I tried to make it short, really..... but then it came out like this so I wrote the short version above ;-) )

about 4 weeks ago I noticed the last joint of my right pointer finger was swollen, stiff and painful. After 8-9 days of nothing changing (maybe a little worse), I went in to the clinic..... saw an NP who thought it could be an infection and prescribed me antibiotics (x-ray was "unremarkable").

I'm on my third type of antibiotic and they all make me terrible......wiped out, fatigue, dizziness; could only function maybe 1/3 my "normal" Lymie capacity on the first two we tried. Which, both AFAICT are not used for / active against Borrelia and friends - they were Keflex and Bactrim.

Now we're trying doxycycline, which I have had before and the side effects (?) are not as severe, but I'm still struggling a lot more than normal, can't walk as far in a day, etc etc. The swelling and pain did go down slowly with each, then seemingly back up in between (when I refused to take any more of that stuff). As of today, 2-1/2 weeks in to abx and 4 days into doxy - I'd say the finger is 90% better.

When I went in again this week, I insisted on seeing an MD..... he assured me it isn't an infected joint (which I had gotten concerned about) but only in the.... other layers? subcutaneous skin etc maybe? And said let's try the doxy.
Tomorrow I will try to talk to a nurse I know, who is also into the "more natural" health ideas...

Any thoughts? Commiserations :-D ?

Thanks!

Bactrim is an antibiotic used to treat lyme and Bart.

I don’t know about the other one.

What is your lyme treatment? Herbals?

So yes the bactrim could be causing a dieoff of lyme/bart

Thanks folks! I know I read bout keflex on here though and the consensus seemed to be it doesn't do much for Lyme. Interesting about Bactrim, I must not have looked very hard for that one (Lyme brain + whatever this abx reaction is). So that may have explained part of the issue when I was on it. Now I'm on doxy and it's not quite as bad, but I still feel terrible.

My other Lyme treatment lately has been nothing. Too broke. I believe that is changing now though, Thank the Lord!

Blue - thanks. Looks like a lot of stuff there. I do see many of my symptoms listed among the side effects for Bactrim.
Does ooo = organic olive oil? My nurse friend also suggested tea tree so I have been doing some of that.