It has been my intent to talk about our journey with Lyme (and also Lewy Body Dementia) but this time of year it takes a sick day for me to find the time to collect my thoughts enough to sit down and write.
So today I am going to talk about herxing by first defining it.
Herxheimer Reaction:
An increase in the number or degree of symptoms caused by a rapid destruction of antigens, cell particles, and toxins that occur during treatment. Jonas: Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (c) 2005, Elsevier.
I believe Dr. Herxheimer was treating the Lyme cousin, syphilis, when this term was coined.
When one has Lyme and the other vector borne diseases, it is not uncommon for the person to not look sick. It usually shows up as a tell-tale sign of a little something wrong here and then a little something wrong there until it invades the body to such a degree that the person is seriously debilitated (or dies) by it.
The point being that often the person does not appear sick. A person maybe seriously fatigued to the point of utter exhaustion—feeling totally unable to make their bodies move either from pain or weakness. This is particularly difficult when one is young and people expect you to be able to burn the candle at both ends; to be able to just push a little harder.
Lyme and Bartonella shuts the body’s immune system down. When the immune system is not working, the body of the young will quickly become the body of the aged. When our oldest was first diagnosed, about the only thing I remember hearing was that her immune system was so low that a 94 year old woman with cancer would be in better shape. Now perhaps that was hyperbole but the point was that she was a very sick young woman. Were there any physical signs (such as looks or verbal complaints) that would make the average person realize that she was so immune compromised? Not particularly, unless you count the implications that she was lazy and unmotivated. That is the thing about this vector borne mess it doesn’t have a normal name nor a normal symptom list. Instead it attacks the body from the inside out, eating away a little in this organ and little over there in that organ. All the while spirochetes dig further and further into the eyes, the brain, the muscles, the stomach, etc., etc.
One cannot see the damage going on and because in many cases it eats away so gradually that it is easy to overlook the gradual overall decline. The behavior can be misunderstood as apathy or laziness when in reality it is a lack of thriving. A person may look perfectly normal, have days when they feel and act fine but then the next day they may still look normal but may be physically unable to cope with life. Mentally the person can become paranoid, depressed, or in some cases mentally incompetent.
I have found this very short video that describes some of what those with Lyme and co-infections go through. Please take the time to watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44CiA4XqNPo
So what does this have to do with herxing?
Usually you can tell when a person is herxing because the body is reacting to the killing off process. On those days the person not only feels horrible but usually looks sick as well. The body aches, the eyes get dull, often their color is off, and over all they look like they don’t feel well. It is on these days that others begin to believe that the person might really have this illusive Lyme stuff. Sadly, it often takes this debilitating part of healing to convince others that the person is actually ill to begin with.
Going back to our definition of a herx….
“An increase in the number or degree of symptoms caused by a rapid destruction of antigens, cell particles, and toxins that occur during treatment”.
This is then the body manifesting the results of first the killing off of the bacteria and protozoa and secondly, the body trying to get the dead junk out of the blood stream. Think of it as killing several hatching of black widow spiders and then sweeping the dead ones out of the house, all the while knowing that some of them got away and that the battle goes on.
Then there is the emotional herx which is much more than just the normal sway of hormones. Hormonal balance in the body is so very complicated and when these get out of whack due to herxing it can bring on those emotions that leave the person emotionally and physically exhausted some times for days or weeks. The more killing the worse the herx. Herxing is actually a way to know that the drugs are working.
Herxing is also wearisome. The person gets tired of always feeling bad, always trying to be positive, always having to tell people that your joints ache, or you can’t sleep, or your stomach is sick, or your mind is in a fog, or you are cold because your temperature is two degrees below normal, or simply sick and tired of crying for no good reason! Lyme and the co-infections are complicated. Herxing is complicated.
So in our house, is the oldest and most complicated case of Lyme getting better? Yes! But it is complicated. It is not without pain and emotion. It is also not without weariness because she knows she has a long way to go. Her case is extra complicated because she has at least two different strains of Lyme and the German version is harder to kill off. Along with the black widow spider she also has the more poisonous red widow… in her house.