Babesia

My fight with Babesia

I started the Byron White A-BAB formula in October - it is now February.  My LLMD wasn't kidding when she told me that it is extremely potent. While we didn't necessarily need an additional confirmation of my diagnosis, we got it anyway simply by my dramatic increase in symptoms.  The most prominent symptoms are noted below.

Headaches
Severe upper neck pain
Brain Fog (which I also describe as not feeling "normal".  The "brain fog" term is just what most doctors use since it is difficult to gauge what "normal" means)
Extreme Fatigue
Wrist pain
Anxiety
Depression

From what I have read, the A-BAB formula kicks your own immune system into high gear to work at fighting off the Babesia infection.   Babesia is treated very differently than other lyme and co-infections.

My herx reaction on A-BAB have been a complete increase in all symptoms.  However, I have also noticed that it doesn't seem to lift as quickly as it did while on antibiotics.  Instead, it seems the symptoms just increase and stay that way.  It could also have something to do with the lumbrokinase.  If you want to read more about this, I recommend the article found on this page.

I just started the lumbrokinase last month and have my monthly visit with my LLMD tomorrow.  I am going to be sure to ask her if the increase in symptoms without relief is normal or if we need to back off a bit as we move forward.

If I've learned anything over the past 8 months, it's that lyme treatment is definitely not a fast treatment.  It's a slow, steady yet aggressive treatment.

My Experience Herxing

Everyone out there that is suffering with Lyme, is well aware of what a Herx reaction is.  But for those of you that are not aware, I will explain it in very simple terms.

A herx reaction happens as your medication or plan of treatment (i.e. Rife Machine) has killed off more of the disease than your body can handle.  It is a similar reaction as you get when you have a fever.  The fever is your body's way of fighting back and killing off the virus (in most cases.)  What is not the same, is the amount of pain you can endure while herxing.

When I first started my treatment, 4 weeks ago, I was told by two doctors that I needed to be prepared for a herx reaction.  I had myself so psyched up that I was living in a constant state of anxiety - although that wasn't too unusual anyway.  I read so many horror stories on line and watched horror videos on youtube.  While that stuff is very real, everyone will have a different experience.

As I mentioned, I started treatment 4 weeks ago and am currently encountering my first "major' herx.  I believe I had a small herx last week as well, but it only seemed to last a short time.  Granted, I don't have much to compare it to, but I can tell you that it came on slower than I had expected and is giving me different symptoms than I had expected.

I am two years into having lyme and had just started experiencing joint pain.  Previous to that, the majority of my lyme had been major anxiety, strange sensations behind my eyes, migraines with less of the ache and more of the aura, foot pain/itching - which I had originally believed to be gout or athletes foot without the dryness, severe neck and shoulder pain.  As soon as I move on to the next paragraph, I'll think of 50 more symptoms, but these are the major ones I had before my onset of joint pain.

With all that said, I wasn't sure what to expect with the Herx.  What I am experiencing is severe joint pain.  Imagine you have the flu and your body aches and multiply that times 50.  That is about how I'm feeling now.  My tailbone, wrists, thighs, knees, back, hips - everything hurts.  I have a hard time sitting and I have a hard time standing.  It feels like stretching would bring relief, but it doesn't.  I sat in a epsom salt bath to try and pull some of the toxins out of my body and we shall see what happens.

This started about 30 hours ago and I hope it doesn't continue much longer.  What is the positive side?  Everyone says that once your herx lets up, you feel much better.  I am looking forward to the much better part!