LYME?

[JenniferG]

I thought I read somewhere that if a child does bad when starting abx, that could be a sign of Lyme.

 

My dd7 had a change in her meds...to Azith and Aug. She is backsliding. I had her off all meds for a couple of days before a visit with a new MD. She was great!!! Once she started back up, backslid. Is this a sign of Lyme??

[aidansmom]

Can't say for sure but it is possible that it is herxing. That is very common with Lyme when you change abx.

 

My son went downhill when he was changed from Aug. to azith - increased behaviors and got an illness. We (LLMD and I) thought it might be a herx. We ended up adding aug. back in for ear infection and things leveled out. I am not sure why but LLMD suggested we give abx only on weekdays and with this change in scheduling we had negative behaviors in a cycle which again we thought may be due to herxing. We were instructed to detox. - lots of epsom salt baths and green tea and B vitamins. He seemed to level out some after doing these.

 

There are a lot of people on the board who have other things they use for detoxing so hopefully they will respond also. So, you might try that and see if it helps.

 

And I am sure you are doing probiotics also, right?

Elizabeth

[MichaelTampa]

Yes, it can be a clue for sure, if the symptoms fit as well.

[lyme_mom]

I thought I read somewhere that if a child does bad when starting abx, that could be a sign of Lyme.

 

My dd7 had a change in her meds...to Azith and Aug. She is backsliding. I had her off all meds for a couple of days before a visit with a new MD. She was great!!! Once she started back up, backslid. Is this a sign of Lyme??

Yes that often happens when u start treating Lyme. If symptoms improve off antibiotics it's a sure sign of a die off reaction. Some Drs say only Lyme does this but others think other infections can too.

[KaraM]

So, if we think we see this herxing, what is the best approach to handle. Try to detox and plow through the intensified symptoms or reduce medication for a while.

 

Is the herxing sporadic? I can't tell if I'm seeing improvement and herxing at different points during the day. We started treating for Bartonella Monday. I've seen things that make me hopeful, like an ability to sit for a while and do homework or read or like touching things that were previously contaminated. But then I see other things that look like herxing...more angry outbursts/episodes and school refusal (that wasn't there before...)

 

As for detox: I've started reading a little about it. I'm a little nervous about trying Milk Thistle, since my dd8 is allergic to ragweed. Right now, the tub is contaminated, so I don't know how I'll get her into an epsom salt/soda bath. I saw something about lemon juice...What else could I do for detox.

 

For probiotics we are giving Culturelle in the evening a couple hours after meds and Saccharomyces Boulardii & MOS in the morning (at the same time as abx).

[LNN]

Our approach is to try detox first and slug through a herx. Up until now, herxes in our house have only lasted a few days (tho we switched to omnicef 2 weeks ago and things got bad and are only now calming down). But if things start to get hard for the family to manage, then other options, like backing down on med dosage, would be something to add to your list of questions for your doctor.

 

It does sound like you have reason to be hopeful. The de-contamination is huge! Rages are certainly part of DS's herx symptoms, but thankfully they're generally brief - feels like he has PMS rather than the psychotic rages we once endured.

 

I'm with you on the milk thistle. Works great for DS - within hours. But DD is highly allergic to ragweed and other pollens. So I'm on the hunt for alternatives for her. For now, she takes glutathione but I'll be asking about adding something else at our next appt. Seeing blips of OCD fairies that concern me. I'm not sure you can get glutathione except through a doctor, but you can get alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), which is a pre-cursor to glutathione. Water, drinks that change the body's PH balance (haven't done much research here), maybe others can chime in on this. On bad days, we've used activated charcoal to bind to toxins already in the gut, but you need to take it away from abx and it doesn't help detox the liver. I've come across burbur mentioned as a detox, but haven't looked into it yet. Mayo Clinic, Columbia Univ and U of MD have web sites that evaluate herbs from a western/scientific perspective. You can check there (in your spare time). You can also offer massages and heating pads - if nothing else, they make the kids feel pampered.

 

As for probiotics, like you see on the Pandas forum, lots of varying opinions for brands and quantities. The doctor you settle on may have preferences. My only advice would be to use something that packs a lot into one pill. The further you get into treatment, the more pills/herbs/supplements seem to creep into your schedule. When we started treatment, our LLMD suggested we switch from a children's multi-vitamin to juice plus, feeling it was more 'natural". But that meant 4 vitamin capsules a day, on top of 8-10 other pills. So I'm alternating every other day, and using a regular mutli-vitamin on off days. It just gets crazy.

 

Three days and she can touch stuff? Big hugs and cheers for her!! I hope it continues!

[smartyjones]

As for detox: I've started reading a little about it. I'm a little nervous about trying Milk Thistle, since my dd8 is allergic to ragweed. Right now, the tub is contaminated, so I don't know how I'll get her into an epsom salt/soda bath.

 

 

i haven't done this but was thinking it the other day -- ds9 has some angry outbursts -- they only last a few minutes though -- i believe it was Suzan who said her daughter did epsom salt foot baths and saw good results -- would your daughter do a foot soak?

[lyme_mom]

So, if we think we see this herxing, what is the best approach to handle. Try to detox and plow through the intensified symptoms or reduce medication for a while.

 

Is the herxing sporadic? I can't tell if I'm seeing improvement and herxing at different points during the day. We started treating for Bartonella Monday. I've seen things that make me hopeful, like an ability to sit for a while and do homework or read or like touching things that were previously contaminated. But then I see other things that look like herxing...more angry outbursts/episodes and school refusal (that wasn't there before...)

 

As for detox: I've started reading a little about it. I'm a little nervous about trying Milk Thistle, since my dd8 is allergic to ragweed. Right now, the tub is contaminated, so I don't know how I'll get her into an epsom salt/soda bath. I saw something about lemon juice...What else could I do for detox.

 

For probiotics we are giving Culturelle in the evening a couple hours after meds and Saccharomyces Boulardii & MOS in the morning (at the same time as abx).

We used slow release probiotics that we could take with antibiotics. As for detox chlorella pills are excellent at pulling out lyme toxins and bentonite liquid is another option. I had a lot of success with chlorella. My reading vision got bad after antibiotic treatment and my llmd told me my vision was worse b/c I had dead lyme toxins floating around. He told me to take 16 chlorella pills a day. I thought it was a little strange-the whole explanation but I did what he said and within 6 weeks I did not need reading glasses anymore. Miraculous. If the herxing is really bad the doctors advise you take a break for a day but if you can plug ahead that is good. If symptoms improve on the day off you know it was a herx. That's what Dr. Jone's office told me in the past. So often it is hard to know if what you are seeing is a herx (a positive thing) or the antibiotic is not working. The stopping and restarting makes sense when you don't know if you are on the right track.