Sunday Herxes

It's been a strange week. After a visit with my doctor, we are giving one last-ditch effort to get rid of the Babesia for good. It's been hanging on much longer than it should. We've been treating it since September of last year, which is a long time to treat this infection.  He doubled my dose of Mepron (Liquid Gold) and put me on two new anti-parasite/anti-malarial. (Babesia is a malarial-like infection.)  The nice thing is, he took me off all antibiotics for now to give my poor GI a rest, which is nice.  If this doesn't work, then we have one other thing we can try but it requires a long talk to and convincing of Mr. Wild Dingo, since its a pretty serious treatment.  I'm not holding my breath that this round of meds will kick it. Mainly because we've tried two times to go off the Babesia meds and each time the symptoms came back within 2 weeks. Though they came back much weaker the second time. 

You may be wondering: how in the world could anyone have a malaerial-like infection for 8 years and NOT show such severe reactions, or worse, die? (Because if you don't treat malaria or Babesiosis, it's fatal.) Well, that's where Lyme disease comes in. Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) has a unique biofilm environment that not only protects itself against many antibiotics, but helps to harbor other infections too. Plus there've been many studies that show Bb has this fantastic way to lower or shut off your immune system pretty quickly. So if you get bit by a tick and get more than just Lyme, you may not have severe symptoms of those infections right off the bat. Anyone with straight up Babesia or malaria will have high fevers, night sweats, chills etc., and a doctor can easily diagnose it and treat it. But Lyme complicates it and keeps the infection dorment and at symptomatic low level, so your symptoms are vague, weak and convoluted with Lyme too, which can confuse a normal doctor.

So after doubling my dose of Mepron and adding the first anti-parasite (the second one I add in 2 weeks), I had a lovely little Herxheimer reaction, which is indicative that the infection is still in my body, and not just from the symptoms recurring when I'm off the meds. The first time I took Mepron last October, I had a severe herx which included chills, fevers, tremors, sweating and diarrhea. I was so scared, I was considering going to the ER. Then 90-minutes later, it passed and at 1:30 a.m. I fell asleep, holding Mr. Wild Dingo's hand for support. Each time I herx from the Babesia meds, it's always the same flu-like reaction, but less severe. And I always feel lots better after it passes.

This morning was no different. I woke up and felt just awful but couldn't put my finger on it. Mr. Wild Dingo felt my forehead and said I was running a fever. I was sweating, but my actual temperature was only 96! I stayed like and in the bathroom for about 30 minutes and then: Boom! It was over. I was weak but a few hours later, able to go on our Sunday family day walk with the dogs.

Now that I think about it, my herxes from Babesiosis are much shorter than my herxes from Lyme disease, which can last for days or weeks.  And each herx from Babesiosis is getting shorter and shorter in duration. At least I have that going for me. Which is nice.