Lyme Flare
I think my autumn Lyme Disease flare has officially begun. Over the past few days, I’ve been getting more headaches, though they are mostly in the mild to moderate category so far. Yesterday, I had pain in my hands, especially my right hand, and specifically in the bones and joints.
Last night, the right side of my body started to hurt. It was my head and all the joints from my jaw to my ankle. The pain has continued as a persistent ache this morning. Meanwhile, all my joints are taking turns making popping noises.
This has a familiar feel to it. With any luck, a few weeks of coiling will get in under control.
Bartonella Herx revisited
Yesterday I wrote some of my thoughts about what a Bartonella die-off does to me. The biggest issues are kidney pain/irritation and mood swings. There are a few other things that have happened when I started ramping up Bartonella in the spring (before I backed off) and again in the summer (when I again backed off).
My abdomen has swollen up pretty significantly. It isn’t as rock hard as it used to get when I first became disabled by these infections. But it is big and firm. I get the impression that my intestines are somewhat inflamed, despite my belief that the toxins mostly get removed through my kidneys. If it isn’t inflammation, then my second theory is that as I kill the infection which I believe is partly located on the stem of my vagus nerve, then my vagus nerve is irritated and affecting my intestinal activity. This is only a theory and I have no access to the kind of medical testing that might validate or disprove my theory. The other potential piece of supportive evidence of the vagus nerve theory is that I got very lightheaded this morning. It was the first time I’ve had a noticeable blood pressure drop upon standing in quite a while (with the exception of the beginning of my menstrual cycle during which it predictably happens).
A few other things have happened since I coiled a second time for Bartonella in one week. These are symptoms that remind me of Babesia, but could be from the Bartonella herx: night sweats, disturbing dreams and light sensitivity. (The change in blood pressure also happened a lot when my Babesia infection was active.) I’m currently betting it’s from the Bartonella die-off toxin load, but I’m doing a Babesia test run with the coil machine, just in case.
The final Bartonella herx symptom that I’ve run into before is peeling skin on my hands. I’m not sure what causes it, but has consistently happened in the past and is happening now.
Coil Log
Back when I was blogging nearly daily, I wrote down my coiling schedule. Since I’ve been focused on other aspects of my life in the past several months, it has been missing from the blog (although I record it religiously in a notebook). Now that I’ve prioritized killing the Bartonella infection, I’d like to get back to regularly recording my coiling treatments.
August
- August 2 – Lyme, lower body
- August 4 – Lyme, upper body
- August 6 – Bartonella, upper body
- August 8 – Lyme, lower body
- August 9 – Lyme upper body
- August 12 – Bartonella, upper body
- August 13 – Lyme, lower body
- August 16 – Lyme, upper body
- August 22 – Lyme, upper body
- August 23 – Lyme, lower body, Bartonella, upper body
- August 27 – Lyme, lower body
- August 28 – Lyme, upper body, Bartonella, upper body
(honeymoon…)
September
- September 10 – Lyme, lower body, Bartonella, upper body
- September 11 – Lyme, upper body
- September 17 – Lyme, lower body, Bartonella, upper body
- September 18 – Lyme, upper body
- September 20 – Bartonella, upper body
- September 22 – Babesia test coiling
Babesia Test
To test for Babesia, I’m coiling my chest for 10 minutes and my head in 4 locations for a minute each. If I get either a huge reduction in the Babesia symptoms listed above or a crazy blinding headache, I’ll know that I’ve got to add Babesia back into my coiling schedule. If nothing changes, then I will continue with Bartonella and Lyme and nothing else for now.
Categories: Herx reactions, using the coil machine
Tags: babesia, bartonella, lyme, symptoms
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Coiling for Lyme 