Interesting Flare Experience

[fastspinW]

Hi,

I’m in about the 4th week of a flare of my RA brought about by having gone from a reduced dose of Doxy of 100mgx2MWF to 100mgx2x7. I had to up the dose as I was bit by bit getting a return of symptoms after about 6 months on the reduced dose and things were getting worse on a daily basis. This follows a nearly 7 year long period of near total remission that began when I got on AP.

Anyway after a gradual increase in the severity of the flare over a 2-3 week period the pain and stiffness in my hands really began to grow worse despite having increased ibuprofen from 1200 mg to around 2000 mg a day. Yesterday morning I literally felt like I had been run over by a trailer truck! Really severe pain in both hands and an over all feeling of fatigue so profound that I finally gave up and went back to bed.

Having managed to sleep for a couple of hours I eventually woke up still feeling extremely tired and sore. As the afternoon progressed, however, I noticed the pain in my hands beginning to back off and then the terrible sense of tiredness began to lessen as well. By bedtime I was feeling almost human and when I awoke this morning my hands were just back to being a bit sore and I have at least a bit of energy.

I’m hoping that this signals the beginning of the end of this flare. Anyone experienced this sort of event?

All best,
Winston

[Maz]

@fastspinW wrote:

Hi,

I’m in about the 4th week of a flare of my RA brought about by having gone from a reduced dose of Doxy of 100mgx2MWF to 100mgx2x7.

Having managed to sleep for a couple of hours I eventually woke up still feeling extremely tired and sore. As the afternoon progressed, however, I noticed the pain in my hands beginning to back off and then the terrible sense of tiredness began to lessen as well. By bedtime I was feeling almost human and when I awoke this morning my hands were just back to being a bit sore and I have at least a bit of energy.

I’m hoping that this signals the beginning of the end of this flare. Anyone experienced this sort of event?

Hi Winston,

Yup, I have experienced this regularly, every time I change my abx and doses. Sounds like a classic herx. I usually sleep the worst off, too, as there really is no other option, but do what I can to detox as soon as I’m up and about….FIR sauna, drinking lots of water, epsoms/peroxide baths, etc, etc. It’s those circulating toxins from die-off that make me feel so bad and the quicker they exit the body, the quicker I feel better.

My herxes are pretty short-lived now and, over time, have decreased in duration, intensity and frequency. They’re quite distinct from flares in this regard, which go on for much longer and you feel worse as time goes on, rather than taking that noticeable leap forward after it’s over.

Just surmise, but could be that the big jump in dose elicited this herx and I feel for you – it can be really unnerving when the herx hits. I did a similar thing when I started Minocin and went from daily dosing of 100mg per day to 100mg BID. The herx hit around the 2nd or 3rd week in and I thought I was going to die. I had to lower my dose to 100mg BID MWF, but still felt rotten for a while. From hard won experience, I discovered it’s far easier (and kinder) to dial the dose up slowly to tolerance than to figure out how to dial it back when in the midst of a herx and the fallout.

There is an article by a NJ AP Doc on the main site who is also a pain mgt specialist and he offers some ideas for relief of the herxheimer reaction:

http://roadback.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/education.display/display_id/124.html

…and YIKES…I still haven’t replied to your PM of last week! I have a oral surgeon appt this afternoon, but will keep it in mind to look at that study you sent. The last of my holiday visitors left on Monday, so still playing a bit of catch-up.

Really hope you feel better soon, Winston.

[fastspinW]

Maz,

Many thanks for sharing your own experiences of herxes, ’tis always good to have my sometimes fanciful theories confirmed! Finally bit the bullet today and called Dr. E’s office for an appointment. Was quite pleasantly surprised by the warm reception I received! Even better I managed to get an appointment for just a few weeks from now! Given that I have been trying to get an appointment with my PCP for two weeks without success this came as a more than pleasant surprise as well.

Could well be that the sudden increase from MWF to 7 days a week of doxy did trigger this but I’ve made jumps like that in the past without any herx. Still with the body things change and one can never rest assured that what prove workable before will once again meet with the same success. In addition I attended an art show last week for two days and had to make and mount 138 prints for display/sale. All in all a most enjoyable experience with a lot of very positive (and very needed I might add) feedback on my work as well as pretty good print sales. But I had to work 16 hours the day before the show to get the final prints made and mounted and was totally exhausted as a result. This Getting Old Is Not For Sissies and it would appear that at 65 I am not quite so durable as once was the case. 🙁

I’ll let you know how things work out at Dr. E’s and thanks again for the feedback.

All best,
Winston

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