Washout week?

[motherbear]

Hi everyone,

My son’s AP Doc is incontactable at the moment so I am asking for your thought on my decision making.

He is herxing really badly since he increased his Doxy by 200mg a week. He needs to get to college as there are important exams to be taken so I have decided to give him a washout week and then slowly over time introduce just 50mg over a long period of time and slowly increase.

His AP Doc will be around on the slow increase and I will ok my idea with him as I know he will be ok with it.

What I need your advise on is:

Do you think a washout week is in order following a really bad herx? Do you think the herx will settle quickly if he has a washout week?

It is so important to get him to college.
Many thanks

Caroline. 😕

[Lyn_x]

My experience: I’m in school. Herxing and school are not compatible ;-).

Years 2007-2010: 1st AP doc liked the slow build up to avoid severe herx and had me increase slowly with provisions–if I felt bad, I was to slow down or back off a bit. I occasionally went to pulsing when the herxing became too strong.

2010 to present: 2nd AP doc (AP & Lyme) said I didn’t have to take ABX on exam days and implied that at least in my case (with Lyme) that since the organism takes a long time to replicate, short times off the ABX are acceptable. Since then, I have taken time off AP ABX: once for two weeks (washout for the strep test) and another for a UTI that I was prescribed a different ABX and didn’t want to mix them.

[Maz]

@motherbear wrote:

What I need your advise on is:

Do you think a washout week is in order following a really bad herx? Do you think the herx will settle quickly if he has a washout week?

Hi Caroline,

So sorry – can’t give advice, per say, as we’re not doctors here, but can share that Dr. Brown would recommend a washout week when hypersensitivity arose. I have a transcript of one of Brown’s talks on the question of “Hypersensitivity,” if you’d like me to send this to you. Hypersensitivity occurs when too much die-off happens during a herx…such as when there is a sharp increase in dose or change of antibiotic.

When the bugs die or are threatened, they release these toxins (called antigens), which then cause the body to create more antibody. With an increase in antigens and antibodies, the body goes into overdrive and these antigens/antibodies become bound in what are called immune complexes, which the body has trouble clearing due to the resulting increase in inflammation.

As Lyn mentioned above, Brown found that the odd week off to do a washout really doesn’t make a huge lot of difference to overall progress due to these organisms having long life cycles (slow bacteria) and can actually help the body to focus on releasing these immune complexes without more antigen being added into the mix by giving things a bit of a break. This, bearing in mind that tetracyclines don’t kill the bugs outright…the immune system goes in for the kill once the tetras disable them. So, if the immune system is hijacked by too much inflammation (due to high levels of immune complexes), then it can’t do its job properly anyway.

This is just my layman understanding of the process, Caroline. I hope your son feels well enough to tackle his upcoming exams. What a trooper to be going to college and fighting through this while also on his road back! Kudos to him and to you for your never-ending support of him. 🙂

[motherbear]

Hi Maz and Lyn,

thank you both for your replies.

Your right Lyn:
School and AP just don’t mix! I feel for you both having to go through this along with the outside pressures of continuing your education. It really is going to be a case of juggling things as we go along as he has lost so much education already due to this illness and I am determined he will get through college ,which he is too. It’s just typical that last week he had 4 exams to do and he was in so much pain he couldn’t go.
Thanks for your advise and good luck in the future! 🙂

Maz, as always full of knowledge and always there to help, a big thank you to you 🙂
Having read through my post again I am sorry as it does look like I am asking for AP med advise, I actually just wanted info on washout for me to make that judgement.I am stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment but I am happy to make decisions for him until I can get hold of his Doc . He has only just started his increase and I know now that it is too much and I also know Dr. H would be happy for him to stop the increase and start at a later date with a much smaller increase at a later date. I am probably overly worrying as you know I do about everything. I am so grateful for your thoughts and kindness.

Again my thanks to you both.
Caroline

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