Great article about Herxing - pretty much describes what I've been going through for the past 8 days:
Sooo...I've been on Rifampin for the past 8 days and have had a really tough time of it. Have been so sick and the nerve pain in my arms feel like chards of glass being scraped down. Also every single Lyme and co-infection symptom (my LD believes I have Bartonella as well) have increased by 1000 percent. (fever, night sweats, severe nerve and joint pain, terrible insomnia, fatigue, mental fogginess, neurological stuff, etc. ) I pretty much have been unable to do ANYTHING this week and have just been so sick. So, today I made it to 8 days of the Rifampin and just had to stop. I called the doctor's office but no call back unfortunately so i have to wait until Monday now.
Anyway, I found this article about Herxing which made me feel better and wanted to share it. (see link above)
I've had reactions/herxing to the Doxycycline before which made me feel miserable but this Rifampin was Way worse. In a way though, I just had this feeling that it was really working because of the raging battle going on inside my body - but after 8 days of trying to do this on my own, I just had to stop. Maybe I'll try lowering the dosage, or pulsing it as the article suggests because I could really tell it was making the critters angry!
Your symptoms were due to rifampin side effects. I had all ther symptoms you wrote after 7 days at 600mg and 200mg doxycycline that i took for a wrongly diagnosed bartonella infection that was all along benzo withdrawal. Now, i am 8 months still suffering with neurotoxicity: brain fog(speech impairment and speech issues), painful joints all over, peripheral neuropathy, depression, burning feelings in head and skin,etc. Rifampin was prescribed back in the days at 5 mg for high cholesterol and they took it off the market due to all the side effects you noted. At 5 mg, can you imagine what 600 mg doses do to our body!!!! Rifampin toxicity is much worse than fluoroquinolones. Just prescibed for meningitis, tuberculosis and persistent chronic bartonella so it just doesn't get the attention it deserves. Almost evryone in the sites that share their experience with lyme and co-infections treatment either can't tolerate or push threw and become crippled by this poisin. Most of them tolerated fluoroquinolones with ease so that just shows you the dangers associated with this treatment. Maybe the fact you stopped it prematurely will prevent you from a long and painful reaction. Wishing you a complete recovery!!!!
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