Please describe the subjective and observational consequences of a Herx-Heimer reaction. I had one for 3 terrifying days, & the bizarre & unusual things that my body was doing were unbelievable. Since my family was away I video taped much of it on a poor quality camera. Luckily the camera (and a ruler for scale) were able to clearly show my hands swelling to more than double in size and vivid red dots appearing between each hand knuckle. (Feet, too). The skin on my body seemed to whirr from the inside out & cover my body with new skin. Even the remains of a 52 staple abdominal scar was covered and looked 20 years old instead of 4. My old broken wrist felt like part of me. The skin turned absolutely white when they swelled (x2) white like when a nurse uses latex to empty an arm of blood prior to surgery, only whiter). I had 72 hours of various bizarre involuntary small movements- tendons lengthening and bone realignment, with no more control than when a braindead woman (yuck, but I saw it) gives birth. At the end I was emotionally devastated but felt better than I had in 2 decades (I have had Lyme for 31 years)Now I know it was a H-H, something barely covered in my Med School Lectures ( Syphilis..blah..blah..blah, silver for the wealthy, antibiotics now, blah, Tuskeegee, blah, tasteless jokes, blah, blah, now let s get back to Infectious Disease and Real Medicine ). I couldn t diagnose myself but Curt Brown, MD did by phone in2 minutes. (Best doctor & human being I ever knew- killed by the Red Cross to save a few pennies on prescreening donated blood.) Gentle genius that he was, he immediately asked what antibiotic I had just started. How did he know? Because there was an epidemic of Lyme disease in Connecticut & he was invited to join the board looking into it.. It was 1986 and he was uninvited back for suggesting that Lyme would be the next big disease, that people s lives + brains would soon be infected and the the blood supply most certainly already a vector- he also recommended how infected women could give birth to healthy babies. Doxy, right? he guessed. The spirocete maybe in your CFS already and in your brain. The H-H is from its death and the contents spilling into your circulatory system You need it IV now, I ll help. Sadly for the world this fine Physician and Hospital Medical Director died very soon thereafter- he had received 4 units of blood (US Red Cross) tainted with Aids a few months earlier. Probably THE FASTEST exposure to death method there is- not a needle stick but LITERS of HIV virus poured into his veins- and his wife and children as lovely and trusting as him- litigation out of the question because no one could possibly play Russian roulette with people s lives. Meanwhile Europe had been testing donated blood for a year. But, I digress in my anger. I never finished school- never gave birth- I was too sick. 23 years later I am hanging IV s around the clock. Years of fights with insurance companies delayed that thanks to that shorthorned whore, Dr. Steele formerly of Yale. One of those who accepted utside money to sit on a many and minimize the threat of Lymes. He was BANNED from the second panel which could only include scientists, experts and those not receiving money from Aetna or any other insurance Co. (Steele made more money consulting for Aetna for all those years than you ll make legally as an honest man in your lifeime.) I can walk again, but I can t dress myself, or read a book at one sitting. My IVs began too late because of chicken-hearted MDs & doctors like Alan Steele. I WANT a H-H reaction, I d like Many of them. I felt better for weeks, maybe months after my only one on 400 mg of doxy. I ve ALL the standard PO antibiotics and am moving thru the next standards IV CLaforan best., Vancomycin & Rocephin did nohing. I am saving Doxy for last and if it does nothing I will carry on (or be carried) through my stepdaughter s wedding in May and then schedule an appointment for either of those helpful Clinics in Belgium or Oregon. This search for a near normal life has cost me many worldly goods and I could happily carry on as a healthy 60 year old, but I refuse to be wheeled in for a nice game of Jeopardy and then to some institutions idea of food. I will happily compensate you for REAL help or new ideas. I have been to Boston, New York, Yale, Atlanta, 2 of the Mayo locations, L.A., St. Louis, and a ream of nternet Clinics where I have learned to Visualize a tidy autopsy on some of these paraprofessionals. I have enough funds left to compensate your group if you are in anyway helpful. I have enough Real Estate to reward you beyond your dreams if you can get me up and about- and enough political connections to be sure that ANYONE with late stage Lyme Disease will think of your group the way Salk comes to mind for all of we mothers who worried ourselves sick every summer until he shielded our children from harm. Hoping for REAL HELP & IDEAS. Don t bother replying or accepting payment unless you are the real deal. Sincerely, Kathleen Lanouette McGlynn-Britain