Bad burn from sun while on Doxcy

[RKF55]

Hello,

So I am in week 7 of treatment that includes taking Doxcy 100mg two times a day plus other stuff and I don't feel much better. Maybe a little but not much. I did mess up though and was out in the sun a lot last week and my face is now what appears to be and feels like permanently burnt. I used sun screen and even stayed in the shade as much as possible but it still got me. Can anybody tell me if this will heal and go away or have I damaged my face beyond repair?

Thanks

[mojogal]

I am very surprised that the pharmacist didn't warn you about the side effect of being in the sun.

As for the emotions, agree with Jackie, it can do a number on your emotions, big time.  There are natural remedies, one popular one is lithium orotate 5 mg x 3. This is not the same as the lithium you may have heard about.  This is a vey minor amount to help with taking the edge off.

[JackieCalifornia]

If you are not keeping a daily chart of what meds and what food you are taking, how you feel and how you slept, and what your daily symptoms are, think about doing it.

'Lyme brain' kept me from remembering much, and my doc LOVED my daily chart.  I put it in an Excel spread sheet and typed a bit every day, then printed it out to take to my next appointment. It was easy to forget stuff, and this helped the doc to help me.

[RKF55]

Thanks for the encouragement, my face is getting better slowly, I just didn't think the sun would do that much damage because of the antibiotics so it concerned me. And the emo stuff, I don't want to take more meds so I will just tough it out.

I want to be on the other side of the treatment where I don't have daily killer headaches along with all the other symptoms and taking all this stuff.

I go back to my LLMD next week and I hope that she tells me something good.

Thanks again

[JackieCalifornia]

Short answer:  Oh, yeah.  Definitely.

It was hard for me to tell where the physical effects of Lyme (aching, twitching, brain fog, etc.) left off and the emotional effects of Lyme started.  It was all one big jumble.  

I just now searched
                    -- emotional effects of lyme disease --
and got many hits.  Blend in the effects of any co-infections on top of Lyme, and it can be a mess.  I used to describe how I felt as a cross between a hangover and the flu, 24/7.  

The good news:  with treatment, those unwanted aspects go away.  In the meantime, you might ask your doc for something to moderate the endocrine aspects if it's getting in your way.  I didn't need any meds to counteract how I was feeling, but some people may.

I did however find Epsom salt baths soothing -- Epsom salts are magnesium that is absorbed through the skin.  Especially helpful for me were magnesium [Mg] supplements.  (Epsom salts ARE magnesium, and taking the capsules of Mg was more convenient than a session sitting in the tub everyday.)  

Even now, post-Lyme, I still take Mg capsules every day, after reading that the American diet is often deficient in Mg.  That's partly why babies are so relaxed after a bottle of warm milk:  it's being held and loved, it's the warmth of the milk, and it's the MAGNESIUM in the MILK.  Mother Nature:  what a wise old gal.

Ah, a bit more about magnesium supplements:  get the good stuff from health food stores or catalogs.  It should be in capsule form for better absorption, and (from what I read) it should *not* have calcium in it, like at least one popular brand does.  Apparently the calcium gets in the way of the Mg being absorbed through your digestive tract.  

The Mg should be of a subtype that ends in "-ate", from what I read:  Mg malate, orotate, aspartate, citrate, and some others.  I particularly like one variety that has Mg citrate, aspartate and orotate [CAO], and I also rotate the Mg CAO with Mg malate, one bottle at a time just to mix it up a bit.  I got mine online from a quite good vitamins/supplement company; I still get my vitamins etc from them (and no, I don't take kickbacks).  If you want the name of the online company, I can send it to you via private message here.

I don't like calling this aspect of Lyme its 'emotional' aspects, because it is too easy to blame 'emo' feelings on one's state of mind.  Yes, it's reasonable to be distressed when one is ill, but Lyme seemed to me to play my heartstrings like a maestro, which didn't enhance my state of mind, y'know?  Lyme messes with the whole endocrine [hormonal] system in odd ways, and thus also affects mood and state of mind.  Just another reason to get those Mg levels up.

One final note:  you may need something other than supplements to make up for the imbalance the Lyme may have caused your system.  I didn't have to go that route, but would have if the vits and supplements didn't work for me.  The good news is:  you can probably get some meds from your doc if needed, and even better, it goes away when the Lyme bugs are evicted and your endocrine system is back to normal.  I kid you not, my mantra -- muttered to myself over and over -- was:  'it's not me; it's the bugz.'  And it was true.

Let us know how you do, okay?   Hang in there.

[RKF55]

Thanks,

Can I ask you another question? I saw a post on here were you once talked about how Lyme messes with your emotions. I have really been getting knotted up inside about something from a long time ago and I really don't understand why it is so strong now. It has been going on now for the last 3 months. Could it be the Lyme messing with me?

[JackieCalifornia]

Sorry about the burn.  The leaflets that come with the meds sometimes don't make it clear how easy it is to get burned ... esp in *Florida*!  You'd think the prescription flyer would note that upfront, but it's a one-size-fits-all label.

If you are still ailing, think about going to a doc (urgent care should do, if you don't have another doc who can see you pretty quickly).  I used to get awful sunburns when I was a kid, esp. in late May when the winter and spring weather finally went away, and we would spend all day on the first nice day getting absolutely fried from the sun.  One year my face even got puffy from the fluid collecting under the skin, like a big blister.  Yuck.

Yeah, it's bad for the skin eventually if you keep doing it, but other than a quick visit to a doc (a storefront doc's office should do) and drinking lots of fluids and staying OUT of the sun till it's all better, there may not be much else to do, esp if you are still on the meds.