I just finished up seven days of IV Rocephin and seven days of Doxycycline. She ran blood work again and my platelet count had rebounded to 274 so she deemed me finished. My rash had disappeared by Saturday and my fever finally broke on Saturday as well after hitting a high of 102.5 on Friday afternoon.

So why am I doubting my diagnosis?

1. Everything I’ve read says that the rash shows up 3-5 days AFTER the fever and other symptoms start. That’s one reason why it’s so difficult to diagnose because when you first present, you just seem like you have the flu. My rash started at least by the 8th of June and was there before then – I just don’t remember exactly when. But I know it was there on the 8th because I was a little worried when I went to get my massage and just told her to focus on my back and neck because of it.

2. Everything says that the rash starts as pink macules around the wrists and ankles and then spreads. Mine started on the inside of my thighs and spread from there. It did start spreading when the fever started but I never had the pink macule rash. And it was never even on my ankles or wrists.

3. The petechiae rash that I had (small little dots) is considered an indicator of late stage RMSF. Wouldn’t I have been hospitalized if that was the case? Especially since mine has always been that and it had been around for at least three weeks when the fever started? RMSF is suppose to be deadly if you don’t get treatment in eight days and you need treatment by day five to avoid complications.

4. The fever was really odd. I had a fever on Sunday, nothing Monday to Wednesday, and then a fever again beginning on Thursday that broke Saturday. The fever typically doesn’t come and go – or at least not that I’ve read.

Maybe I’m trying to justify it or just flat our deny the fact that I managed to get bitten by yet another tick that happened to have other tick diseases when I spend zero time outside? I don’t know.

All I know is I’m glad that I did get treatment. RMSF is certainly nothing to play around with so even if there was a thought it could be that, I did need treatment. The treatment she gave me also treats Lyme so that’s not a bad thing either.

I really think it was an allergic reaction to the herbal meds. I’ve read in the past few days that allergic reactions can cause fever as well. And when I looked up pictures of rashes from drug allergies, it looked just like mine. And it would make sense that it did spread as I kept increasing the dosage of the medication.

If that’s the case, maybe I wasn’t herxing at all. I was just having an allergic reaction to the medications. Because in seven days of Rocephin and Doxy together, I didn’t have a herx reaction (*knock on wood* – I haven’t said anything to anyone because I didn’t want to jinx myself). When I started on Doxy originally, I had a big herx on the 4th day and with Rocephin, it was the 2nd day. This time, other than a little nausea if I didn’t eat with the Doxy, I couldn’t even tell I was taking anything.

I guess the only way I would know for sure is to try the herbal meds again but I’m scared to do that now. Also the antibodies to RMSF and Ehrlichia should both show up on blood tests in a few weeks too.

For now, I’ll just be glad I had treatment and that maybe not having a herx means the Lyme is under control.

As always, time will tell….