"Healing is not linear" has been my mantra. It's a reminder that whatever health struggles I'm having, doesn't necessarily mean I'm going backwards. Treating Lyme disease is most definitely an exercise in patience. It's been almost 2 1/2 years, and remission still eludes me. It's hard to not become frustrated and discouraged, but I'm doing my best to remain optimistic and focus on how far I've come. Theoretically, the further along in treatment you are, the less you experience herxheimer reactions. For some reason, that hasn't proven true in my case. I spent the second half of October and a good part of September herxing nearly non-stop, the same symptoms I've been dealing with since January - shoulder, neck and jaw pain, but mostly centered in the shoulders. It became so bad that it started affecting me emotionally, so I finally decided to go down to the lowest dose of herbs 3 times a day, and then slowly work my way back up. I a