Doxycycline Hyclate and lyme disease

Am on my second 3-week course of doxycycline for Lyme disease since the first go round didn't eradicate the infection. Have all the classic side effects mentioned, however the stomach ailments are GREATLY alleviated by taking a strong (70 billion parts per capsule) probiotic. Take it half way between the 2 doxycycline doses and although it isn't magic it does make a difference.
Although I have no appetite, I try to graze lightly on foods that appeal to me throughout the day and that seems to help with many of the horrific side effects.
Also, my MD suggested I take Aleve and NOT Ibuprofen for headaches since the Ibuprofen can cause a "headache" kickback (and causes stomach pain). Don't know if that's true, but the Aleve seems to help a little.
Worst side effects for me are utter exhaustion, dizziness, stomach pain, sore throat, and a head that hurts feels like it is filled with wet cotton. Also heart palpitations which may be part of the Lyme disease.
Hope some of this helps.

On doxycycline now for 3 weeks 100 mg twice per day. I can't stop yawning. I am so tired and it is difficult to concentrate.
Suppose to take the regimen for at least 6 weeks for chronic lyme disease. I skipped last night's dose. Although I am so tired I feel at night like I have a fever and do not sleep more than 6 hours.
-Lizydoo

I had to take Doxycycline for 3 weeks last August when a tick bite I had developed the classic "bulls eye"... a sign of Lyme disease. Everything went well for the first 10 days then I started getting kind of nervous and couldn't sleep well at night. I was constantly starving, really ravenous and had to eat constantly otherwise the nausea got worse. I was glad when I was finally able to stop taking the meds, BUT then after 24 hours I became depressed and really fuzzy in my head and disoriented. This lasted for another 2-4 days. I'm feeling much better now, but I have noticed that I'm just a lot more sensitive to other stimulants...coffee, sugar, alcohol, chocolate. I know I have a few other allergies, hay fever, food allergies etc. I was just wondering, does anyone else out there who has had a negative reaction to doxy have any other allergies or intolerances, or asthma? How much sugar, either in the form of sweets or alcohol do you usually consume? Daily, weekly, monthly...none at all? Feedback would be greatly appreciated. I would like to get to the root of this problem.

hi,
i have been on 100 mgs twice daily for bulls eye rash. i am awaiting initial lab results.
anyhow in the morning or whenever my stomach is empty.(told to take on empty stomach via enclosed pamphlet courtesy of pharmacy) The nausea takes over i try to get a piece of toast down it is agonizing! then when the nausea calms down, i them have burping problems the rest of the day also having slight boughs of dizziness. i want to quit after 9 days. i am really not eating because of the discomfort. these are my synopsis of issues with this med.
cc

I started taking Doxycycline on Jan 22, 2007 for Lyme Disease. I usually get nausea and/or vomiting with most antibiotics so I try and take precautions. The first day I took it I had nausea, headache, dizziness and a feeling of being "out of it". by the 3rd day the dizziness and the feeling of being "out of it" was gone but after I took it in the morning within 1/2 hour I started feeling severe esophagus pain. It's not like heartburn because it's right below my rib cage. That night I started noticing feeling like there was a lump in my throat. By the next morning the lump felt like a huge knot. Now, It hurts every time I swallow, the esophagus pain never ends. Last night I spent the night crying feeling like everything was hopeless. I thought it was just because I've been dealing with the pain from Lyme and now the pain from the medicine now that I read this message board, I wonder if the hopeless, despondent feeling is from this medication. I have 2 more weeks on this I don't think I can take it that long. I haven't eaten anything because it hurts to swallow and it burns. I cry all the time. I did not read that depression was a side effect but it seems a lot of people are experiencing the exact same symptoms. I don't know how some people have been on it so long. Just the thought of taking another is depressing me beyond belief.

Took only one Doxy, caused tremendous stomach pain. Subsided as day went on and felt ok. Went to bed and slept only a short time, awoke because of nightmares, hallucination type nightmares, very scary. I have checked around nightmares w/doxy are common. Very exhausted today will not take again until I hear from Md. Taking for Lyme Disease & I know symptoms can increase (herxing), but I believe this was side effect related.

I took Doxy for 1 month to treat Lyme disease. It was awful. I can't imagine taking this long-term. I had many of the side-effects already mentioned but two I haven't seen are dandruff and metallic taste in my mouth which totally ruined drinking water. Both of these effects eventually went away after abx stopped. The fuzzy-thinking was dangerous. One evening, about an hour after taking it, when this symptom was the worst, I was climbing off my boat and somehow tripped myself and fell onto the dock. I still don't understand what I did to make myself fall. Just very spacey. I sprained some ribs. So be careful right after taking this drug. Now I'm trying a long-term use of the Peruvian herb Samento, as I believe the Lyme bacteria is gone but can't prove it. So this is my safeguard approach. Best wishes to all.

I had encephalitis or meningitis (not sure) last September. Anyway, I got a PICC line and had doxycycline running through it for nearly two months. Two weeks ago I was in terrible pain and was in the hospital because I developed blood clots in my arm and the causticity of the doxy burned the veins and surrounding tissue in my chest. I have never known a worse agony and misery. My veins were all constricted in defense mode. I read on the internet that doxy should never be given through a PICC line long term. I'm so angry with my doctor for letting this happen to me. I have Lyme disease and have suffered immensely with it for five years, but this took the cake. I HATE antibiotics!

I took 300mg of doxycycline a day for three weeks because I had Lyme Disease. It made my stomach upset but if I found if I ate a few saltine crackers with the pills it took care of the nausea. I also noticed that I became very anxious at times while on the medication. I have been off of the antibiotics now for six days and I still have a painful swollen rash on my hands. I work outside and was exposed to the sun while on Doxy and got the standard sun rash we all know about. What I don't understand is why it is getting worse now, even though I am off the antibiotics. It is so bad that I have been lathering my hands in neospirin and wrapping them with gauze to try and heal them faster, but it doesn't seem to be working.

I started taking the pill 2 weeks ago for ance problems. I have experienced severe nausea, and an extreme burning sensation in the sun! I also have chest pains. my acne doesnt seem to be getting too much better.The nausea is sometimes unbearable! We'll see what happens when i keep taking it.

I have been on Doxycycline for two weeks for Lyme disease. I stopped three days ago. While on it I felt very depressed and moody, as well as tired and nauseous. Last night I woke up with the sensation that my whole body was on fire, my back especially. My face itches as well and I am no longer even on the drug.

I was prescribed doxycycline for possible lyme disease as a precautionary measure after a tick bite followed by a rash and fever. I took only two doses, and since, have been so completely nauseous, it's difficult to function. I've had terrible acid reflux and get the shakes and horrible stomach pain if I don't eat immediately when I feel hungry. My stomach aches constantly and I haven't had a bowel movement for a week. It has been 5 days since I took the last dose.

Have been taking 200mg Doxycycline for Lyme disease now for almost 4 months, definately eat before taking as it does cause you to be sick. I have a weird tingling in my lips, am always thirsty and tired.

Some of you may well have Lyme disease. Sounds like Herxheimer reactions in many of you. Basically it is a worsening/onset of symptoms, after taking antibiotics.
As Lyme spirochaetes die off, Toxins are released causing myriad symptoms. Then when you quit taking, symptoms remain, as Lyme disease needs many weeks/months of AB treatment to kill. Also take pineapple juice and acidophylus supplements/yogurt, for digestive issues. Totally quit alcohol and sugar.

Nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, acid stomach, dry mouth, dry throat, tight breathing.

I'm taking 200 mg doxycycline, twice a day. I'm 6 weeks into a 9 week regimen for suspected but unconfirmed lyme disease (no memory of tick bite and no positive tests), and in conjunction with permanent Ceftin 500 mg twice daily as a prophylactic against strep which triggered an apparent and ongoing Rheumatic Fever. (I think my doctor is more confused than I am.)

I've gotten nausea and acid stomach, but both of these are lessened if I drink a large glass of water with the doxycycline. 200 mg can be hard to keep down.

I vomited once but only after taking it with other medicines which my doctor assured me wouldn't interfere. So I spaced them apart by 2 hours and started eating some food prior to the doxycycline, and the result was no more nausea or vomiting, and a much easier time.

Headache & dizziness are reduced when I take the doxycycline with food, and then it seems not to hit me as fast or as hard, and so I tolerate it much better.

At first I thought the doxycylline was helping relieve some kind of bronchial infection, but it was actually just drying out my mucus membranes. Now I wake up early with dry mouth, dry throat, and even my lungs get dry which is causing mild difficulty breathing. The bronchitis I thought it was helping was actually not an infection but an autoimmune symptom of the Rheumatic Fever, and it wasn't really helping with that, it just made it drier. Now instead of coughing up fluid, I get this unproductive dry pain when I cough, and my cough sometimes tastes like blood. I feel the dry pain in my lungs all the time now. I'd rather have the fluid.

3 weeks left on this regimen, which seems like an eternity, but I'll try to stay the course since I want to rule out lyme disease. All these high-dose powerful antibiotics and doctors don't even know what I have. They don't seem to be helping me much.

wow
I look doxycycline hyclate (Doryx) for a questionable problem. It gave me wierd feelings, a strange rash , gas, indigestion....and I have been off ot for 2 weeks and I swear I am not right yet. strange nausea and just feel wierd from it!

My intestines and stomach are still not right...my daughter also took this for suspected lyme disease and said she was so messed up from it.

I swear I will never take this stuff ever again!

I have been prescribed Doxycycline 100mg twice daily for suspected Lyme disease. I have never experienced such strong side effects from taking an antibiotic before! The morning dose is the worst by far for me. It makes me feel incredibly nauseous and it makes me feel hot with stomach pains. I feel like being sick all the time for about 3-4 hours after taking it - I have tried lots of water and food but I still feel like crap! After about 4 hours I start to feel a little better then I feel like eating lots and lots!!! My body just seems to be swinging from feeling like I am dying to being very hungry hours later... I take the last pill about 10pm and stay downstairs for about a hour before I go to bed - strangely enough though I have never felt ill like I do in the morning and go to sleep ok. All very weird and I cant wait until I have finished taking this drug (14 day course and I am half way through)

Oh my goodness. I am so glad to be able to read your posts on doxy. I am taking 100mg twice/day for third bout of lyme disease. The first two times on doxy were not a problem. You know what they say .. third time is a charm.
Anyway, two days after starting the doxy my hands got numb/tingly and drove me crazy (very hard to fly fish with tingly hands). Then it was my feet and right cheek. I noticed that despite being covered up and using sunscreen that any sun now on my hands makes them start tingling.
It is now one week since the start of the pills and I do notice these symptoms going away - good thing too.

I started taking doxycycline 3 days ago, 100 mg. 2x/day for Lyme disease. I seem to be sleeping an awful lot, but the chief side effect is the nausea. This morning I vomited about 35 minutes after taking the pool. I'd eaten a little breakfast, but still felt incredibly nauseous. I just ate a large dinner and took the pill immediately after. I hope to keep it down.

My doctor prescribed doxycycline for stage one of lyme disease just a few days back. Since taking the medication, (100mg twice daily), I have experienced nausea.. most prominent with the morning dose. What surprised me most was when I read the e-mail from another individual who noted that they feel cold all the time, although the temperature outside is warm. Prior to taking the doxycycline, I was running a low temp of just over 100. My temperatures are back to the more normal range now but, I have been freezing and wondering what has been going on!! Perhaps, yet another side effect of doxycycline????

My side effects for doxycycline are when I am outside, my nose and cheeks freeze when the wind blows, I feel like it's 10 below when it's 62 and sunny, and my calves are extremely itchy. I'm taking 100mg capsules twice a day for stage 1 lyme disease.

I got bitten by a tick about a month ago. A week later I was having severe muscle pain and pin prick sensations all over.
Last Friday ( about three weeks after the bite) I got a rash on my breast. It cleared up with Triple ointment in three days but made me worry about Lyme disease. I went to the emergency room Sunday. The doctor assured me he didn't think I had Lyme but I did have systoms. He gave me doxycycline for Lyme.(even though there was no tests to confirm that I had it). Today is Wednesday and an hour after I took the pill this morning I got very dizzy, almost passed out and began vomiting. Tonight the nausea is gone but I still feel weird i.e. lightheaded/dizzy. I spent the morning in the same emergency room to be told it couldn't be a reaction to the doxycycline. They gave me an antihistamine and pills for vertigo. Yeah RIGHT!!! They didn't even try to find out what was making me dizzy. Sorry, no meds for me to be used as a "bandaid".

Taking 100mg twice a day for lyme disease. Bad reaction to the sun. Started with tingling of the hands, feet, knees and bottom lip, and now I have a rash along my arm, hands, feet and face - very attractive. Be careful in the sun! Also have a pain with the symptoms of an ulcer right below my breast bone - very gassy!

Side effects similar to ones stated. Very sensitive to natural sunlight with tingling and burning. Seems to hit my hands, fingers, crease of the elbow and toes. No numbness or anything. Taking 100 mg 2 times a day for lyme disease infection. Seems to cause the nausea after I eat though.

Taking DOXYCYCLINE 100MG CAPSULE WAT (1 tablet, twice per day) for confirmed case of Lyme Disease. Experiencing pins and needles in both hands especially when washing. Lower abdominal aches/bloating. When out in the sun had wierd feeling on skin, some what like a bad sunburn when didn't actually have a sun burn.

I have been taking the drug for over a week now to treat ehrlichiosis, a lyme disease. The low grade headache is more than I can bear. I also have reflux and this drug is making it much worse esp in the morning after I eat. I am very foggy but not sure if that is from the disease or the drug.

Skin sensitivity. Have to take for 3 weeks for Lyme disease. Am willing to put up with tiny side effects over those from Lyme disease. I think many of the symptoms people have been complaining about here are directly unrelated to Doxycycline.

I was precribed doxycycline for 10 days after a tick bite (prophylaxis for Lyme disease). Developed serious nausea on day two, followed by continuous low grade nausea. Complete loss of appetite, and terrible fatigue. Developed low level chest pains and tightening of chest on day 6. Chest pain increased through day 7 and is now approaching acute level. I'm not taking any more of this stuff - calling doctor in the morning.