THE THIRD HERB: TEASEL

I have added Teasel to my herbal protocol, and it’s doing things the Samento-Banderol combination wasn’t doing alone. The sinus infection, which simply would not go away, not with eight different antifungal meds, not with nasal sprays or neti pots or extra long q-tips pushed up my nose, is now on its way out. I’ve been spending half my days plastered to the couch from the Herxheimer reaction, feeling the far back of my sinuses get itchy and drain; the other half of my days are mostly devoted to the busy-work of illness, with an hour salvaged here and there for writng.

A week ago as I was filling out a lab bill, I asked The Poet what our zip code was. For the life of me I couldn’t remember it, except that it started with nine and probably had an eight in it. I’ve also been extremely crabby on Teasel, and at other moments suddenly drowning in cry-me-an-ocean sadness. I’ve had a few days when I felt high—time seemed to be passing in a slow, ethereal, pace and simultaneous sprinting by too fast for me to take in. I couldn’t think ahead about anything, not even what I was going to have for lunch or what shoes to wear. On those days, I lay on the couch in a dreamy state with Cleopatra on my legs. A different week, I almost thought I was coming down with a cold: I had a sore throat, my sinuses were flowing, and I was coughing yellow phlegm out of my lungs. But these things were not a cold; they waxed and waned with each dose of Teasel until they passed.

With the Samento and Banderol, I felt the Herx mostly in my body. I gasped for breath in a moderately paced dance class. My back ached when I went out to run. My ribcage was so tender the Poet couldn’t hug me without me yelping with pain. (The Byron White herbal remedy called “NT Detox” helped with both these things.) Teasel, on the other hand, is bringing on more Herxheimer action in my upper body and head. It makes me glad I’ve been using the two-doctor approach. Dr. Ross (my MD) put me on the Samento-Banderol in the first place, and Nesreen (the ND) added the Teasel. I’d be interested to hear if anyone reading this has found other herbs helpful for Lyme disease. Comments welcome!