Lyme Disease Support Group

Hi everyone,

After being sick since the beginning of April and seeing many, many doctors, I finally found a LLMD in July who has been specializing in Lyme disease for 20 years. After 3 negative titers at my family doctor, my LLMD sent my blood work to Igenex and my results came back in August as being IgM positive for Lyme and positive for babesia.

I have been experiencing on and off chest pains near my heart. Some days I do not have them at all and other days they are defiantly present. The pain will be over my heart to the left of my sternum in a vertical line over my heart or under my left breast. It sometimes moves and I sometimes get pains on the right side of my chest or both sides of the chest also.

I have been having a raised heart rate since the beginning of my illness in April so I was sent to a cardiologist in June who did a 24 halter monitor and an echo of my heart. My average heart rate on the halter monitor was 82 beats per minute and I did have a few extra beats on the top of my heart, which they told me was not serious. My echo showed all of my valves, etc as being normal and my cardiologist felt I did not need any further workup.

I have had 5 or 6 EKGs, all of which have been fine as well as chest x-rays.

Today was another visit to the ER because I got worried again about the pains that I have had over the last 2 days. My EKG was normal. I was concerned about pericarditis which they did not feel I have.

Does anyone else with babesia feel these pains and what causes them? I sometimes feel the "air hunger" and get out of breath easily. My finance is also suspected of having Lyme and Babesia and we are awaiting his results from Igenex. He seems to have far more air hunger than I do and his chest pains seem to be in different areas of his chest than mine.

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated. I am 30 years old and I am really worried about permanent heart damage from this horrible babesia.

My LLMD has not started me on Mepron/azith yet because we have yeast on our tongues and in our urine that is just not going away. She is trying to clear that up before we begin antibiotics that will make it worse.

Thanks is advance!

oh god, air hunger, it's a nightmare. it's like an asthma attack, only I dn't have asthma, it's scary I know that. as far as chest pain, it can be normal with lyme, as it gets into every little crevis of us. it's affected my gall bladder and killed that, surgery coming up for that.

artiminisin is a good natural thing for babs. I woory about heart damage too, it's like I can feel it happen, I too am 30. if you wver want to talk, pm me. don't get to the boards as much as I'd like to. busy behind the scenes. does she have you on diflucan? you MUST do that if you have yeast. also a GOOD probiotic is a MUST when doing long term treatment. yeast alone can cause a whole issue of problems that sound like lyme, and it's dangerous so you must gert that under control.

warmest regards,

j

Welcome to the group, Carla.

I took artemisinin and for the first time in 2 years I have no chest pain. I can breathe and the night sweats are pretty much gone. I only took a short, light course of them so odds are the parasites will bounce back.

My chest pain sounds different from yours though. Mine was a solid, constant pain in the center of my chest. It felt bruised almost. I also have an erratic heartbeat but mine averages 60 beats/min. The doctors say it's not a concern. I worry too though.

At least you have a LLMD. That's great!

Good luck to you, Bonita

I had some heart issues, too. I was just cleaning out my pantry and ran across a pain diary that I kept last year and found lots of entries about my heart. I had a lot of 'racing heart' episodes and my chest would hurt in that area. It would hurt to breathe. I was diagnosesd with mitral valve prolapse and a murmur, but that was back in 2004 and they told me not to worry about it. Naturally, it got worse over the next three years. I probably should have insisted to be checked again, but my docs didn't think anything of any of my complaints. I will not let that happen ever again. Sometimes, I think I am very lucky to be alive. I think it was the babs, but who knows? with all those other coinfection going on at the same time, it's hard to tell.

I have heard great things about artemisinin for treating babs. Honestly, I can't remember what I specifically took to treat babs. I was on many sups and just not sure which one eradicated my babs. But, after I was finally properly treated for Lyme, all of my symptoms are gone, including any heart symptoms. Thank God.

Make sure to tell your LLMD straightforwardly about your concerns regarding your heart. He might not realize how serious your symptoms are becoming.

I know J would wake up in the middle of the night with a heart rate of over 140bpm, for no reason. It was the final symptom that made him think LD. When he found an LLMD, the MD said it was due to having the spirochete in the pericardial sac, causing inflammation, etc. Luckily, he was diagnosed with LD soon after and put on abx, because it was scary when it was happening. He hasn't had any heart symptoms in almost a year now.

Chest pain is a common symptom of babesia. According to my doctor, it's pain off the chest wall. Mine tends to be a little higher than right over my heart, but I still find it scary.

The most effective treatment, through research, has been found to be a combo of zithromax and mephron, which is like eating, horrible, yellow paint. There is some new research out, sorry I don't have a link right now, that shows malarone and the Zith work just as well. People sometimes have insurance problems with all three medications. Right now, I'm trying to get the malarone because I can't get down and keep down the mephron, but my insurance doesn't want to cover it. Many people don't mind the flavor.

Good luck however you decide to treat your babesia.

From what I understand the chest pain is mainly muscle pain. A lot of us lymies have other muscle pain, these are just smaller muscle groups in our chest area that tighten up. If you have been checked out through an echo and a halter monitor I would not worry. Just treat the babesia and it should go away. I had the same sypmtoms of chest pain but after treating the babesia with artemisinin it is gone. I am one of the unfortunate people to get heart damage from lyme but they found the problem through an echo and I am on heart medication as well as natural abx for the lyme. I am finally beginning to feel normal again.

Good luck and take care,

Denise

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I have been sick since April so I am really scared about heart issues, etc.

My LLMD gave me the Mepron/Zith last month when I was diagnosed but I cannot start it until the yeast is under control because she feels it will only get worse when I start treatment.

My tongue has been white since April or May. It has been so long now that I cannot remember exactly when it started. I am not sure if it came from a week of Avelox followed by close to 10 days of amoxicillin 3 times a day, or what brought it on. ( My finance has it also and he was never on antibiotics and is suspected of Lyme as well.)

About a month ago I noticed floaters in my urine and had a urinalysis done which was normal. My LLMD feels it is yeast so I have been on Diflucan for about 15 days now without much improvement.

My LLMD also gave me Nystatin pills for the tongue, but they did nothing. I have been on the Nystatin swish and swallow for about 15 days now and I still the the white tongue.

I am starting to get really discouraged and worried because the yeast is not going away, even on a low carb and low sugar diet with probiotics.

I cannot start treatment for the Babs until it is under control

Post edited by: PACarla, at: 09/07/2008 05:58