I just found out that I can't take any macrolide antibiotics, ever. I was on Erythrmycin and ended up in the emergency room with ventricular tachycardia this weekend. It happened to me on Zithro too several years a go.
I guess in rare cases macrolide antibiotics can cause tachycardia. Well this upsets me. I am allergic to Bactrim and now can't take any macrolides either.
I'm scared that I will have some kind of problem with other antibiotics too. I was fine on Ceftin, but it didn't really help either.
Am I going to be able to get rid of the lyme since I can't use several of the anibiotics normally used as treatment?
Kathy
[ 07. April 2006, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: aiden424 ]
Posted by millymollymandy (Member # 7703) on :
Hi Kathy, I have the same problem. The only antibiotics I can take are Ceftin & Flagyl. How long were you taking the Ceftin for?
Posted by aiden424 (Member # 7633) on :
I was on Ceftin for about 6 months. I have to start Flagyl this week. I'm a little scared.
Kathy
Posted by Christine202 (Member # 6158) on :
I have the same problem.... it has gotten worse in the last year. I was given Biaxin for a sinus infection and ended up with major tachardia.
Tried Zithro and got the same thing.
Its too bad b/c I think they are a good class of drugs for Lyme...wish I could take them.
Posted by AZURE WISH (Member # 804) on :
Dont give up hope I have had sucess on other kind of abx.
I made alot of progress on Bicillin/flagyl.
Posted by kmr57 (Member # 8752) on :
quote:Originally posted by aiden424: I just found out that I can't take any macrolide antibiotics, ever. I was on Erythrmycin and ended up in the emergency room with ventricular tachycardia this weekend. It happened to me on Zithro too several years a go.
I guess in rare cases macrolide antibiotics can cause tachycardia. Well this upsets me. I am allergic to Bactrim and now can't take any macrolides either.
I'm scared that I will have some kind of problem with other antibiotics too. I was fine on Ceftin, but it didn't really help either.
Am I going to be able to get rid of the lyme since I can't use several of the anibiotics normally used as treatment?
Kathy
Kathy, I would suggest to you, and it might be a good topic to discuss with your physician that the effect you are seeing from macrolide abxes is not a side effect of the drug, but actually the disease itself. Many patients, myself included, have cardiac involvement with Lyme disease.
I have corresponded with others about the macrolides and this effect, too, as well as discussed it with my physician, LLNP, and cardiologist. We have surmissed that it is a herxheimer reaction that is causing the various cardiac manifestions when taking macrolides and (some other classes of abx).
So, that class of drugs is targeting the heart WELL , as evidenced by a cardiac herx. (That's good news). The trick to taking them is careful monitoring, and proper treatment with proper meds while herxing, and keeping herxing at a level where "incidents" that are grave don't occur. When using abxes that target the borrelia in the heart, I must have BP meds to control hypertension, tachycardia, and also quick nitro, to control angina.
So, even though I do experience these increased effects, due to herxing, I find it well worth it, as I am reducing the pathogen load in the cardiac region, and in the long run, my cardiac health will improve.
Getting on board with a good lyme literate cardiologist in addition to an LLMD if heart involvement is severe, is a good idea. Baseline testing can be done, and problems isolated so they can be treated (or exacerbation predicted in herx foreshadowed). I have electrical conduction impairment, not enough blood reaching the lower part of heart, arteriosclerosis (which cardiology is now looking at bacterial causation as a possibility), tachycardia, hypertension, and unstable angina. So I know prior to taking certain abx that these will be aggravated and evidenced by herxing, and am prepared with the proper meds, so that I don't end up in the ER.
Best wishes, kmr
Posted by aiden424 (Member # 7633) on :
Thanks for all the info. I have not tried Bicillin yet, so maybe that will be something I can try.
My Lyme doctor didn't think it was a herx that caused the tachycardia. A small amount of people actually get the tachycardia from the antibiotic. He told me to never take another Macrolide antibiotic, ever.
Hopefully there are other good antibiotics that will work just as well.
Kathy
Posted by cantgiveupyet (Member # 8165) on :
Your not alone , i had a horrid experience with Zmax. My duck said if it wasnt for the steroid it would have been worse. YIKES...this was a few months prior to lyme diagnosis. My symptom at the time was panick like symptoms, and my tongue felt swollen and numb.
On the Zmax, i felt like i was suffocating, and couldnt swallow...everything in my mouth was numb.
I often wonder if this was my first herx. The numb throat cleared up a week later.
I wont touch the stuff again...i think we do have other options though.
Posted by aiden424 (Member # 7633) on :
I actually had that feeling of not being able to swallow too for the first couple of days on Erythromycin. It went away though after a couple of days. I had no problems with it after that for about 6 weeks. Then I started to have severe tachycardia.
I stopped taking the Erythromycin for several days and the tachycardia cleared up. I waited 3 days and then I took another Erythro, they are only 250mg, and my pulse jumped to 128 with in 2 hours of taking the Erythromycin. I'm on Atenolol and my pulse is normally 69.
I had the exact same problem on Zithro.
Kathy
On the Zmax, i felt like i was suffocating, and couldnt swallow...everything in my mouth was numb.
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Sorry about your bad experiences. Don't have any opinion on the cause, but I also had the cardiac herx with IV zithromax, like kmr posted. Went to the ER. Stopped the drug. Went back on it later without this big reaction, am assuming because the bacterial load had decreased.
Aggravating that these things can have multiple causes and it is hard to tell herx from allergy, from side effects, from disease flare.
Posted by aiden424 (Member # 7633) on :
I thought it was some kind of herx too, but I guess the antibiotic can cause ventricular tachycardia is some people.
My LLMD is DR. C and he is the one that told me to never take a Macrolide again. I figure he knows the difference.
I did research it after I taked to Dr C and on rxlist.com it does say that in rare cases you can have ventricular tachycardia from Erythro.
I have great respect for my doctor, and totally trust their judgement. So I will not take Macrolide antibiotics ever again.
Kathy
[ 08. April 2006, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: aiden424 ]
Posted by klutzo (Member # 5701) on :
Dear Kathy, I have great empathy for your problem. I too had what I thought years later might have been a major Herx with Zith, where my heart went nuts and I swelled up like one giant hive and went to the ER. Doctors ignored me for hours, thinking it was an anxiety attack (typical).
This was during the years when I was misdiagnosed as having fibromyalgia, and took ABX once in awhile for other reasons. Over the years, I had so many reactions, I ended up with only one ABX I was not allergic to, Cipro.
After finding out I really had Lyme, I went to an allergist and had skin tests for all the ABX, expecting to find that I was not really allergic to them, but had just been herxing. Imagine my surprise when all my tests were as highly positive for allergy as they possibly could be!
So, I am up the creek without a paddle. I have only herbs to rely on to treat my LD. They make me herx like crazy, but I am not much better after 3 years of constant tx. I am not sure if I can blame that on no ABX, or on very poor ability to excrete toxins, having an ApoE4 genotype. This is not relevant to your problem, however.....
My point is that it may be worth your while to have an allergist give you proper skin testing so you can determine what is allergy and what is herxing. That way, if you are not really allergic, you may be able to take the best possible ABX for what you are trying to accomplish and take precautions to protect against too much herxing.