Our babysitter is having chest pain on the left side of her body and her heart seems to be racing a lot. Also her left arm was completely numb last night and is still pretty numb. She has had the left arm tingling and numbness before, but now it's with the chest pain and rapid heart beat.
Has anyone had this? It almost seems like a heart attack but I know that others have had rapid heartbeat from lyme.
She is being treated for lyme (only 750 mg tetra) and has been herxing pretty bad since she started about 3 weeks ago.
My other question is, do you think 750 is enough to herx on? She has had neuro symptoms for a long time (8 years), so I'm guesing she is herxing.
Thanks,
tickbattler
Posted by tdtid (Member # 10276) on :
Chest problems are always tricky here. Chest pain was actually my very first symptom I had when I started going to the doctor.
At that time I did all the heart tests, all the way to the heart catherization. They said my heart was fine, so it must be anxiety. OoooKKKay!
Five years later as other things went haywire, I finally got the lyme, bart, babs diagnosis.
With that said, I do know I've had some herxing with some pretty severe chest pain and yes, it does cause numbing and left arm and shoulder pain, etc, etc, etc.
Sadly, when we have lyme, it COULD be a herx, but you don't want to just start assuming everything is herxes, especially when it's chest pain.
My doctor had me go in for an ECG to atleast check it out. Better safe than sorry.
As far as if certain dosages can cause racing hearts and all the things that go with it... sadly, this is very dependant from person to person.
Depending on how heavy your load is, some will herx on extremely weak meds and others can tolerate much more.
But yet later, on a different med, you can have totally opposite results. Every med is different for each person.
If it were me, I'd definitley atleast get it checked out. Very well could be a herx, but why take the chance?
Cathy
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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Herxing or not, lyme or not - for anyone - as you describe it:
" . . . chest pain on the left side of her body and her heart seems to be racing a lot. Also her left arm was completely numb last night and is still pretty numb. She has had the left arm tingling and numbness before, but now it's with the chest pain and rapid heart beat. . . ."
This can indicate heart problems and she should see a doctor ASAP.
Can't her own doctor be called for advice ? She should not wait.
Even if she is feeling better, sounds like she should see a doctor today at urgent care.
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Posted by LymeCFIDSMCS (Member # 13573) on :
I have had a lot of cardiac problems, including those you mentioned here -- mine are mostly bartonella-related and have improved only on bartonella drugs & herbs.
I agree she has to get to the ER or to a doctor stat. This can't wait. It might also be prudent to read up on the specific symptoms that women have during heart attacks, as they can differ quite substantially from those of men and women are so often told they're just having an anxiety attack.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
YES!! Tell her to get to the ER ASAP!!!
Posted by DL_Utah (Member # 8815) on :
Yes, heart symptoms often go with lyme and can occur on just about any level of antibiotics. I have been battling lyme-related heart symptoms for awhile now and even micro doses of antibiotics have an effect on my heart rate and rhythm.
I would not take these symptoms lightly, though. Because it is the heart, they must be checked out to rule out other serious problems. There may also be something a cardiologist could prescribe to help alleviate the symptoms.
I have seen a couple of cardiologists and have had many tests run. The tests all came back normal, but at least I know now.
Good luck. Heart symptoms are no fun and can be scary.
Posted by Amanda (Member # 14107) on :
like others said, she should go to the ER and get it checked out.
Even if ER doesn't find anything, she should make an appointment with cardiologist, to cover all bases.
I have had similar problems (racing heart, left arm pains, numbness and tingling etc). For me, it was a combo of babs and lyme. When I started meds for Babesea, my heart went back to normal (yipee!), but arm pain/numbness and tingling are still there (boooo!).
Posted by groovy2 (Member # 6304) on :
Hi All
Having chest pain especially on the left side of the body Can be caused by inflammation of the connective tissue on the ribs-
This is Very Common - I had it too - from what I have seen at least half of the people with babs will have this at some point-
Sorry I cant remember the name of this condition but BlackMom had a post about this about 15 months ago--
She explained what is going on well -
Most people that have this think they are having some type of heart problem -- I did too -
Many Many people get heart exams and from what I have seen they ALL come back negative--
Hope this helps--Jay--
Posted by jjeennnniiee (Member # 7964) on :
Hi Jay,
Are you referring to costochondritis?
If not, my apologies.
If so, here's a link to what Wikipedia has to say about it...
Love, Light, & Health, Jennie
Posted by hcconn22 (Member # 5263) on :
Yes, had the exact symptoms.
Then had a full cardiology work up, EKG, Ultrasound and stress test. ALL OK.
After 3 months of abx treatments symptoms were gone.
Posted by mushroomman06 (Member # 13088) on :
Yes I had the same problem. This was one of the first symtoms that took me to my first doctor. After EKG, Stess test, wearing monitor, heart spec. said all was well. This was in 2001, Found out I had LYME in 2007. I really at times thought I was going to have a heart attack. This problem has stopped since starting treatment with a LLMD
Posted by Dawnee (Member # 15089) on :
Yes, those sorts of heart problems were one of my first symptoms when it started getting out of hand.
Cardiologists did tests, had heart monitor for a month, EKGs, Echocardiogram etc... and heart is "fine" structually.
My heart symptoms decreased dramatically after starting treatment.