I went to an intern doc today to get my chest pain,heart skips, cough checked out. He checked my chest throughly, did an ekg, took a strep test, blood work..everything was naormal. Told me I could have some gastro reflux and take this privioc (sp?). But, i stopped crying, and I feel better that I went, and all is good, so now I know the pain I have must be lyme. BUT -I made 3 other appointments -1 tomorrow to see a cardiovascular doc, and next week to see a pulmonary and ENT. Should I still see the cardo doc, since my heart was fine? I don;t want to do another ekg? I might just go to the chest and ENT doc? What should I do?
Posted by jlc (Member # 18061) on :
I went today as well to my normal GP for the attacks I have been getting in my sternum area that penitrates through my back up to my neck and shoulders. I seriously felt something was wrong with my heart again, it has been in the past.
Same thing, they listened to my heart a couple times, did an EKG and it was completely normal. It is hard for me to believe that Lyme really causes those attacks. I feel like I am going to die.
I am also contemplating going to another dr, and infectious disease dr just to get another opinion. Only because the LLMD that I did go see that is treating me doesn't do any testing. He only treats based on my sympton. I must admit I am skeptical.... Sorry to say that as I know he has done great things for others.
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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Go ahead and keep your appointments. Just tell them what has happened.
They will have more extensive testing.
This is a great deal of stuff but you might want to glance over it:
Cardiac Insufficiency Hypothesis - article and many links, including to: Pittler MH, Schmidt K, Ernst E., Hawthorn extract for treating chronic heart failure: meta-analysis of randomized trials. Am J Med. 2003 Jun 1;114(8):665-74. [PDF Format]
VIDEO: A three-hour talk by Dr. Cheney on diastolic cardiomyopathy and ME/CFS.
CFS and Diastolic Cardiomyopathy - Paul Cheney, M.D., Ph.D.
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New Research on Cardiac Insufficiency
several articles
There is new research from a New Jersey team, authored by Doctors Arnold Peckerman, Benjamin Natelson et al., which found left-ventricular dysfunction following exertion and orthostatic stress in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
The WedMD article and the press release are available at the link below. In an NIH-funded study on impedance cardiography also linked below, Peckerman and Natelson found that low cardiac output correlated with symptom severity in ME/CFS.
Dr. A. Martin Lerner . . . Viral infection persists in the heart, causing left-ventricular dysfunction, producing exercise intolerance. Exercise, in turn, worsens the cardiac dysfunction. . . .
More recently, physicist, physician, long-time ME/CFS researcher and clinician, and heart-transplant recipient Paul Cheney, M.D., Ph.D., has offered an alternative theory that a subset of ME/CFS patients suffer from a diastolic cardiomyopathy, a problem with ventricular filling resulting from mitochondrial dysfunction and low ATP energy in the heart.
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Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
Try doubling the amount of magnesium you are taking. I have a lymie friend who got rid of irregular heartbeat doing that. Said it went away in 1 day!