posted
Does anyone know if taking Singulair will help with air hunger?
I'm having horrifying breathing/lung issues. I've had all the usual tests, chest x-rays and such, and everything appears fine, but obviously, I'M NOT!
I always feel like I'm being suffocated, like I can't get enough air or a deep enough breath. I've had this symptom before, but never lasting this long. I'm going on four weeks.
Primary doc doesn't know what the H to do. He gave me an inhaler and started me on Advair. Yuck. That has only made it worse. My chest now has a rattle sound to it when I breathe in hard enough and I'm coughing some. I stopped using it only after 3 days.
I'm convinced this is either a co-infection that is acting out like a fierce beast OR I'm having yeasty issues. Maybe both.
In either case, I feel like I'm going insane.
Posts: 81 | From Central PA | Registered: Mar 2007
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savebabe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9847
posted
Have you been tested for babesia?
Posts: 1603 | From ny | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
not yet
Posts: 81 | From Central PA | Registered: Mar 2007
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Health
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6034
posted
I have and had this.
Biaxin and Flagyl worked for this, took it away.
I then went off antibiotics and it came back within 2 months. I went back on antibiotics, the Biaxin and Flagyl did not work anymore, tried them again,
so was put on Azithromycin and Flagyl. This worked for 2 months, then the air hunger was back again, I was put on Doxycycline.
I also did babesia treatment with the Clindamycin and quinine, and this helped, but I also was not having the air hunger issues, but some breathing problems.
I now developed asthma, and we are not sure why., it is not the air hunger, but asthma like breathing.... and I am now on the Rifampin for Bartonella.
I may need IV.
Hope this helps.
Trish
Posts: 1250 | From Canada | Registered: Aug 2004
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beachcomber
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5320
posted
Air hunger is one of my most annoying and scary symptoms. I am being treated for Babs and it is only getting worse. I am taking that as a sign that the meds might be working.
I am on Mepron and Zith. Have you tried that combo? It took away the air humger the first time I took it. But, I relapsed after being off the is combo for about 9 - 10 months.
When I get air hunger I relax. Panicking only makes it worse. Then I focus on breathing ... I do breathing exercises like I used to in band ... breath in for four counts, hold four, then out for four.
Or else I just focus on breathing OUT. Often it's because we're not breathing out all the way that we can't breath in enough air.
Think of how a baby breathes ... their stomach goes in and out ... that's how we should all breath. Focus on breathing like that. You will get deeper and more fulfilling breaths.
This seems to help. I still get it, but it's not as annoying, unless I'm trying to sleep.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
Happens often with Babesia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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Beverly
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 1271
posted
Hi PBizzle,
I had air hunger with Babesia, I took Zithromax, Plaquenil and Malarone for Babs and it did help. I know how scarey it can be.
I still get it on and off, or while herxing, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. However, I am still in treatment for Babesia.
Coffee would help some when I felt I couldn't breath and an over the counter chest congestion relief helped, Guaifenesin.
Beverly
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 1271
posted
Here is some information about Babesia and a symptom list by Tincup. Maybe this will help some.
Dual Infection Worsens Lyme Disease Symptoms.
People with concurrent Lyme disease and babesiosis suffer a greater number of symptoms and a longer duration of illness than patients with either infection alone, concludes a June report in the Journal of the American Medical Association co-authored by several NIAID grantees.
Coinfection with both tick-borne pathogens occurs in about 10 percent of patients in certain areas of southern New England. In these and other areas where both infections exist, the authors write, "the possibility of concomitant babesial infection should be considered when moderate to severe Lyme disease has been diagnosed."
1. The prospective, longitudinal study included all cases of Lyme disease and babesiosis identified during May through September from 1990-1994 in an island community in Rhode Island and during 1992-94 in two Connecticut medical clinics.
Of 240 patients diagnosed with Lyme disease, 26 (11 percent) were coinfected with babesiosis. Coinfected patients more frequently experienced fatigue, headache, sweats, chills, anorexia, emotional instability, nausea, conjunctivitis, and an enlarged spleen than those with Lyme disease alone.
Exactly half of the coinfected patients had at least one symptom, primarily fatigue, that lasted for 3 months or longer compared with just 4 percent of the 184 patients afflicted with Lyme disease only. The ten patients diagnosed with only babesiosis also had fewer symptoms and a shorter course of illness than did patients coinfected with Lyme disease.
Babesial parasites invade red blood cells and cause a malaria-like illness characterized by fever, chills, drenching sweats, muscle pains, headaches, and malaise. In contrast, the Lyme disease spirochete homes to various tissues and causes a flu-like illness, rash, arthritis, and less often, inflammation of the heart and nerve disorders.
The life cycles of both pathogens depend on the same reservoir host, the white-footed mouse, and the same transmission vector, deer ticks. Thus, the possibility of coinfection is of potential importance, the report cautions, to the many people who live or vacation in sites in the northeastern and Great Lakes regions of the United States where these infections are emerging. "Physicians caring for patients with moderate to severe Lyme disease," they write, "should consider obtaining diagnostic tests for babesiosis and possibly other tick-borne pathogens in regions where these diseases are zoonotic...."
NIAID grantees David Persing, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Sam R. Telford III, Sc.D., and Andrew Spielman, Sc.D., both of Harvard University in Boston, contributed to this study.
A second study led by Drs. Telford and Persing raises the possibility of coinfection with still a third pathogen. This study found that the deer tick also is the primary American vector of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), an infection first identified in people just two years ago. In addition, the white-footed mouse is the main reservoir of HGE infection. ****************************************** These are some of my notes from things I studied...
Babesiosis symptoms include: Fatigue * Arthralgias* Myalgia* Drenching sweats* Headaches* Emotional lability* Depression* Dark urine* Splenomegaly* Dizziness* Nausea and vomiting* Cough* Dyspnea* Fever* Chills* Hepatosplenomegaly* Jaundice* Malaise* Shortness of breath* Bleeding tendencies, bruising* Thrombocytopenia* Hemoglobinuria* Hyperesthesia* Pulmonary edema* Encephalopathy* Low to normal range leukocyte counts* Possible elevated levels of dehydrogenase, bilirubin, transaminase* Anorexia***
Approximately 25% of Babesia patients are known to be co-infected with Lyme disease. "As with malaria, these symptoms can continue over a protracted period or abate, then recur."
A chronic infection would normally show a low titer (IgG). An acute or current infection may show a high reading on the IgM test results. There are over 100 species of Babesia in the United States but only ONE or TWO species are currently checked by commercial labs.
Quinine Sulfate is contraindicated in persons with optic neuritis, which is one of the problems many Lyme patients have developed. This medication lists precautions for those with Vitamin K deficiencies and clotting disorders which are often found in patients with Lyme disease. "Seven days of treatment with Quinine" has been proven to "be ineffective in cases that are chronic".
Mepron/Biaxin combo or Mepron/Zithromax are the preferred methods of treatment. It may take a year or more of these combinations. It is recommended that patients who take Mepron for Babesiosis should eat fatty foods to aid in the absorption process. Ginger is found to be helpful to ease nausea in some patients.
There are a number of references warning of false negatives for the Babesia tests, but no references for false positives tests. (Smears, antibodies, PCR, and FISH)
Toxic overloads (HERXHEIMER REACTION) are seen in many cases after medication for Babesiosis is given, generally appearing first on the third to fifth day, and then about every three to five weeks, thereafter.
"Although high titers (even at 1:4096) have been detected in patients in the acute phase, a cut off point of 1:64 is generally accepted as diagnostic in IFA testing." The literature states that a "Titer of 1:64 (is) indicating a chronic or subclinical infection." "Co-infection increases the severity of the disease, therefore, it is important to diagnose and treat both infections." Complications include "relapses". It is recommended to treat Babesiosis before Lyme Disease in order to increase the effectiveness of Lyme treatments.
The highest risks for death: "The elderly, immunosuppressed patients, and splenectomized patients are the typical populations at risk for severe infection. Patients who are co-infected with Lyme disease have a higher risk of life-threatening illness than with either disease alone.
Of the ticks collected (in the NE US) and sent to the IgeneX Lab by Dr. Richard Ostfeld at the Institute of Ecosystems Studies, 43.3 % of the ticks were infected with Babesia microti (November 1998). Serum samples sent to IgeneX Lab in California, by Dr. Richard Horowitz in 1998, reveled 66% tested positive by RNA and/or PCR.
Medical/legal pitfalls- "Failure to initiate immediate therapy in high risk individuals".
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