My teenager daughter was quite shocked yesterday to look in the mirror and see that her chin was black and blue--as though bruised--though it didn't hurt at all and nothing had happened (she didn't get chucked in the chin by a two-by-four, she didn't fall and hit her chin, nobody slugged her.) The discoloration seems to be spreading to a bit wider area than it was yesterday. She's been on Lyme treatment for over a year now, so she certainly takes a boat-load of abx and supplements--might this somehow be a reaction to one of her medicines? Can anybody shed light on this situation?
Posted by savebabe (Member # 9847) on :
Has she been tested for babesia? I know from personal experience that this co-infection caused bruising all over my body. I would just bump into something and I would get a mark.
Posted by jblral (Member # 8836) on :
up
Posted by Lisianthus (Member # 6631) on :
I second the vote for Babs.
Posted by CaliforniaLyme (Member # 7136) on :
My daughter and I both got tons of "inside bruises" while we had Babesiosis- meaning they were caused by the inside, not from bumping things. Hers were always the size of her little toddler fingertips- mine tended to be the size of my adult fingertips- UNTIL mine got REALLY bad and I began to have "Dominoes bruising" where I would have a pain somewhere and THEN within 5 minutes I would see a bruise begin and SPREAD- in that same place= very creepy- always black black black blue bruises- the largest one was 6 by 4 inches on my leg and had me on my way to the ER!!!! Basically- peripheral vascular COLLAPSE.
Scary thing-
It was from hemolysis, the breakdown of the red blood cell walls. That same week I went to give blood for testing and the phlebotomist drew my blood THREE times and kept spinning it to separate the white and red blood cells but it kept mashing together because the walls of my cells kept breaking. She thought the first time was just a weird mistake and said, "I have to do it again, sorry!!!" (I was still there because I got a Vagus nerve thing with Lyme where I faint when blood is drawn so I was sitll lying down!) And then when it happened again, she was irate and said, "We'll try once more!"
I said, "What does it mean>?"
She said, "Well, its reallly weird because the only time that blood does this is when it's hemolyzing which only occurs in a few rare conditions."
"Could you look them up>?"
So she went to her reference book and said, "Okay, it happens with this disease called Beb-beb- Bebes-eeeo-ses!"
"You mean Babesiosis>?" asked me.
"How did you know that>?" she asked.
She was astounded.
"Because that's what I have." I said.
My doctor said it is usually transient while on Mepron and that it would go away and I would get better and he was right. My bruises all went away...
BUT the thing that makes this story ultra creepy in real life for me is that when we bought the house where I got Lymed clearing brush, this house wwhere we live (at the base of the state park with the highest rate of Lyme in California) we were told about a fatality in the house 20 years before. It was a 16 year old girl named Wendy Ann Hunter who died of meningitis and "peripheral vascular collapse". We have a copy of her death certificate in our house file.
STILL scares the bejesus out of me. My older daughter has her room...
Also our first babysitter here who lived on our street had a history of Lyme disease at age 10 and then later TTP which also has as a feature of it- peripheral vascular collapse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Coincidence<>? No way.
I debated writing here about our babysitter and about Wendy because I didn't want to scare you and then I thought, "You need to know, yes, it can be serious." It should be treated- and it tends to be caused by either Babesiosis or actually Ehrlichiosis does it too. But not usually Lyme!!! SO get her treated for everything just to make sure!!!!
Take care, Best wishes, Sarah
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
Sarah,
Thanks again for posting.
Hubby just showed me a bruise on his foot tonight. He got a new pair of tennis shoes and had me relace them last week -- he thought he was getting a blot clot on the top of his foot from the shoe rubbing.
Anyway the pain went away and now he has a bruise. Was accusing me of giving him too much IV heparin -- he has been listening to too many hospital duck neuros who said IV heparin could cause thrombocytopenia -- but he didn't know to tell them that ehrlichiosis can cause the same problem.
Hubby just started tetracycline a week ago for probable ehrlichia and is also treating his babs with low dose quinine. I did have to give him an extra 5000 units of IV heparin this morning to stop his seizure-like episodes and the babbling nonsense, but according to his LLMD IV heparin only stays in the bloodstream for about 30 minutes so I don't think that is the culprit with the bruising.
Will be getting routine bloodwork next week although it will most likely not show anything significant.
Bea Seibert
Posted by CaliforniaLyme (Member # 7136) on :
Yes Bea that does sound like possible Herxing from the new tetracycline!!! Thrombocytopenia is a common feature of Ehrlichiosis although frank TTP is much rarer!!! My Doc said the bruises would go away with continued Babs treatment and that their increase would be temporary and he was right thank goodness (he also said if they kept on and kept getting bigger we might have to consider plasmapharesis but thank go we didn't have to go there*)!!!! He has not had to do that with his patients- it always resolves-!!! Very reassuring now but at the time it was scary!!!! Hope his bruising stops!! Best wishes, Sarah
Posted by Marnie (Member # 773) on :
Into your search engine/ "Google" these words:
Vitamin C bruising
Posted by Beverly (Member # 1271) on :
Yeah, I found bruises all over, seemed like I was alway bumping into something. I have Babesia, it got better with treatment.
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