Last night I had a very severe muscle spasm. The muscles in my arms, legs, and chest all went into a severe spasm and I was unable to get them under control. This has happened before, but last night was different. I could barely breathe this time. The muscles in my chest were so tight I just couldn't get any air in. I'm 19 and live at home and it took over a full minute before I could get enough air to call my parents downstairs. I was so scared I felt like I was going to die. Eventually it stopped on its own. What should I do in this situation? My parents hate the ER, but it really seems like this is one time I should have gone. Does anyone have any ideas about what I should do if this happens again?

If it happens again, definitely go to the ER!

It's really hard to be so young and have these scary things happen to you, but luckily our youth will help us heal as fast as possible.

Take care of yourself!

The ER is not good for treatment of on ongoing, chronic condition. It IS the place to go when you need immediate intervention.

Glad at least this last one you were able to breathe.

My husband has these types of episodes multiple times daily for last year or two. The only thing that works for him is IV Ativan thru his PICC line -- 1/2 or 1 mg usually does the trick. I still have to manually move all his muscles for 10 - 15 minutes to get everything to relax.

If this is a new symptom, possibly IV magnesium may help. It does seem to lessen the frequency of these episodes for my husband, but he often has these episodes when I am giving him his IV magnesium -- especially if I let the drip go too fast.

Steve usually starts coughing then has dry heaves and then shakes all over like a seizure before he freezes up. I call it transient quadriplegia.

Often his jaw locks up so he can't speak to call me. We would really be in trouble if he didn't have the coughing and heaving to alert me if I am in the other room.

The other thing that helps him is his CPAP machine. He puts that on because the shaking sometimes makes him hyperventilate.

It is soooo hard to say, but Steve's Dr's seem to think these "seizure-like" episodes may be caused by Babesia. Have you been tested or treated for that?

Steve's episodes are usually caused by some trigger event. Try to remember if something happened to cause these episodes.

The triggers for my husband are sudden loud noises -- telephones, a knock on the door etc. -- eating, waking up from sleep, initiating movement, or even talking on the phone too long. Moving the diaphragm seems to be a big part of the problem for Steve.

Please let me know what your LLMD says and if you find anythig to help with this symptom.

Bea Seibert

Yes, I have been treated for Babesia. I've been retested and it came up negative, but who knows? I suppose it may be possible there's still some in there.

This isn't exactly a new symptom. It's happened off and on for several years. It's the lack of oxygen that's new. I don't have a PICC line in so IV Ativan could be tough to administer. I'll keep trying to get a hold of my doctor.

As for the cost of an ER visit I'm glad to say that wouldn't likely be an issue. My insurance has been unbelieveable. They've covered everything I've needed. Even if they didn't cover a trip to the ER my family has the money needed to cover it.

Ativan or Lorazepam for injection can be used either IV or IM (intramuscular shot).

I have never given Steve shots, but this might be an option for you.

I have to keep syringes filled and ready to go for my husband and carry a cooler with us everywhere we go.

The only bad thing about Ativan is that it is a benzodiazepine and this class of drugs are addictive. Valium or Diazepam is a milder benzo and Klonopin or Clonazepam (another benzo)is also sometimes prescribed for tremors/myoclonus.

This is probably my husband's most disabling symptom and we are really frustrated with his Dr's who don't know what else to do besides IV Ativan. We are constantly in crisis mode as he has an average of 4 - 6 episodes daily.

If your problem is becoming more frequent I would be concerned about either progression of the Lyme or other coinfections or a herx reaction.

For my husband a good day is a 2 mg day, but unfortunately lately he has been requiring 3 - 4 1/2 mg IV Ativan daily. After the IV Rocephin (so far the only drug which has done him any good) he got the IV Ativan down to 1 mg daily for a very short time, but things have been pretty much downhill ever since.

My husband even has these "seizure-like" episodes in his sleep and his grunting and gasping for breath will wake me up and I will find him frozen up with all his muscles locked up and unable to move or speak.

I don't want to scare you, but based upon my experiences with my husband I think you really need to try to get to the bottom of this -- something we have never really been able to do unfortunately.

Bea Seibert