My sister who has a long history of asthma has recently had greatly decreased lung function and difficulty breathing.
Her doctor gave her oral steroids. She feels much worse. Her lung function has gone down, she is fatigued and is having hot flashes and cold chills, and is foggy minded.
I know that steroids can make lyme worse. And I've heard of air hunger and chills/flashes as a symptoms of one of the co-infections.
Does anybody know which one does this? Is there a specific test I should recommend.
She has had plenty of possible tick exposure, her hobby is tracking wild animals, and though she is cautious...
I'm too tired right now to look it up -- I know one of you just know this off the top of your head.
I'm not sure if I'm just seeing Lyme everywhere, or if this could be a real issue for her, but if there is a way for her to find out. Her lung capacity was down to 100 (healthy female ususally 350-500). So little air her legs were woobling underneath her.
I stayed up w-a-y t-o-o l-a-t-e last night writing my masterpiece of a letter to Whelan and Forbes. Not sure if that's the correct graimlin to express my feelings.
Karen
Posts: 112 | From RI | Registered: Jan 2007
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klutzo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5701
posted
Sounds like Babesia. The Igenex test for it would probably be your best bet.
Klutzo
Posts: 1269 | From Clearwater, Florida, USA | Registered: May 2004
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Vermont_Lymie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9780
posted
Hi Karen:
That sounds like Babesia -- best to get an Igenex test for lyme at the same time too. Since it's a coinfection, if she has Babesia, she probably has been exposed to lyme too, I would think.
Hope that helps!
Posts: 2557 | From home | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Air hunger and chills/flashes fatigue, night/day sweats are all symptoms of Babesia.
IGenex may not be able to give her a positive test even if she has Babs. There are 100 different strains of Babs and they can only test for two of them.
So if she does have one of the other 98 strains it will come up negative.
posted
Let us not forget about Mycoplasm too. I had both babs and myco at the same time.
Posts: 582 | From milwaukee wi | Registered: May 2005
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posted
The following signs/symptoms may be present in those infected with Babesiosis: 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%- 66% of Babesia patients are known to be co-infected with Lyme disease. These symptoms may continue for long periods of time, decrease, then return. A low Babesiosis titer (IgG) often indicates a chronic infection. An acute or current infection may show a higher reading on the IgM test initially. There are over 100 species of Babesia in the United States but only ONE or TWO species are currently checked by commercial labs.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96223 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
Lyme and Babsiosis.
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Not sure if that's the correct graimlin to express my feelings. 
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