posted
I'm like many here. I've had my heart checked pretty extensively. Has come back okay.
Still, I have skips, palps. Have had tachycardia (though not for a little while).
I get weak as heck sometimes, very nauseous, break out in a huge sweat, sometimes from very little exertion.
Before this, even just over a year ago, I was in great shape.
Now...I just wonder....if our hearts check out okay, what are we to make of these 'heart attack' type symptoms? It makes me crazy sometimes.
I have been, and I know many people here have gone to the ER once or a few times, and sent home. Which is good, but....
How do others handle this? How do we know if something is WRONG when we're having so many symptoms that normally you are supposed to be worried about?
Thanks
Posts: 322 | From Venice, CA | Registered: Sep 2008
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
Just replied to your other post.. and basically will repeat...
Listen to your body. If you are doing something it doesn't like.. it is telling you so. Stop, drop and roll when it is talking to you.
Ok.. not drop and roll.. but that sounded fun, didn't it? HA!
If you have anxiety, you might want to address those issues to be more comfortable.
Could caffine be causing or adding to your problems?
My doc.. years ago.. said if anything heart related happpens.. go to the ER immediately.
Had I listend to her I would have been there over 700 times by now probably. I must say you should listen to YOUR doctor.. just telling you my situation here.
What you are experiencing is scary... for sure. But the only advise I have is to try relaxation techniques... meditation... or bite the bullet and just try to accept the fact this is going to happen.
I know.. feeling like you are going to die at any moment isn't acceptable.. but it is something you need to deal with.
It's LYME! Something new nearly every day.. not the same old same old boring stuff.
These comments above were made by me assuming you have a regular check up... and all heart related things are ok.
I am NOT a doctor and this is not medical advise. Be sure to check with a doctor if you have the need.
I have recently had my heart checked--stress echo, holter, event monitor and a couple EKG's.
You'd think I wouldn't worry.
I DO have anxiety problems, and am taking zoloft for it. But the anxiety stuff (which I never had ANY of in 40 years before this mess) feels different than these physical feelings.
And yes, following your doctor's advice, I would have been there 700 times, instead of the 3 times I have gone.
Posts: 322 | From Venice, CA | Registered: Sep 2008
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TO LIFE
Unregistered
posted
Dear Mike,
Just a thought, but maybe and ECHO. An ECHO is no big deal, it's like an Ultrasound on your heart. Roz
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posted
If you've had all the tests on the heart, pulmonary, lungs, circulation, etc, etc..and everything checks out normal. Then you have to let it go...relax..and don't automatically assume its something serious.
Lyme is the the great masquerader in that it can cause all sorts of symptoms and pains and you can go crazy trying to fight them all. Once you realize that your heart is fine, you're not going to die, then you can work on anxiety counters, proper diet, exercise, and lyme treatment.
Many of us have gone to the ER multiple times for what we thought was a heart attack, only to have the ER people label you as having an anxiety disorder, somotization disorder, inflammed ribs, etc... Eventually you just say, to heck with it...if Im going to die, then so be it, at least I won't have to deal with this crap anymore...hehe...
Seriously, if it feels like a heart attack, go to ER, but if you've done that multiple times and its always normal, then look elsewhere and retrain your brain to ignore those aches/pains, and eventually they'll go away. If it truly is a heart attack, it wont go away...
ok?
You're not alone... we've all been there, done that, and we can relate...
Posts: 514 | From . | Registered: Apr 2008
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posted
I just want to say that I agree with the theory that you know something is not right.
I had all of your symptoms, and just knew that something was not right.
After I ended up in a coma from a very high fever, a Dr. decided to do an echo.
It showed that my mitral valve was completely destroyed and I was about to have conjestive heart failure.
I had to have open heart surgery 6 months ago. Please do not let me scare you-this is after I had many other heart tests done, because of the tachycardia, palps. etc.
The only thing that worries me lately though, is I am pretty sure I am relapsing bad with the Lyme-I only had 9 weeks of IV abx. and I am having fevers again, with chest pain along with alot of other crap.
My theory is if it went to my heart before, then why can't it do it again?
I would hope that my hell was over, but I am afraid not.
I just want for you to be aware, and only you know how you feel.
My prayers are with you.
Posts: 303 | From Jekyll Island, GA | Registered: Sep 2008
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Ocean
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3496
posted
Hi,
I too have anxiety that started when I got Lyme 12 years ago.
However, I think I know what you mean about this feeling different than anxiety...
I have had several 'episodes' like one yesterday. I had gone down to do laundry came upstairs and started talking to my husband and my breathing went up immediately, I felt a little 'lightheaded' and I could feel my heart was beating very quickly. I took a few steps, tried coughing and pounding my chest to make it go back to a sinus rhythm. I sat down on the couch and I could tell it was gone.
I lasted maybe 7-10 seconds. And after it was over, my HR was in the 70's. I did not check my pulse when it was high because I have done that before during an episode and it made me then have a panic attack.
I have not had any heart work up done. I plan to when my husband's insurance changes at the beginning of March.
Please know that you are NOT alone and this is a very very scary symptom. I used to have these episdoes in the 90's when I first got sick and they started again after the birth of my daughter in 2006.
Thing is I had 2 episodes in a day in Oct and haven't had any until yesterday. Do yours happen quite frequently?
posted
I have a lot of heart issues from lyme-rapid pulse, shortness of breath just walking etc. I had 2 echo's, numerous EKG's, and I monitor my blood pressure (which is now, always normal).
Actually, all my heart symptoms went away, and I was feeling great.
Having a relapse now-first thought was there is something wrong with my heart.
Posts: 561 | From eastcoast | Registered: Aug 2006
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
-
d-Ribose may help.
I'll come back with more about that for heart health. Hawthorn, too, is great as is magnesium.
Adrenal support as detailed in this book, also can help the heart:
This book, by an ILADS member LLMD, holds great information about treatments options and support measures:
Abnormal impedance cardiography predicts symptom severity in chronic fatigue syndrome
Journal: Am J Med Sci. 2003 Aug;326(2):55-60.__Authors: Peckerman A, LaManca JJ, Dahl KA, Chemitiganti R, Qureishi B, Natelson BH.__
Affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, CFS Cooperative Research Center, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA.
BACKGROUND: Findings indicative of a problem with circulation have been reported in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). We examined this possibility by measuring the patient's cardiac output and assessing its relation to presenting symptoms.
METHODS: Impedance cardiography and symptom data were collected from 38 patients with CFS grouped into cases with severe (n = 18) and less severe (n = 20) illness and compared with those from 27 matched, sedentary control subjects.
RESULTS: The patients with severe CFS had significantly lower stroke volume and cardiac output than the controls and less ill patients.
Postexertional fatigue and flu-like symptoms of infection differentiated the patients with severe CFS from those with less severe CFS (88.5% concordance) and were predictive (R2 = 0.46, P < 0.0002) of lower cardiac output. In contrast, neuropsychiatric symptoms showed no specific association with cardiac output.
CONCLUSIONS: These results provide a preliminary indication of reduced circulation in patients with severe CFS. Further research is needed to confirm this finding and to define its clinical implications and pathogenetic mechanisms._
- Link to full article at PDF. , . or Google first half of title for other formats
While, very often, cases of CFS might be undiagnosed lyme - or other chronic stealth infections, this information may be helpful to patients across the board.
Video: A three-hour talk by Dr. Cheney on diastolic cardiomyopathy and ME/CFS.
CFS and Diastolic Cardiomyopathy - Paul Cheney, M.D., Ph.D.
======================
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.
. . . 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.
=====================================
Again, presented not to sadden, but if there is a dysfunction, treatment for underlying causes and employing support measures can make a difference.
the link to the Hawthorn research above holds hope. I feel so much better when I take that.
(1) Lyme borreliosis as a cause of myocarditis and heart muscle disease. Klein J, Stanek G, Bittner R, Horvat R, Holzinger C, Glogar D. Dept. of Cardiology, University of Vienna, Austria.
(2) PMID: 1915460 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
If you think your heart is at risk, get it checked out, I am....
Posts: 208 | From Hudson Valley, New York | Registered: Mar 2008
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
-
This book is specific to lyme and other chronic stealth infections.
The author discusses the endocrine connection and effects of cortisol from the stress of this illness. (Also detailed in Singleton's book that is linked in above post.)
You can read customer reviews and look inside the book at this link to its page at Amazon.
posted
Make sure you also check for Bartonella and Babesia. I had terrible heart pains and once I treated those two coinfections (though I know I still have them)- the symptoms did die down. I went to the ER twice because I thought it was a heart attack. I get panicked too but that is a classic symptoms with these diseases. Babesia also effects the respiratory system and can cause havoc there- shortness of breath, etc. My cardiologist does every work on up me and can't find a thing either excpet for a slight mitral valve prolapse.
Posts: 238 | From Bethlehem, PA | Registered: Oct 2004
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Starfall1969
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 17353
posted
I've had the heart scares too and have been to the ER twice. This was in the very beginning of my symptomology 7 months ago.
They did all their tests at the ER, and I went to the cardiologist. Of coursse all was normal.
I still get the chest pains, shortness of breath, and also feel light-headed and shaky at times.
I still have almost 2 months to go before I see a LLMD, and I just don't know if I'm going to make it sometimes.
Generally when I have these symptoms, I try to lie down if I can; usually that helps. Sometimes I take a Benadryl--it makes me sleepy and brings me down a little.
They've tried me on Zoloft, Lexapro and Xanax, and I've had horrible reactions to all of them.
Posts: 1682 | From Dillsburg, PA | Registered: Sep 2008
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savebabe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9847
posted
I had similar symptoms and was finally diagnosed by a tilt table test.
Posts: 1603 | From ny | Registered: Aug 2006
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Lymeorsomething
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 16359
posted
MV, I'm assuming you've checked your hormone levels at some point?? I'm like you. I've had heart symptoms in the past but my heart is fine (according to all the standard tests). However, I have very real hormone issues brought on by the infections. Some hormones (namely thyroid/adrenal) can screw with your heart at times too. So just a thought...you may want to keep an eye on the hormone angle as well....
-------------------- "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." Posts: 2062 | From CT | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
Hi Michael, Good to see you posting and hope you are happy with the good Dr over there....
Lots of good advice above, and I do agree with Hides1, it could be the co-infections that are the issue here. Have you been tested/treated and if not, I would ask about it.
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