Breathing and Head Problems with Lyme

When the breathing problems occur are you symptomatic? I am breathing hard now because I am symptomatic today with phenomenol fatigue. I gasp for air sometimes but it is always when i am symptomatic. bodies get tired of fighting illness I imagine, kinda like one is in a heated boxing match but the opponent is a form of borrelia. I am going to go back on abx, i don't see i have a choice, didn't want to ever go back but my bad days are more commonplace than good, so?

I have air hunger all the time, but it varies in intensity. I was told that it's a symptom of Babesiosis, not Lyme (Babesiosis is one of the Lyme coinfections). My blood test was just borderline positive, but I have the typical air hunger and drenching sweats. Anti-Babesia medications give me "herxes" which involve severe air hunger.

However, this air hunger is not caused by my lungs not expanding; it feels as though no matter how much my lungs do expand, there is just not enough oxygen in the air to breathe.

Occasionally I also have "hot flashes" in my face and/or entire body. My face flushes a bright, beet red when this occurs. I have headaches that hit when I stand up and it feels like the top of my head is going to blow off. I have weird pressure on both sides of my neck which feels like a headache (but it's in my neck) and I can feel my heartbeat in my neck. Does this sound at all like your "throbbing" feeling?

Toboein,

I know exactly what you mean by air hunger and head pressure. I suffered with this for a long time, even after having been treated for the Lymes (by Dr. Jernigan) and was doing well.

It didn't turn out to be Lymes' at all (though was probably effected by the Lymes.) I remember telling Dr.'s that I didn't think I was getting enough oxygen (turns out I was correct). Not one Dr. thought (or knew) to look in my mouth to figure out why I wasn't getting enough air!

Air hunger - literally not being able to draw in a breath - was caused by problems in my mouth (oral function). I had a front tooth pulled when I was a little girl, then had braces to complicate the damage. Every tooth in my mouth no longer 'resided' in the place it was originally created to be in. My mouth had changed shape and my tongue literally did not have enough room and was backing up in my throat and causing breathing difficulties and terrible head pressure. It is all related to the autonomic system run by the mouth.

I have been treated by a Dr. in Tacoma (Dr. Robson) He is a TMJ specialist who uses appliances to change the mouth. I am a work in progress, but when the head pressure returns he adjusts the appliance and it goes away. (That is the simplified version of course).

But it is a relief to be able to breath again (it is awful to not be able to draw a good breath) and not have that awful pressure. If you are interested in more I will try and answer any questions you have.

wacko woman

Besides fatigue my main symptom is shortness of breath. I have lyme, babesia, ehrlichia, amoebiasis, possibly Qfever and a host of viruses like Epstein Barr all of which I am sure came from the some tick(which I never saw) and my immune system being down with the lyme etc. Has anyone found the cause of the shortness of breath and how to treat? It is not candidiasis and does not respond to asthma inhalers which just make it worse. I have had all kinds of pulmonary and heart workups before we finally realized that is was caused by tick borne infections. I am on a lot of meds for the various infections for over 3 months but the shortness of breath is wearing me out. My blood oxygen is actually good at 98 at 6800 ft of elevation so my lungs must be working harder to compensate????? Any feedback greatly appreciated. My doctor just did some blood work to see if it is fluid in the sac around the lungs.

Hi Ancient trees!
Welcome to our forum! I am sorry that you have a need to be here. I think you will find us a helpful, kind & caring group!!

In my opinion, it would be best to let your doc run the tests he/she may think is necessary, but it is a good chance that tick-borne infections could be the cause of your air hunger. I believe JoAnn is correct in the thought that it is Babesia that is the culprit, especially since your blood oxygen levels are so high.

Why don't you start a new thread and introduce yourself? You could tell us a little about your in a place where more members are sure to see it. Also, it would be best if you would read the thread at the top of the forum titled "New to Lyme?...Start here". It's full of a bunch of info that members here thought would be important to those first coming to this forum.

I look forward to getting to know you through your posts!!

Hi Traveler, being new to chat groups should I post new topic to start a new thread not having done chat rooms before? I did read some of the New to Lyme section......Ancient Trees

I have the same as nasalady, with the lungs expanding but feeling like they're not filling with air. My LLMD is also a pulmonary specialist (his primary specialty) and hasn't expressed any concern over this. My lungs are fine, my O2 always checks out fine, it's just the babesia making the breathing seem unnatural.

I'm definitely getting more sweats now that I'm on heavy-duty babesia treatment. I've also managed to get my body temp up to the 98+ range, where before it was always between 96-97, so could be that's helping with bug-kill.

Only trouble now is fitting 3 iv's a day into my schedule... ugh...

Ï've had the airhunger and headpressure for over a year, it mostly went away with serrapeptase.(cleaning all the bio film)..I have heartproblems too, very extreme, it is always accompanied by a feeling of fried nerves at the back of the head, than nausea and than severe palpetations...the heart would beat faster and faster until the body would cool of to an extreme, first in the head...

 I guess that the heart had difficulty pomping when it was beating so fast and that would explain the extreme hypothermia...

I am in the netherlands and even though I had a near death experience and all the neurological symptoms and i was IGG positive etc...they still won't give more than a month of doxycycline...it is incredible...be thankful you don't live in the netherlands..they won't do anything at all for lymepatients and you are fighting for a bit of care here..I feel for all of you lymepatients, what a horrible disease...but I do remain positive that it can be cured..believe!.I

I absolutely can relate to the head pressure....hot head....weirdo head....fried nerves in head....vertigo head, heavy head, light head, all things head! Moving around made it worse.

Finally, after five months+ of antibiotics, this nasty symptom seems to be clearing up--- but just in the last few days.

Nothing really alleviated it. I think it just had to run its course. But if I didn't get a good nights sleep---and I mean at least 8 hours-- it would be worse. And yes it seemed to progress through the day.

I only had air hunger when I first started taking Doxy way back when and only in the morning for some reason. I don't know what that was. I don't have Bab. just Lyme.

Funny thing, I didn't get the bad head pressure etc. until I had been on antibiotics for about three months.

Hope you feel better soon!