Rapid heartrate non-stop and nightmares

I'm on clarithromycin and have had some heart issues on and off, the doc had me stop the plaquenil and things were calmer, so went back on a full dose of clarithromycin.

Been back on 2x 500mg clarithro for 10 days now. The past 5 days my heart-rate has not gone under 90, is mostly around 100. Trying to sleep is hell, pound, pound, pound, against my ribs and in my head. Any movement and my heart-rate is at least 120, even walking slowly. But I've been gritting.

Last night it took over 4 hours to fall asleep, and when I finally did, I had a horrible nightmare, where I dreamed I was hallucinating, I couldn't wake up, I started screaming inside my nightmare, until my husband woke up and woke me up.

I'm sitting here now, heart-rate 112 at rest, feeling trembly, exhausted and awful.

The rapid heart rate, the nightmare, the sleeplessness, are all on the list of side-effects of the clarithro.

I'm considering easing off for a few days, I've emailed my LLMD, but thought I'd ask some thoughts here - stop completely, go half dose?

I'm exhausted, how long can a heart take this rapid beating, and virtually no sleep?

If not a side effect of the abx, these can also be symtomatic of Babesia I believe. I have had periodic "night terrors" like these over the course of the past 6 months and I have been on Clarithromycin (with Ceftin) during that time. It's very hard to figure whether it's a drug reaction or a detox/herx reaction with Lyme. My own theory is that it is more than likely the latter but I am not a doctor. That said, sleep is very important so, now matter what the issue is - drug reaction or a herx - I would back off the abx until the body 'catches up' (and you can sleep) (and you can speak to your doc about it).

Scandic - I know the feeling about 'feeling like a failure' due to not sticking with the meds - Man, I was GUNG-HO in the beginning - gimme anythng and everything to zap those SOB's (SOB = TBI on this forum - LOL) out of my bidy. But, truly, as you have seen here before, a balance is needed and that balance changes as you progress with treatment. If you amp-up the medss/herbals too much, your body becomes too toxic to process them for a while but, if not enough then the critters can start to re-grow. I try to keep the balance to where I can reasonably function during the day, go to work, and experience mild-to-moderate symptoms.

Sometimes - it can be anything from what you ate to a full moon - even that balance gets upset and so I have to readjust. It's a constant balancing act as you attend to your journey back to full health IMO. Sometimes I even stopp all meds and treatments altogether for a couple of days to get back to a place where I know what med/herbal/supp is causing what, then I begin the process of adding things back in till I reach that balance threshold once again. As you get better, the threshold will change as well and you can tolerate more and the like. At least this is what I try and do with some reasonable success. To do this, it is very important to keep a journal or spreadsheet (this is me) or some record of what you're taking, how you feel, body temperature, sleep quality, exercise accomplished, detox methods used - a whole host of objective and subjective opinions on how you feel every day - this will lead to excellent clues as to what might be causing an issue at any given time.

I have said this before - Lyme is a personal disease with a personal solution - meaning everyone will need to get better based upon their own bodily composition and how the treatment strategy will work for them.

Scandic,

I'm so sorry to hear of your experience! I had an eerily similar experience a few months ago with ceftin - the rapid heart rate, night terrors, vibrating, and right down to screaming in my dream. I never figured out if it was side effects of the drugs or the specific type of herx from that type of drug, but I can say that it's gotten better (and I am now on twice as much of the ceftin).

Ultimately I think it's most important to listen to your body, as it knows best. This disease is tough enough and there's no need to endure extra side effects if we don't have to. Hopefully you'll hear from your doctor soon and can figure out where to go from here.

Please don't feel like a failure - it takes a lot of courage and strength to trust the wisdom of your own body and make executive decisions about your health. It's a wonder we can tolerate all the drugs and treatments that we can!

Tonight, why not try taking a nice hot bath or drinking some herbal tea before bed? I know how it feels to dread going to sleep after nights like you've had, but I promise it does get easier. I dreaded sleeping for years and now I've finally come to actually look forward to it! Good luck!

Just thought I'd round this off with what my LLMD said - stop the meds till Monday, see how I feel then. He says I am one of his over-sensitive patients, and he was concerned about the bruises and nightmares.

He is sure my heart is physically fine and I will feel better after a few days' break, but if I get too concerned, I can go get my heart checked for reassurance.

The vibrations at night are caused by my vagus nerve, as is the rapid heart rate, the vagus nerve is agitated and sending faulty signals to my system, that was his explanation.

He's an LLMD that also believes in the herbal approach, so he was not so thrilled when I asked about sleeping meds, but I said I have some ambien that my house doctor gave me a while ago and was it okay if I took some to get a night's sleep, because I'm desperate, and he said it was ok, so that is exactly what I am going to do, and hope that it knocks me out for a night.

I did have a sort of frustration/anxiety episode today, could have been the Lyme, or maybe just being fed up, and why wouldn't I be, right?

So here's to hoping the doc is right and I will feel better soon...

6 days on, I should've started the clarithro again yesterday, but I have discovered a third mystery bruise, and my heart is not really settled. It's a bit better than it was, but still pounding enough to keep me awake nights.

I went to my house doctor (as my LLMD is hours away) and told her I feel short of breath again (I had a severe iron deficiency prior to the tick bite, and a clear cause was never found). She took blood to test my iron, and is going to test liver and a few other things at the same time.

Mailed my LLMD to see what he says. Royally tired of the heart never slowing down, can't sleep nights. House doc says she'll give me something to slow it down so I can sleep, once we see the iron results.

Ugh, wish I could just manage to stick to the treatment without this creepy heart stuff...

The LLMD told me to drink Green Water to detox, I drank it every day for over a week until I started to link it to feeling nauseous and mild diarrhoea. He told me not to do detox baths because of the heart, but an infrared sauna, but I've not had a chance to get to one. I've tried the detox baths anyway, just not too hot, and find they make no difference.

Frankly, I think the clarithro is causing my blood to be too thin (or can Lyme do this?), which would explain the rapid heartrate and the easy bruising. When the doc had taken blood, an put a little bandaid, I noticed later it was absolutely soaked and the colour was oddly light.

I would not be surprised at all if my liver is not coping, I have always had a sensitive liver, unable to drink any alcohol, cannot digest certain meats (but was never looked into medically since it was easily managed by avoiding these things).

I tried milk thistle a while ago and started to break out into a rash...

I think the bruising comes from when I kneel down to put wood in my woodstove, it's standing on stone, I don't whack into anything, I think the pressure is enough. (if the blood is thin, if you see what I mean). Of course, I can be more careful kneeling, but that doesn't take away the disturbing thing of bruises appearing that have no business being there...

I only feel better in the sense of no nightmares, heart isn't hitting 120 anymore, but it's not really going under 90. It's definitely the rate of the heart that is keeping me from sleeping, it's just too fast to relax and nod off.

I have melatonin at home. I have been a bad sleeper even pre-tick bite, but found that melatonin might help for 4 hours, and then I'd wake up. How much do you take?

More than anything, I just need the heart to calm down. The house doc wouldn't give me anything until we have the blood results, but i have Temesta in the house (Lorazepam), which is a tranquilizer, which I am desperate enough to try tonight. It's not just the not sleeping, but lying awake with that creepy fast pounding.

Ugh.

I'm usually tired enough to fall asleep quite quickly. Then max 3 hours later I wake up, with a pulse of about 100, sometimes it settles a bit, some nights it just keeps steadily pounding at about 85 or 90, which is not dangerously fast, but pretty relentless when you want to sleep.

Then there are the "joyful" rib vibrations that tend to kick in time and time again as I try to drift off again at 4am... The whole thing is like a big sleep-deprivation program to test me if I am tough enough for the Navy Seals or something...

I have an electrically adjusted bed, and I have tried feet raised, head raised, both, you name it. I'd hang upside down like a bat if I thought it would help!

No, no severe muscle spasms.

Does the charcoal not have a tendency to slow down your colon as well? As in, risk of constipation?

I'm such a whimp, I can't do the lemon water either - gives me sour stomach (pre-tick-bite I had stomach issues, the suspected cause of the iron deficiency). I tried taking vitamin C, even with food, I get acidic. I've ordered a special buffered one now to try.

An infrared cabin is on the list, a nearby DIY store has an offer for a one person one for 300 Euros ($400), which is pretty good going.

Every night becomes an ordeal to get through, I hope something can be done to calm the heart down enough for me to sleep, this has been going on for weeks now, and I'm worried about not being able to stay on the meds.

Ok, thought I'd post this in case it might help anyone else doing a search on this at some later point...

Just spoke to my LLMD. I mentioned that when I was at the house doc yesterday, I showed her my tongue and she thought it was a yeast infection, and prescribed an oral gel.

He said that if it was on my tongue, it could be elsewhere. So, I am to detox for a few days - Green Water, Chlorocaps, a teaspoon of bicarbonate a day, and look up "Raw Food" online (I love raw veg anyway, so no hardship there).

Then, no abx for a while, I am to take 200mg Fluconazole 2x/day for 4 weeks. He says the Fluconazole (Diflucan) is also anti-Lyme, so I am not to worry about being left "open" to the Lyme.

He was curious about the blood results, I should be getting those from my house doc tomorrow.

Anyone have any experience with Fluconazole? Side-effects? Herxing?

Hi Penny,

There is no easy short answer. When I first took the fluconazole, my heart calmed down and I felt much better for about a week. Then the very high dose of flluconazole started to get to me, I managed it for about 2 weeks, then crashed. Then stopped for a few days and then restarted on just 200mg/day and was supposed to take that for 6 weeks. I managed about 4 or 5 weeks before heart stuff started again.

Looking back, the yucky tongue could just as easily have been from the clarithromycin itself and not yeast. And I should have insisted on being tested for Candida before embarking on a high dose of fluconazole for weeks.

After the Fluconazole, I tried clarithro & flagyl and didn't manage to build it even before heart stuff came again. So then he had me try DCA for 2 weeks, which I coped with. Then it was another failed attempt at clarithro, at which point, if I remember correctly (it's a while ago), I stumbled on a link between what I was eating and how lousy I was feeling, and I was tested for food intolerances. Milk, cheese, yeast and eggs. Sure enough, I'd eat an egg and get faster heart.

At this point I threw all meds out the window and started eating a bland diet to avoid these foods (so not specifically a candida diet, one to avoid the intolerant foods). I started to feel better. I was also low in ferritin and was given iron-ivs.

Looking back, the things that made me feel better were - avoiding the intolerant foods, keeping my ferritin levels up and stopping the meds. I did not have Lyme for very long before I started treatment, and I was severely iron deficient at the time, so I cannot tell you what was Lyme, iron deficiency or a bad reaction to the medications. It was just one big horrible sea of feeling sick.

After 6 weeks of no meds, I was tested, and my LTT came back negative. The Lyme doc says the borrelia is not active and probably gone. Now it is 5 months later, I have no symptoms that I can relate to Lyme, but I have developed intolerances and allergies, I have an itchy scalp, still cannot eat certain foods and gyno-issues (including stubborn yeast, which is being held off with Sporanox).

But no scary heart stuff anymore.

Don't know if that helps you at all, but looking back, I wish I'd known better and asked him to test for candida and not just pound me with 6 weeks of fluco based on a yucky tongue. (I think I got to the point where I was over-medicated and the meds were making me sick)

I don't know if I had a real yeast problem or not, it was based on how the tongue looked only, not tested. (am talking systemic yeast here, not vaginal).

1x 200mg diflucan is not a big dose, and is often given preventively against vaginal yeast to anyone who is taking antibiotics, Lyme or not. So probably no harm in it.

I was taking 400mg per day for weeks on end.

The alcohol can trigger a reaction to Flagyl.

Many have good results with oil of oregano. Like antibiotics, it kills off natural bacteria in your colon and can give you diarrhoea. Probiotics, if you aren't taking it, take it, but take it 2 hours away from any antibiotics or oil of oregano.

I can't stress the probiotics enough, even take it if you are off the abx, my colon was left in tatters after I stopped treatment (which partly explains the food intolerances). I am still taking probiotics now to try to balance things.

Green water is a homemade vegetable smoothie, made with a choice of three green veg, like spinach, parsely, celery (you get the drift) and distilled water. It is supposed to help you detox as well as help with iron. It is very tasty, but I found after months of it, it gave me diarrhoea (probably it crossed over into my food intolerances). It's just green veg & distilled water, nothing added (and probably fresher and better for you than the dry stuff you dissolve in water). It helps many to detox.

Clarithromycin can cause discoloration of the tongue. I found the clarithromycin gave me a constant bitter taste in my mouth. I could stand it, some people can't stand it.

Many Lyme sufferers say they feel better when on antibiotics, I never did, I felt awful, and could never tell if it was the bacteria reacting to the antibiotics, the antibiotics themselves or what. I do know that at one point I was simply over-medicated, zonked out pupils and slurred speech.

Whatever you do, don't be tempted to treat any vaginal yeast with over the counter creams, they can lead to the skin in that area becoming allergic and lead to chronic problems. Treat yeast, systemic or vaginal with something you take by mouth, not apply topically.

Sorry, don't know if it's ok to take oregano oil at the same time as abx. it acts as an abx, that much I know. Perhaps open a new topic with that questions and see if you get some answers. No particular brand.

I understand you being scared re. the Flagyl, I got to the point where I was scared of all meds, still am, even non abx stuff like anti-histamines make me nervous. Case of "once bitten, twice shy".

Sorry, don't know about the yeast-die off. But with a dose of 200mg Fluco 1x/week, I don't think you will have massive yeast die-off, that sort of dose is more preventatitive than an aggressive dose against systemic.

Best of luck!