Babesia: air hunger and heart

So two weeks ago I found out I never got rid of the Babesia from 3 years ago. Which wasn't surprising at all. I complained for years after that I didn't think the Babesia was gone since my ferritin would nose dive occasionally.). I took Mepron for about 3 months with only a one month over lap with azithromycin. I also have WA-1 or Babesia Duncani. (Which I've heard is worse getting rid of than microti in most people.)
It's definitely still there. They did the stain.
Since my Bartonella antibody test came back positive and I had terrible bone pain and sole pain, we decided to treat that first. I went on rifampin and biaxin 2 weeks ago.
So, since then I had one night of drenching night sweats. The first time ever had that. Then in church last week I noticed I was out of breath, which is a problem since I have to sing in the choir. Then I noticed my pulse was racing last Sunday though I had been sitting down for a while. In the past I've been asked if I'm a runner because my bpm is so low. Yesterday it got worse and I felt dizzy, like my heart was going too fast, and I can breathe just fine. It's just like I can't get my blood "oxygenated" or something. (And I'm not taking shallow breathes and it's not a panic attack. I swear.)
So, I went to the doctor today. My bpm was at 105 but he thought it was anxiety and told me just to monitor it. My pulse is often at 85 or 95 when resting.
So, should I just ignore it? I'm confused why Babesia decided to take vengeance when I started the Bartonella treatment....unless it somehow is Bart? :/ Could it possibly be a heart problem or another problem? It just making me a littl nervous.

Unfortunately both can cause heart problems. I'm in the same boat, and mine seems to be more orthostatic, where it races when I'm standing. I have the air hunger too, but it's minor, like a feel I need to take really deep breaths for no reason. Don't let your doc tell you it's anxiety. Oddly, I was the one to suggest it for myself and the doc put me on anxiety meds for a couple days to test the theory, and this was under hospital conditions. They had no effect, so I doubt it's anxiety.

Obviously anemia can cause air hunger and rapid heart rate. From what I understand there are other signs of anemia when you have it. Also keep in mind that not only Babs can cause anemia. Any chronic infection can. Personally I would treat for what you know for sure you have, and then take it from there.

Yes Babesia causes the night sweats. When I said chalk it up to Bart I was talking about myself. Violet could have a more complicated issue where she's getting symptoms of both Bart and Babs that are either co-existing or overlapping. Best thing to me (in my humble opinion) is to stay on the Rifampin and Biaxin for a while and see if the symptoms improve. Because Bart and Babesia Duncani can both be stubborn little buggers it could take a while. I'm facing a similar challenge on whether to stay with my Rifampin/Doxy combo which I'm a few weeks into and my patterns haven't changed I was also on Biaxin for 3 weeks before this.

DS is being treated for Lyme, mycoplasma and babesia currently. He has bad air hunger (worse now with the treatment) and was recently prescribed an albuterol inhaler (which is often uses with a spacer) because air hunger is his number one complaint.

If that didn't work they wanted to try a very small dose of ativan (works also on anxiety I believe but is addictive so I want to avoid if possible).

They explained it this way if my memory is working correctly: they think that babesia is messing up the nerve signals and the albuterol will send that missing signal to the brain to relax the smooth muscles. Ativan will do this too.

FWIW the albuterol is working - DS went from feeling like he was getting 50% air in to 75% when he uses the albuterol. He has strict instructions from me to tell me if he feels anything going on with his heart but so far no complaints there. He has not admitted to having anxiety but I'm not sure he would - he's a teen after all. I don't see signs of anxiety.

If the air hunger gets worse I'll definitely ask the doctor about the abuterol. I guess the Babesia must be messing with the nerves or I do have anemia- I asked the doc to test for that yesterday.
Glad to hear your son is feeling better with the inhaler though!
I'm reluctant to do ozone therapy until I exhausted the more traditional methods, the Babesia and Bartonella hasn't been treated properly ever. But I'll keep that in mind!

I've heard Bart can also cause night sweats, but the sweats are located more in the chest region. Also mycoplasma. The infections have a lot of overlapping.

I can say this happened to me right when I started treating Bart. Never before.

I have experienced the racing heart issue. Terrible. For me, it was def Babs not Bart.

blueberrymuffin said...
Could someone give me a link where all possible Bab symptoms are listed?

Here is another list from another forum:

flash.lymenet.org/scripts/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/1/105141?

@Violet I am Bartonella positive and have Babesia duncaii too. I am not sure who mentioned Babesia duncaii is harder to get rid of than microti. I wouldn't agree with that assessment. I have met a lot people at clinic with one strain or another of babesia. Frankly I seems to depend on our bodies how well we get rid of these infections. Some can get rid of some infections easier than others. It is really a complicated matter as you may have gathered by now.

I dont get heart palps , air hunger, drenching sweat from bartonella. When I was herxing on babesia meds it was a nightmare. I would wake up at night thinking I was having a heart attack and unable to catch my breath. I could see how Bartonella could cause some heart issues as it "can" cause endocarditis I just have been lucky to not have issue with that ( I am unlucky in that my Bartonella causes relapsing encephalitis which has put me in the ER a couple of times ).

Some good news is that I have babesia duncaii in blood tested remission from using herbs and abx combo. It didn't take all that much time to get it into remission just some super strong herxing. Duncanii hasn't been as problematic for me as bartonella which I can't seem to get under control just yet.