Heart block

Hi everyone, I went to an immediate care yesterday because of a rapid butterfly feeling in my heart. They did an ekg which came back abnormal because of a right bundle branch block. They sent me to the er where they did more test but everything was fine. I did see that Lyme can cause heart Blocks, dose anyone else have this issue? I have to see my primary doctor and it sounds like one day I will need a pacemaker. Thank you for your help.

Similar thing happened to me. It was not a full block though if that’s what you had.

And no ER because I’m stubborn and it gradually got worse ,....it’s not like I went from nothing to a massive flutters in one day. I was used to it and All kinds of other things ....and I also thought I was gonna die so some days I didn’t really care anymore. ☹️

I used to have a lot of heart palpitations and flutters and what ever else you wanna call it , but It reached its worst point when I was hurxing the worst towards the end of my lyme treatment.

All better now.

The degree of my branch block for me was quite minimal but they still did a follow up six months later I think maybe a year later I forget now.

They did also say that this is not totally uncommon And can be a gene related hereditary etc.

I also had the heart video, twice, I forgot what that was called. I could watch it live while they’re doing it. They said it was in pretty good shape, Nothing to really worry about I just keep myself healthy like I have been doing.

So I am obviously not a doctor but I’m willing to bet from past experiences of my own and from other people here in the past that mention this a lot more than what you hear about now that,.... someday,..... your heart will be fine.🤔😊

I did get a multiple use BP med. It’s old-school propranolol. It works different than modern BP meds it does nothing to your veins. It lowers cortisol, which in turn can lower BP a little bit and also seems to work for heart flutters. You can take it as needed. I had to hand trembling and It worked for that too.

Post Edited (astroman) : 9/11/2022 2:17:40 PM (GMT-7)

i and many i have spoken to have had wild arrythmias - including skipped beats - unfeasbly rapid beats - overly strong beats - ectopic beats

mine rarely happens when they are doing the EKG so they normally come back with something like Ectopic beats - and say its of no known cause and not to worry about it

despite scaring me a few times - esp during herx - when it often flares to crazy levels - it has not killed me yet and i am learning not to freak out about it

i suspect many if not most people with lyme or lyme and bart have some level of it

worth getting checked out though

I don’t really understand the cardiac symptoms. In my case, cardiac symptoms were among my initial symptom presentation, and I was sent to a cardiologist. He did an EKG, echocardiogram, and even did bloodwork to check for infection. Everything was normal barring the mitral valve issue that was already known about.

My heart felt like it was skipping. I could put my fingers on my neck and feel the skipped beats followed by rapid, irregular beats. I have never understood why that did not show up as anything on the EKG or echo. I also had rapid heart rate constantly for 2 weeks, even at rest, - around 110-125. When I would lay in bed, if I just barely moved, my heart rate would go up. It made me feel fatigued like I needed to lay down. No diagnosis of heart murmur, arrhythmia, or tachycardia. Just mitral valve regurge/prolapse.

So, the fact that a cardiologist says something is wrong is significant to me. I wouldn’t just blow it off as “Lyme” and forget about it.

WalkingbyFaith said...
My heart felt like it was skipping. I could put my fingers on my neck and feel the skipped beats followed by rapid, irregular beats. I have never understood why that did not show up as anything on the EKG or echo.

When I was extremely sick and landed in the hospital, my first EKG came back with irregular HR. The doctor said it was the kind of HR someone would have who has a heart blockage. Anyway, subsequent EKGs in the hospital were normal.

I have had this strange like spasm symptom in my chest area. It came and went like a normal Lyme symptom and I didn't worry too much about it but when I had this like spasm, I could put my finger on my neck to feel my pulse, and it would feel kind of like what you described, a skipped beat and then some rapid, irregular beats. I have not had this symptom in awhile, and I do hope it has finally subsided with treatment. I wondered about it being an irregular HR or if maybe there is some kind of nerve issue that makes it feel like you have an irregular HR when you really don't, because it would be so bad at times that I'm not sure if I would still be conscious if it were really an irregular HR/heart problem per se.

Thank you all for the reply’s! I see my doctor tomorrow, hopefully they will have more info that I can share.,

i think its often a real heart arrhythmia - but the very nature of them in lyme is that they can come and go - so the wheel you off for EKG and when they do the test it comes back normal - then 3am the next morning you have it again

i had this where i complained of arrhythmia in the night - the GP booked me in for EKG later that day - during which my heartbeat was mostly normal - just the tiniest flutter i could detect - and they came back and said i just had ectopic beats - and its nothing to worry about - but i am sure if they were measuring at 3am they would not have said that

overall i think we are mostly more resilient than we know - or perhaps there is a difference between these occasional episodes that come and go - and more serious structural damage that cause the arrhythmias to be present long term and more easily detectable on EKG.

i had these episodes while ramping up herbs and MB over a period of months and it didn't kill me - and i have spoken to numerous other people who had the same or worse - and they are also still OK

so i would try to get it checked out to check that its not something super serious - but at the same time would not worry overly

probably better than nothing Rainy

when i went for the last EKG which was just a quick one in the GP's office by the Triage nurse - it had i think at least 8 electrodes - and i think the flutter or ectopic beats they saw only appeared on one trace - even though i was just about able to feel it in my chest - so i guess different positions pick up different areas of nerve activity and maybe a problem in one area will not show up well on a single or dual sensor setup as most at home portable type devices seem to have

that said - the v mild single tiny flutter i had in the doctors office was perhaps 10 times weaker than the type of things was having in the night so i imagine any device would pick those severe arrhythmias up

i think if i were to get one i would look for something that i could track Qt interval with - as although its not a great indicator, it gives some possibly useful data on drug induced log Qt which might be useful in tracking reaction to drugs - and safety margins. eg if self treating at home with drugs known to induce long Qt

Thanks again everyone for the help! I will be having a stress test and wear Holter monitor next week. Will let you know the results!

I have premature ventricular contractions, but not the other two diagnoses. PVCs are very common and usually harmless unless they're happening more than 3% of heartbeats and are accompanied by other symptoms. My understanding is that supraventricular tachycardia is also not usually a concern unless the episodes last more than a few seconds or they make you lightheaded.

While this wonky electrical activity is not a threat to your heart, I would suggest (based on what we know from living with tick-borne disease) that nervous system dysfunction is happening that could be addressed. Do you do anything regularly for that - meditation, magnesium, mental health practices, curcumin, yoga, earthing, tapping, etc.?

What did your doctors suggest? Were they concerned?

Sorry you are dealing with this. I know it feels so freaky when your heart acts strange!

CalmLittleBuddha said...
Hello everyone, my Holter monitor results came back the issues listed were ventricular tachycardia and rare Premature ventricular contractions and rare Supraventricular tachycardia, anyone have any advice for that issue? Thank you!

yep - the very slight flutter i had during my quick EKG was diagnosed as ectopic beats
PCV is a type of Ectopic beat also

acc to this page
https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/ectopic-beat#

mine flare during bart treatments / any antibacterial herb or medication - some more than others - but over time seem to be gradually reducing in severity with treatment for bart - have been really alarming at some points.

i do not know of any treatment that specifically treats this as a symptom - it could be that calming the autonomic system has some useful effects on it - but i have not found much help from this - beyond calming the heart rate in the moment if its freaking out for no reason

i think tackling the infections that drive the inflammation that drives the nervous system dysfunction is the way to get at the root of it

i am taking buhner herbs for lyme, lots of herbs for bart ( sida, cryptolepis, alchornea and houttuynia ) methylene blue, bromelain and recently added oil of oregano
i have been tracking progress with microscopy and am surprised by just how much is needed to turn this thing around

for example - after 9montsh of bart herbs and MB there was still very obvious bartonella in my blood - see my microscopy thread for what this looks like (link in my signature)
so it seems that with bart - long and sustained treatments are needed to be effective - for me at least

Post Edited (Garzie) : 9/24/2022 5:31:23 AM (GMT-7)