Anyone with Bartonella Had This Type of Foot Pain?

My toe joint used to swell and arches were painful ...keep us posted how treatment resolves ..bvt has let me walk ..heck i even played tennis this weekend

Bartonella can definitely cause major pain in the foot, shins, ankle, toes and bottoms of feet. Many people describe the pain as"walking on glass".

Bartonella is my worst infection and I had bad pain on soles the feet, Achilles heel and shin. I didn't know I was infected a few years ago and I had this pain and couldn't figure it out. Now I know and at least we can treat it.

It was always worse when I first got up in the morning.

When I was treating with doxy in the beginning it went away but it came back pretty strong once I started to specifically treat Bartonella.

Take care, Jo

My feet felt like the glass in the bottom of them. The first time I got a huge light, magnifying glass and tweezers thinking I really had stepped on glass. Nope, nothing there.

Treatment and it went away. But frustrating to have hurt feet. We use those a lot!

I do have painful soles, but it's not only in the morning. It's whenever I'm standing. And the more I stand / walk, the worse it gets. it's to the point now that I can't go barefoot, and wear squishy soled shoes at all times. It's the only thing that helps relieve the pain.

Mine's never been "confirmed" to be Bart (but I do have it), but I can't figure out anything else it could be, but I also haven't seen a doctor about it.

Well some good news my LLMD appointment got bumped up from Sep 19 to Sep 6, so not so long of a wait now for that. In the meantime, the walking pain is still there, but I've noticed a bit of improvement in some of the sensory abnormalities as the feet are gradually starting to feel more normal again when not on them. I have no idea if it's from the homeopathic regimen I'm taking or form the penicillin I've been on for 5-6 days now for a gum infection, but I'll take. Penicillin wouldn't make much sense for Bart from what I understand, so maybe it's the other.

Hey MudShark,

I am a carbon copy of you except, I began supinating, which means my ankles are rolling out, multiple arches have fallen, Sesamoiditis, plantar fasciitis, neuropathy, shooting-stabbing neuropathy and hammer toes (toes have no ligaments left, like they are broken) and it feels like I am walking on raw hamburger meat. The doctors are not Lyme literate and absolutely USELESS in British Columbia. 5 pairs of orthotics at $600.00. a pop - and for what - none of them have made a difference.

- So, you are not alone.

Also, I have sleep apnea, MTHRF double mutation, tested positive on German antibody Lyme tests for Borrelia and Bartonella, and my ID doc says that until we get results back from the BC CDC - he will basically do nothing.

So waiting on those tests - they take 2-3 weeks out here in the Fraser Valley.

morningstars said...
Hi mercurycea, not sure if you know of Dr. C who is on the lower mainland, but in Richmond. I've heard great things. He's an naturopath who is lyme literate - and lucky for us in BC naturopaths can prescribe things like abx so if you ID will do nothing, there are some other options Sorry to hear you're having such trouble.

I was treated by DrC in Richmond.
He can prescribe abx but not anti malarials (unless that has changed).

I'm not sure if sharing names of doctors is against the rules of this forum...but I'll just leave this link here: https://www.pannaturopathic.com/

Sorry mods if not allowed.

Good morning or not a good morning. I am sick every day and ankle and foot pain getting much worse on my right foot. I got bit by a cat years and years ago. The cat was sickly and died a few days later. I got sick about two weeks later and ended up in the hospital for an entire month. I had a positive pcr for bartonella henselae but I think the damage is done. They diagnosed me with ALS, MS, and finally with all the inflammation in my colon and stomach they diagnosed me with Chrohn's disease and pumped me full of steroids. After that I got 10000X worse. I could not swallow, trouble breathing, myoclonus(jerking of my limbs) muscle twitching everywhere and could not eat.
After a month in the hospital getting worse they told my wife I must have a rare cancer and wanted to put feeding tubes in me. I discharged myself and lay in a hospital bed in my dining room for almost 2 years barely hanging in there.
A lyme specialist heard about me and I got to him. He saw my muscles twitching, mitral valve prolapse, tachycardia at rest 140/minute and huge amount of thrush in my mouth. Lyme urine antigen test was positive for lyme, finally a pcr showed I had lyme. I had a pic line inserted and was given claforan twice a day for about 3-4 months but I was not getting better. I then had bicillin shots in my but 3x a week for a month. I still didn't feel well. I was in a tick area and did pull ticks off me but I don't remember getting bit. The doctor always felt there was something else besides lyme attacking me. I never told him about the cat bite. I now have been to a neurologist/lyme specialist and a rheumatologist who specializes in lyme and both say my IGG levels of bartonella henselae are abnormally high.
I tried clarythromycin for a month but could not tolerate it. I don't know what to do. I want the test from galaxy labs and Igenix for bartonella but living in this communist state of NY they don't recognize these laboratories.
I have to go out of state to get these tests. I'm almost done with prostate cancer treatment and all I can say is chronic lyme or bartonella is 100 X worse than prostate cancer. Every day is different. One day it's the ringing in my ears so loud with headache I can't take it. The next it could be my right elbow which is destroyed on xray, today my right foot and ankle ligaments or tendons are killing me to walk. The bottom of my feet are numb and sometimes painful. Yes a pressure kind of thing. If I put pressure on my sciatic nerve sitting just playing my guitar my entire leg goes numb where I can feel it and can't walk until what feels like the circulation returns after 5 minutes and then I can walk again. Same thing happens when I rest my elbow on a hard table or surface. My ulnar nerve goes completely numb. This is no way to live. Can't make plans because you don't know how you are gonna feel from one day to the next. I tried to get into post lyme syndrome clinic at John Hopkins and they tell me they are too busy and not enough doctors to see me. If sleep is like death I would welcome it. I have to keep trying to get better because I have a beautiful wife and children and now grandchildren.

sorry to hear of your suffering

i don't see any value for you to go on for further testing for bartonella - as you have been diagnosed with it in the past, have been sick ever since, with symptoms that are a very good match for bartonellosis, and still have high IgG antibody titres.
if it were me i would focus my efforts and save my money for treatment

lyme or other infections may well be in the picture also - and may be why bartonella has been able to get a hold - but most of the treatments for bart also cover lyme to some degree - so i would start there.
the migrating symptoms of pain in a foot or an ankle and then somewhere else another day are very typical of Lyme - and have been demonstrated to be a key differential diagnosis factor with high diagnostic value ( see Horowitz et al )

with a history of multiple tick bites babesia is another strong possibility - testing is problematic here also - a therapeutic trial of mepron or atovaquone may give you another data point.

cortico steroids have been shown to make disease severity much worse in many of these infections - i belive there are several papers noting this in lyme and some on babesia in particular

finally, the mechanism by which bartonella makes people sick are general:

1-small vessel disease causing hypoxia and poor function at a cellular level manifesting as dysfunction in all sensitive organs and tissues - eg brain, eyes, digestive organs etc

2-direct inflammation of infected tissues - the endothelial cells of the circulatory system - and digestive system in particular

3- dysregulation of the immune system which then causes many downstream effects - including hyper sensitivities to food, chemicals, stress, MCAS reactions, auto-immunity, pain syndrome etc etc

the exact constellation of symptoms in any given infected individual are dependent on a number of further factors such as individual genetics, immune makeup, overall health, environmental factors, prior injuries and dispositions etc etc - so i would avoid falling into the trap of thinking that to find what will work for you you need to find someone who had your exact symptoms and do what worked for them - its a common assumption - but doesn't really work that way.

i am also struggling with Bartonellosis alongside lyme - i am a difficult case and it has been very slow to turn around - but i am progressing well with a very systematic self treatment approach and am now past 60% recovered.

it takes effort and discipline - but it can be done - hang in there

Quin said...

sick2long said...
I got bit by a cat years and years ago. The cat was sickly and died a few days later. I got sick about two weeks later and ended up in the hospital for an entire month. I had a positive pcr for bartonella henselae but I think the damage is done. They diagnosed me with ALS, MS, and finally with all the inflammation in my colon and stomach they diagnosed me with Chrohn's disease and pumped me full of steroids. After that I got 10000X worse. I could not swallow, trouble breathing, myoclonus(jerking of my limbs) muscle twitching everywhere and could not eat.

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Quin: “This reads like a description of rabies.”



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I dunno - to me it sounds like Bartonella.

“ I got bit by a cat years and years ago. The cat was sickly and died a few days later”

Bart does kill cats.

Girlie said...
Doesn’t untreated rabies usually lead to death within weeks ?

yep, almost always - quin may have been making some kind of joke