Rib Pain Related to Bart?

I had rib pain (costochondritis) with my first set of infections and Lyme can cause it as well. It fits with Lyme symptoms more as Lyme symptoms are known to come and go.

For me personally, it was the Lyme symptoms that would come and go. Once the bacterial load from my Lyme infection was lowered considerably, the Bart symptoms came out strong and stayed until I had been in treatment for a couple of months. It wasn't until about 2 months before I finished my Lyme and Bart treatments that the Babesia symptoms came out - and they too came out strong and stayed steady until I had been in treatment for a while.

I don't know if it's that way for everyone though.

My rib pain is always on the lower ribs and can be one sided or on both sides. It is an achy feeling and can make taking deep breaths difficult. My rib pain has never lasted for more than a couple days at a time and it is mainly uncomfortable but would always return during times of stress and a bartonella flair. I am on rifampin and azithromycin for bart and the rib pain is much less.

Oh, it's ok Jackie Moon. I'm getting used to the idea of having it (sounds like a lot of people on here have it). I've been getting strange rashes too, but not the typical "stretch marks".

I more have splotchy, red patches (and there's really no other reason for these). I also have a ridiculous explosion of spider/broken veins that have appeared. I occasionally get weird scratch marks that seem to appear out of nowhere, but then after a few hours they will fade away. Really strange...

I had pretty severe rib pain (for the first time) appear last week. It lasted for about 4 days and now is pretty much gone. I wonder if it will reappear....

I have heard of the scratch marks before being related to Bart, as well as the stretch marks. When I told my LLMD about my rashes, he said lots of skin manifestations/rashes can be caused by Bart, doesn't necessarily have to be the classic "stretch" marks.

Traveler, when you would get the scratch marks, would they last a long time or fade away and then reappear at different times?

Runner Girl, I have had severe rib pain and related issues. It was my first symptom. I have had it for a long time. Recently, I realized that means I have probably had Lyme and/or co-infections much longer than I realized. I have Bartonella and Babesia. My rib pain has been sharp, dull aching, sqeezing like something's wrapped around my entire rib cage (front and back). When it first started, it felt like an elephant was standing on top of me. It hurt extremely badly.

I also have a ton of weird skin symptoms, which my LLMD thinks is Bart or Bart-Like Organisms, some of which include scratch marks that come and go. They might show up in the afternoon and they can later disappear in varying amounts of time. I have had red blotches and a lot of redness in my skin at times. I have had all kinds of weird skin issues. I think they are probably Bart related.

The extremely odd thing is that my skin symptoms have vastly improved after starting doxy. I can't figure out why because doxy does not treat Bart. I think doxy has some kind of effect on the sebum in the skin. I can't tell whether or not it would help you. I definitely have Bart though. I have a lot of the symptoms.

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PS

I think my skin issues might be partially related to histamine intolerance caused by Lyme. I'm starting to look into this. I have a lot of the symptoms of mast cell activation disorder, which can be caused by Lyme.

http://geneticgenie.org/blog/2013/01/31/mast-cell-activation-disorder-mcad-chronic-illness-and-its-role-in-methylation/

Post Edited (Lymie Girl) : 2/12/2015 1:28:50 PM (GMT-7)