Spontaneous foot blisters, Bartonella?

First off, my anti-body test for bartonella was positive a couple weeks ago.

For many years now, my feet, usually my left foot smaller 4 toes, will spontaneously blister over night, deep underneath the skin, on the pads. At least thats what it feels like. They become red, swollen, painful, and do not dissipate for several weeks. Eventually, months later after the skin has replaced itself enough times, the air bubble/s created by the blister comes to the surface, and peels off (if it was large enough, sometimes its not and there is no bubble).

Just to clarify, these are not open-sore blisters like rubbing your foot on the inside of a boot for 12 hours, but they feel almost exactly the same. They are *very* deep blisters, with no visible exterior damage to the skin (only redness and swelling coming from deep in the skin).

Direct pressure on the blisters is not usually all that painful; side pressure, or putting a shearing force on the blister, is very painful.

Ive just dealt with it up until now. Something new has happened, and this is that this new round of toe blisters has spread to a small ring around my left heel. Its not directly on the heel, but slightly on the back and right side of it, so when you walk and roll your foot back upon taking a step, it pushes on the blisters. These heel blisters are quite painful, and feel, quality of pain wise, exactly the same as the toe blisters, just more intense.

Ive never had heel blisters accompany my toe blisters. Im not sure what could be causing this. Im wondering if this is bartonella related.

Has anyone else had spontaneous over night foot blisters like this before?

Post Edited (On the herx) : 2/1/2016 11:05:21 AM (GMT-7)

Hi On the herx,

That is really interesting and odd! Though I have never heard of that symptom being associated with bartonella, never say never. I do hope they go away! I think there were a lot of issues like the one that you are describing that may not be directly associated with a coinfection or lyme BUT that do resolve with treatment. Lets hope that is the case! I have heard of candida skin blisters but yours sound a bit deeper tissue. I don't have any personal experience with blisters so I'm sorry to say I don't have a direct recommendation. Hopefully bumping the thread someone else will. Hope for you to be off the herx soon.

~beth

Hi on the herx!-

I am sorry to hear about these painful blisters.

Are you seeing a Lyme doctor? Maybe they know of a cream, ointment, or an oil to apply to the blisters?

Best Wishes!

i know its a very old thread - so sorry for the thread Ressurection - but another member just directed me to this post - and i wanted to say that my partner has strongly suspected Bartonella infection - and had these mystery blisters many times

all the same features:-
-painful deep blisters on the end of the toes
-sometimes one toe - other times 3 or 4 on the same foot
-last ing 5-7days before they start to heal
-little brown flecks in them as they heal

we tried foot baths with a strong tea made from anti-microbial herbs - which seemed to help a little
artemesia, houttuynia, knotweed etc

yes - looked similar to how severe chilblains or other cold injury can look - but occurred even in the middle of summer and did not seem to be temperature related - so i think the cause was infectious Sara - they looked exactly like toe blisters i have seen photos of from viral infections like herpes simplex or other herpes group viruses - eg herpes zoster/ shingles, EBV - and now i see covid also causes these in some people.

https://images.app.goo.gl/Eqp4eUGmzRQG1QAs5

i suspect Bart behaves much like a virus as it is very very small, intracellular, and does mess with the genetics of the cells - but it could be due to immunosuppression it causes - and allowing previous viral infections to be re-activated

Garzie, i can confirm you that, from my personal case. I have blisters in all parts of my body, specially in the legs while treating with tindamax, doxy and cefixime. They are from my bartonella infection. I am treating in pulse for 3 years now and the sole of my feat still hurt bad. Sometimes i have to stop abx for 5 to 7 days because the herx is to strong to handle. I even reduced to 50% dose of abx and the same happens.

Garzie said...
isitlyme - interesting - thanks for contributing -

do your blisters look like the ones in the link ?

No they are different. First my skin peels out and and after 4 days it begins to gain crust.

- come up fast in around 1 day last 5-7days then heal -yes
- deep in the tissue / not just on surface / skin - yes
- very red in colour - with some darker spots - yes
- and v painful to touch - yes

Ive uploaded an example from my skin. Happened just last week after my last round of abx.

The peel off starts like this:
https://ibb.co/wvbx5vm

After 4 days:

https://ibb.co/h8mtwhj


do you have bartonella confirmed via blood test ?

Yes, from ArminLabs. They use the Elispot test technique

Garzie said...
excellent - thanks for posting the great photos isitlyme

i have heard LLMD's state that Bart is responsible for many different skin symptoms and weird rashes -

I had two appointments with two diffrent LLMDs and before i got the results from ArminLabs, i showed them these marks and blisters from the skin. Both said: "These are typical for bartonella.."..

Do you find any correlation in that white postules or any other skin marks you have, with antibiotics?

I just discovered this thread - and I have experience with something similar at least.

I've lived with those blisters (of varying size and depth) for many, many years now. Nothing controls it for me - I've been told it was everything from athletes foot (no treatment for athletes foot helped), told it was due to wearing wet socks (my feet also sweat a lot), and that turned out to not be the cause either.

I have, out of desperation, used HerpecinL on them, and it helps, so I have assumed for years that it's due to herpes viruses, and this seems to correlate to stress levels as well. The more stress on my body (stress on my mind has nothing to do with it, unless the stress is severe) seems to drive this, for me anyway. So, the herpes connection made sense to me at the time. LOL.

Also, I still have those darned things happening, and I don't have any other evidence of continued tick-borne infections - and for those that don't know, I've had extreme amounts of stress in my life the last 1.5 years due to severe blood pressure issues that are still being investigated to find the cause.

I also have had psoriasis on my scalp return, as well as patches on my arm. I don't know if that has anything to do with this or not, but thought I'd throw it out there, just in case someone else has noticed these things as well.