Irregular heart beat

I've read quite a bit about heart problems with lyme and co-infections. I never had any heart problems, but just last week I began to get an uncomfortable feeling in my chest. I thought maybe it was caused from anxiety since I has very anxious. Anyway, it seems to be getting worse and I seem to have a very irregular heart beat.

It seemed to come and go at first but I think I've had it the entire day today. My heart rate seems pretty normal but I can feel my heart slowing down, speeding up, missing beats and beating very hard. It's very troubling and uncomfortable.

I was re-bit by a tick a few weeks ago and my doc told me to add zithromax to my bicillin injections for a week or two and it seemed to help my fatigue. I'm thinking I may have picked up a co-infection or something and its messing with my heart. Is this serious? Do I need to have a doctor check it out? My lyme doc is no help to me (i'm seeing a new one next month) and all the regular docs I see don't believe in lyme.

I'm not sure what to do. It's not stopping and its making me really nervous. I need to do something to make it stop. My current treatment isn't helping.

Yes I agree with Girlie. I would definitely have that checked out by a cardiologist just to be sure there's nothing going on.

The reason for the cardiologist is to determine what may be occurring with the heart. And yes, if the cardiologist is worth anything, they should be able to treat the issue (if there is an issue). I just had a full work up and I am currently wearing a 14-day monitor.

Are you doing any heart supportive herbs, like Hawthorne?

I so agree with Rikky & others. Def get it checked out, but know that MANY have gone to the ER with symptoms like a heart attack to be told that all is well & once treatment has begun, the rapid heart problems dissipate.

k07 i've talked to a cardiologist who's a friends father at a bbq and he told me the stress test is essentially useless. funny enough an LLMD in PA tried to recruit him to deal with Lyme specific heart issues but he's basically retired. i mean this is where we've gotten to where as an LLMD you have to try and talk other doctors into treating your patients. argh!

Trust your gut - maybe find another cardiologist?

Sean-I lucked out in that the Cardiologist that was covered by my insurance is Lyme friendly. He had a patient come to him with heart irregularities yet she was otherwise healthy. The only change she could think back on was being bitten by a tick. He ran all the tests including ordering the Igenex western blot. Everything came back normal except she was CDC positive for Lyme.

My LLND was pretty confident in what was going on with my heart but wanted me to rule out that it was anything more serious. I had an echo and wore the monitor. The echo was fine and the monitor showed that I was having PVC's and PAC's (what my LLND thought, common for us). That was a few months ago and those have decreased with continued treatment and IV ozone.

Point being rule out the serious stuff like heart muscle damage so you can eliminate worry and know that continued treatment will lesson the events and eventually eliminate them.

I will share my heart irregularity story with you. In 1981 i was 38 years old. The economy sucked. It was going to be a very bleak Christmas and on Christmas eve I told wife that i was not feeling well and that something was wrong with me. She said that i should drive myself to the local emergency department at a hospital and I did so. Upon seeing me, they had me lie down immediately and they hooked up machines to me and my heart beat was at below 30 per minute and the beats that were there were so tortured and so strong when they did hit, it felt like a sledge hammer hitting my chest. They totally drugged me. They said i was about to have a major heart attack. They had me in the intensive care unit for 3 days and they gave me many different drugs. They gave me so many pain killers that i was constantly sobbing for a week not knowing what was happening to me. After 3 weeks, the heart had calmed down and they prescribed some pills for me and they told me to take them for half a year and then i should be ok. I did that and i was ok after that. 3 years ago I found out that i have lyme and i figure i got it when i was born - from my mom. That heart condition is described in the lyme textbooks very well and i had exactly such an episode. Now at almost 73 i monitor my pulse regularly and i have no problems, but i do notice that if i am in a lot of emotional stress, the irregular heart beats do crop up some and then i have to do anything to relax and get my stressful feelings in check otherwise that irregularity will come back. Now my lyme naturopath has me on hawthorne among other things and i do not have much to worry about on that issue. At the end of my session back in 1981, I did ask the docs what caused my problem and they just shook their heads and said that they did not know the cause, but that they knew how to regulate it for me so that i could go on living. If I would not have gone to that ER back in 1981, i might not made it to my age now. And i can thank Lyme for working under cover to wreck my health. xfmlg