Fidgety heart?

[Nell2]

Hi mates,

I’ve just finished the first week of a two-week cycle intended to hit Babesia. For a few days now, my heart has been acting funny. Not palps. But more of a skip. So it goes beat…beat…beat………beat…beat….There’s a little feeling of GULP when the skip is longish, like I have to take a quick breath and maybe my heart needs to beat a bit faster for a few seconds. Maybe the way to describe it is a pause.

I’ve got a call in to the doc. But I’m wondering what you guys think. Result of the Babesia protocol? I was getting sharp pains in my spleen area but that stopped once the heart things started. Plenty of intermittent sweats all day. This is the middle of the third two-week cycle with breaks of one week in between. Or is this something I need to get to a nearby doctor about? Which I do NOT want to do!

You guys solved my tongue problems of last week brilliantly. I managed to avoid all dessert at Thanksgiving, took handfuls of probiotics, and my mouth and tongue are in good shape. So thanks!

Nell

[Kim]

Hi Nell,

Your irregular heart beats could very well be a Babs-related symptom or herx response. My frequent palps calmed way down after Babesia/Lyme treatment, but that’s just me so be sure and run it past your doc. 😉

Take care…..kim

[Maz]

@Nell2 wrote:

I’ve just finished the first week of a two-week cycle intended to hit Babesia. For a few days now, my heart has been acting funny. Not palps. But more of a skip. So it goes beat…beat…beat………beat…beat….There’s a little feeling of GULP when the skip is longish, like I have to take a quick breath and maybe my heart needs to beat a bit faster for a few seconds. Maybe the way to describe it is a pause.

I’ve got a call in to the doc. But I’m wondering what you guys think. Result of the Babesia protocol? I was getting sharp pains in my spleen area but that stopped once the heart things started. Plenty of intermittent sweats all day. This is the middle of the third two-week cycle with breaks of one week in between. Or is this something I need to get to a nearby doctor about? Which I do NOT want to do!

Nell, glad to hear your tongue is feeling better! YAY! 🙂

I’m on a similar babesia/Lyme cyst-busting protocol and experienced the same thing when I started the Mepron/Zith in the summer…day and night sweats (like hot flashes) and palpitations. One of my early symptoms of Lyme was PVCs (premature ventricular contractions), which feels like your heart is doing a back-flip and then pauses and then has a few fast beats. I had a holter monitor for two days, a heart ultrasound and EKG and nothing showed up as unusual, so I attibuted it either to mid-life hormonal imbalances and/or Lyme (because Lyme can also cause hormonal imbalances). Fortunately, this period of heart irregularities passed as treatment proceeded.

Thyroid can also cause these kinds of heart anomalies and I noticed that in your sig line you’re also taking bio-identical thyroid hormone replacement therapy. Have you had your thyroid tested recently just to check everything is in balance?

You’re wise to have put in a call to your doc, as anything heart-related should always be checked out and tested, if indicated by your doc and it’s good to hear you’re onto this already. PVCs are normally considered to be pretty benign, if this is what is going on with you, but it’s just smart to have it investigated to ensure all is well. Please let us know what you discover.

PS My LLMD mentioned last time I saw him that Mepron can remain in the system for up to three weeks.

[PhilC]

@Nell2 wrote:

I’ve just finished the first week of a two-week cycle intended to hit Babesia. For a few days now, my heart has been acting funny. Not palps. But more of a skip.

Hi Nell,

What drugs are you taking to kill Babesia?

Phil

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
- Albert Einstein

[Nell2]

Oh Maz and Kim, what a comfort you are! Thank you from the bottom of my jumpy heart.

Dr. J’s office said that since there was no change in medication or dosage recently, I should go to the ER and get checked out. So I did. They did an EKG and x-rays, both normal. Bloodwork showed I’m hypothyroid again so I need that med adjusted. I suppose that could be the cause of the heart trouble, although I’ve been hypo — much worse than this — and never had it before. Probably a slow heart rate, but not irregular beating. The cardiologist wants to put me on beta blockers but I’m very reluctant to do this as I want to avoid any cascade of more side effects to manage. And if the likelihood is that the PVCs are benign, I’d rather just put up with them until hopefully they fade.

Back-flip is just exactly the feeling! I was struggling to describe it correctly.

Phil, I’m doing two weeks on/one week off of pulsing MWF: 2 T Mepron BID, 500 mg zith BID, 200 mg doxy BID, 10 capsules artemesinin BID. On the second week, 500 mg Flagyl BID ThF.

I will say that I’ve been getting some “blue sky days” as Dr. J’s PA calls them, so it makes putting up with the nasty horrible days a lot easier. Since Babesia and Cpn both like the heart, I guess it’s not surprising to have heart symptoms if they’re dying off? I keep trying to imagine theis big pool of infections getting smaller and smaller and smaller…

Nell

[Maz]

@Nell2 wrote:

They did an EKG and x-rays, both normal. Bloodwork showed I’m hypothyroid again so I need that med adjusted. I suppose that could be the cause of the heart trouble, although I’ve been hypo — much worse than this — and never had it before. Probably a slow heart rate, but not irregular beating. The cardiologist wants to put me on beta blockers but I’m very reluctant to do this as I want to avoid any cascade of more side effects to manage. And if the likelihood is that the PVCs are benign, I’d rather just put up with them until hopefully they fade.

Hi Nell,

In addition to low thyroid…

…another thought that came to mind is that Mepron somehow alters and diminishes the effects of CoQ10 (which is needed by all cells in the body to generate energy in the form of ATP), which has some heart effects. My LLMD warned me not to take any CoQ10 while on Mepron, including multi-vits that might contain this supp, because this could interfere with the actions of Mepron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenzyme_Q10

Just a thought, but it might be worth discussing this with your doc, as a possible side-effect of Mepron. The “blue days” are pretty common with Mepron, too (I’ve had a few of those while on it, too – ugh 😥 )…possibly also due to die-off, but perhaps compounded by Mepron’s effects on diminishing CoQ10.

Really glad to hear your heart is fine, Nell! When I was put on beta-blockers a few years back for intermittant palps and pvcs (due to Lyme/hormonal imbalances), I only needed to take a minimal dose to control it. I was put on the lowest dose and the doc said I could cut the 25mg tab in two to make 12.5mg, which is about as low as it comes. I didn’t need to take it forever…one benefit of it was that it also controlled serious migraines I was getting, too. The doc who prescribed it at the time said that it was a drug that doctors in med school often took to lower anxiety during finals and counteract all the caffeine they were consuming. The only prob with beta-blockers is that while they stabilize heart rate and stop the pvcs, they may further lower blood pressure and slow down heart rate even more….something to ask the doc about, anyway. 😉

[mschmidt]

Nell,

I’m sorry to hear your heart is doing flip-flops but, glad that everything checked out ok for you at the doctor’s office. I’m glad to read that I’m not the only one having pvc’s, palps, and all-day sweating from my babesia protocol. Within 3 days of starting Mepron, I thought I was going through menopause–I was overheated, sweating morning, day, and night, jittery, and had heart palps and pvc’s continually. It actually scared the crap out of me!! I’ve been on a babs protocol going on 10 weeks now–I do Mepron and high doses of Artemisinin MWF for 6 weeks, then zithromax for 6 weeks, and repeat both cycles for another 6 weeks. This second time around, the sweating and overheating is less intense, and my heart palps seem to have gotten better. I have a feeling my LLMD is going to want me to do another 6 week continuation before I start on my bartonella protocol. Another thing I noticed when I started the babesia protocol was nervousness (which is also a side effect of Mepron) and insomnia. I swear you couldn’t knock me out with a hammer. The only positive thing was that my daily runs got faster, and I had an abundance of energy 😯 😉

Hang in there– I know how unnerving all this can be.

Maria

[reesak]

I have these palps as well – have had them since I was diagnosed with Lyme – flip flop is a good word and I also have the gulp sensation – some days they aren’t there at all, some days it happens all day long!! Have had an EKG and everything was fine.

ReesaK

[PhilC]

@Nell2 wrote:

Phil, I’m doing two weeks on/one week off of pulsing MWF: 2 T Mepron BID, 500 mg zith BID, 200 mg doxy BID, 10 capsules artemesinin BID. On the second week, 500 mg Flagyl BID ThF.

Hi Nell,

It might be the azithromycin, either by itself or via an interaction with another medication that you are taking. Macrolide antibiotics are known to cause cardiac arrhythmias. And since the dose of azithromycin that you are taking is rather large, that makes me even more inclined to suspect that it may be the culprit.

Phil

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
- Albert Einstein

[Author]

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