diagnosed 3rd stage Lyme (6y), afraid about heart and death. :(

[regula22]

Yesterday i was diagnosed Lyme disease i probably have undiagnosed since 2006 when i had tick byte in august and in november i had multiple neurological symptoms, weakness and pitting swelling on legs. They did disappeared after weeks but some symptoms persisted months and some do exists even now.


. Since then i had PVC's, EKG showed arrhythmias (and possible myocardial ischemia and possible myocardial injury, going to cardiologist) and i have many more symptoms like pain in fingers, toes, dizzy spells, eye ticks and flashes-floaters in vision)

My question is that can Lyme disease cause permanent heart disease and be ultimately fatal?

And if heart is damaged does it will recover after antibiotic treatment?

[JackieCalifornia]

You say, "Pardon my English"?  Oh my!  Your English is most excellent, and of course far far better than my Estonian, of which I have none.

I understand what you say about your situation with doctors.  I would suggest then that you look around on the internet for information about herbal treatment after you take the antibiotics.  

There is an herbalist named Stephen Buhner who has written books (available on Amazon . com and elsewhere) on thoughtful treatments for Lyme and co-infections.  

One of his books I have is 'Healing Lyme'.  While I am not big on herbal medicine generally, I do respect his approach, because he explains it fully instead of saying 'take this' with no explanation.  

Best wishes -- let us know how you do.  

[regula22]

change = chance. Pardon my english.

[regula22]

"Perhaps your MD would be interested."

I doubt. We have already serious shortage of doctors and medics (many of them are going to other countries where is better income) so i they have no time for longer chat and i have no change to choose someone else. I think i MUST stuck on this treatment they give me and hope that this will work on my particular case.

[JackieCalifornia]

Yes, 20 days of doxy is the 'standard' treatment, but many fine and knowledgeable MDs believe that this 'standard' is hugely inadequate because of the particular characteristics of Lyme.  

One of those characteristics is a very slow reproductive cycle compared to other bacteria, and it is when dividing that bacteria are most susceptible to antibiotics.  Leprosy (Hansen's disease) and tuberculosis (TB) are other bacterial diseases with this same characteristic, and standard medical treatment for these diseases is many months of antibiotics.  Why do MDs not take this approach with Lyme?  I do not know.

ILADS [dot] org has information useful to an MD in understanding the more progressive view of Lyme.  Perhaps your MD would be interested.

Best wishes to you -- let us know how you do.

[regula22]

Now its my first day on Doxy, infectionist said that there is no more needed than 20 days and that it is on most cases effective. She also said, that heart block (wich i probably have) is rarely permanent and cardiomegaly even more rare. I hope antibiotics kills those little critters...

[JackieCalifornia]

Here in the US, intravenous antibiotics are not always used -- the doctors have learned that oral antibiotics are usually just as effective, but each person is different.

20 days of doxy is the standard treatment here, but only by doctors who are not Lyme specialists.

Longer treatment is usually required, but perhaps the infectious disease doctor will know that.

I just searched (on google):  

lyme disease estonia

There were some very interesting articles, and I hope you can find a doctor who understands Lyme.  Here in the U.S., most infectious disease doctors ("infectionist" as you said) do not understand Lyme and do not give treatment long enough to cure.  We in the U.S. have to find doctors who think progressively about Lyme, and you may need to do that in Estonia as well.

If the infectious disease doctor that you see is up to date, but if he or she is not, then find another doctor.  It is understandable that you are upset and depressed.  That is true for many, many people with Lyme.

Be strong, let us know how you do and what you hear from the doctors.