I have my babesioisis story written down from 2015, since I needed to post it to some of the groups to which I belong as a warning. I'll just pop the entire thing here for anyone interested. Enjoy? "Because it's important, here's a first-hand story to dovetail with this post. It's a long tale but I tell it to make a point rather than just a comment in passing. This is a dangerous disease! In August 2015, on a rock collecting trip in Franklin NJ, I was bitten by the nymph of the Black-Legged Tick (Deer Tick). The adult ticks, as is well-known, frequently transmit Lyme disease, which, untreated, is no picnic. But the nymph stage, black and the size of a poppy seed, can transmit babesiosis. In 2020, most physicians are not familiar with the infection because it's still very rare in humans., But veterinarians and dog owners are well-aware of it because it is common in dogs. The pathogen responsible is babesia microti, a nasty little thing that lives inside red blood cells. It takes a while to manifest and if I remember correctly it's 37 days on average. This is what happened to me on the 42nd day after that trip (If you're squeamish, look away). I came in from an afternoon walk on a Thursday, feeling just fine. Hit the bathroom, as one typically would, and peed flat Coca-Cola. That grabs one's attention, I must say. I was able to collect a sample and took it immediately to my urologist. They tested it and proclaimed, rather unbelievably, that it looked ok, despite being 30% blood (I no longer use that doctor). But they did recommend that I go see my primary. You don't say? Here my memory fades a bit because I don't think I was able to see my doctor until Friday morning. My primary heard the story, checked me out, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Uhh, I dunno, viral bronchitis?" because I was beginning to show some symptoms of illness. He said, “If it doesn't clear up in the next week, come back and see me.” I went home and spent that evening and the weekend with a high fever and quite a bit of distress, obviously very ill. On Monday, I drove myself (of course...a guy) back to see him. He walked into the waiting room to finish paperwork with the person he had just seen, took one look at me being white as a ghost, and ordered me to go straight to the hospital ED. I tried to pay my co-payment (perhaps a bit delirious) and he stopped me and said, “No, you don't understand, GO THERE NOW!” So I went home. I had to get clothing, make sure my cats were set, and organize with a friend to take care of them in case I was kept overnight. I was in the hospital for the next week. It took the staff at Bryn Mawr Hospital 2.5 days and every test they could think of to get the diagnosis of babesiosis. Nobody there had ever seen it before. Fortunately, my infectious diseases specialist suspected from my symptoms what it might be and immediately started me on 11 days of sachets of Mepron (Atovaquone), and anti-parasitic used to treat malaria twice per day. At the time I described the taste as 50% hand-picked, sweet and ripe Japanese Satsuma oranges and pigeon shit. On a different floor later in the week, I had to tell the nurses how to give it to me. They had never seen Mepron before. The Mepron did the trick but until it did, five days later, this is what happened to me: 50% of my hemoglobin was gone (which is why I was as white as Utah). The parasite lives in the red blood cells, the spleen detects unhealthy cells and kills them. Result: I was excreting my blood rapidly. On the third day in, they put me in ICU for two days, I was in acute respiratory distress. They tried to put me on a BPAP machine for breathing (not possible) so I sent home for my CPAP, which I could tolerate. They gave me two units transfusion. I chuckled a bit because, since there is no blood test for babesiosis, at the time, the strongest vector for contraction was blood transfusions which is what I read on the condition printed out by one of the doctors. He had never seen it before. In fact, all week, many physicians not on my case came in to talk to me because nobody had any experience with this disease. My spleen was about three times the size it should have been. Renal failure was beginning. They did an MRI, got the results, and told me that congestive heart failure was stating, so they put me on Lasix, a strong diuretic. It was a bad weekend. But by the next day, I was improved enough to be sent to a room and two days after that I was parasite-free and begging to go home. In a follow-up visit with the infectious diseases specialist (Thank you Dr. K!) I asked him on the scale of people with babesiosis who are asymptomatic, and some are, and those who die from it, where was I? “About halfway”, he answered calmly. With half of my blood gone, had I not gone to the ED when I did, had I waited another night, it might have been too late. That's far too close for me. Babesiosis was first detected in humans in 1995 in Nantucket. When I got it in 2015, it had clearly made it as far south as at least north New Jersey, where Franklin is. I checked recently. It's everywhere now. Sparse, yes, but everywhere. So...the point of this long tale to really, really check yourself and each other now after being anywhere near anything but cut grass. The tick nymphs are tiny and hard to see. Showering does not dislodge them. Tick repellent will work but but needs to be where they are, near your legs. At the time of my infection, the data suggested that they need to be attached for 48 hours to ensure transmission. That number had been amended to no necessary time. If they have it and they bite you they can transmit the disease."
Very informative lecture. Thank you. Had a friend who was diagnosed with babesiosis after getting very sick and losing allot of weight. Living in the northeast and loving the outdoors has me very conscious of ticks and their illnesses.
Thank you! But I’m going to die! I have a LIVE Babesia Microti infection in my body! It’s not just the antibodies. I am in Rochester, MI, volunteered at a garden near me 2 1/2 years ago, and felt myself getting sick. I left and have not been well since then. I am immunocompromised from breast implants and mold toxicity, and eradicated both. My doctor said she’s never seen a live parasite of Babesia Microti in anyone before, and she’s been doing this type of thing for years! I forgot to add that I have one case of Bartonella and 4 borrialis (I think I spelled that wrong.)
My question is, is it lymes disease or not? I was sweeping falling leaves into a garbage can that feel off of a neighbors tree. Not knowing that it was filled with ticks and was attacked by 1000 ticks or more Been having problems breathing every since. My doctor says that you do not have lymes disease. Stop complaining I am grasping for air
I have my babesioisis story written down from 2015, since I needed to post it to some of the groups to which I belong as a warning. I'll just pop the entire thing here for anyone interested. Enjoy?
"Because it's important, here's a first-hand story to dovetail with this post. It's a long tale but I tell it to make a point rather than just a comment in passing. This is a dangerous disease!
In August 2015, on a rock collecting trip in Franklin NJ, I was bitten by the nymph of the Black-Legged Tick (Deer Tick). The adult ticks, as is well-known, frequently transmit Lyme disease, which, untreated, is no picnic. But the nymph stage, black and the size of a poppy seed, can transmit babesiosis. In 2020, most physicians are not familiar with the infection because it's still very rare in humans., But veterinarians and dog owners are well-aware of it because it is common in dogs.
The pathogen responsible is babesia microti, a nasty little thing that lives inside red blood cells. It takes a while to manifest and if I remember correctly it's 37 days on average. This is what happened to me on the 42nd day after that trip (If you're squeamish, look away).
I came in from an afternoon walk on a Thursday, feeling just fine. Hit the bathroom, as one typically would, and peed flat Coca-Cola. That grabs one's attention, I must say. I was able to collect a sample and took it immediately to my urologist. They tested it and proclaimed, rather unbelievably, that it looked ok, despite being 30% blood (I no longer use that doctor). But they did recommend that I go see my primary. You don't say?
Here my memory fades a bit because I don't think I was able to see my doctor until Friday morning. My primary heard the story, checked me out, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Uhh, I dunno, viral bronchitis?" because I was beginning to show some symptoms of illness. He said, “If it doesn't clear up in the next week, come back and see me.”
I went home and spent that evening and the weekend with a high fever and quite a bit of distress, obviously very ill. On Monday, I drove myself (of course...a guy) back to see him. He walked into the waiting room to finish paperwork with the person he had just seen, took one look at me being white as a ghost, and ordered me to go straight to the hospital ED. I tried to pay my co-payment (perhaps a bit delirious) and he stopped me and said, “No, you don't understand, GO THERE NOW!”
So I went home. I had to get clothing, make sure my cats were set, and organize with a friend to take care of them in case I was kept overnight. I was in the hospital for the next week.
It took the staff at Bryn Mawr Hospital 2.5 days and every test they could think of to get the diagnosis of babesiosis. Nobody there had ever seen it before. Fortunately, my infectious diseases specialist suspected from my symptoms what it might be and immediately started me on 11 days of sachets of Mepron (Atovaquone), and anti-parasitic used to treat malaria twice per day. At the time I described the taste as 50% hand-picked, sweet and ripe Japanese Satsuma oranges and pigeon shit. On a different floor later in the week, I had to tell the nurses how to give it to me. They had never seen Mepron before.
The Mepron did the trick but until it did, five days later, this is what happened to me:
50% of my hemoglobin was gone (which is why I was as white as Utah). The parasite lives in the red blood cells, the spleen detects unhealthy cells and kills them. Result: I was excreting my blood rapidly.
On the third day in, they put me in ICU for two days, I was in acute respiratory distress. They tried to put me on a BPAP machine for breathing (not possible) so I sent home for my CPAP, which I could tolerate. They gave me two units transfusion. I chuckled a bit because, since there is no blood test for babesiosis, at the time, the strongest vector for contraction was blood transfusions which is what I read on the condition printed out by one of the doctors. He had never seen it before. In fact, all week, many physicians not on my case came in to talk to me because nobody had any experience with this disease.
My spleen was about three times the size it should have been.
Renal failure was beginning.
They did an MRI, got the results, and told me that congestive heart failure was stating, so they put me on Lasix, a strong diuretic.
It was a bad weekend. But by the next day, I was improved enough to be sent to a room and two days after that I was parasite-free and begging to go home.
In a follow-up visit with the infectious diseases specialist (Thank you Dr. K!) I asked him on the scale of people with babesiosis who are asymptomatic, and some are, and those who die from it, where was I?
“About halfway”, he answered calmly. With half of my blood gone, had I not gone to the ED when I did, had I waited another night, it might have been too late. That's far too close for me.
Babesiosis was first detected in humans in 1995 in Nantucket. When I got it in 2015, it had clearly made it as far south as at least north New Jersey, where Franklin is. I checked recently. It's everywhere now. Sparse, yes, but everywhere. So...the point of this long tale to really, really check yourself and each other now after being anywhere near anything but cut grass. The tick nymphs are tiny and hard to see. Showering does not dislodge them. Tick repellent will work but but needs to be where they are, near your legs. At the time of my infection, the data suggested that they need to be attached for 48 hours to ensure transmission. That number had been amended to no necessary time. If they have it and they bite you they can transmit the disease."
Very informative lecture. Thank you. Had a friend who was diagnosed with babesiosis after getting very sick and losing allot of weight. Living in the northeast and loving the outdoors has me very conscious of ticks and their illnesses.
Thank you! But I’m going to die! I have a LIVE Babesia Microti infection in my body! It’s not just the antibodies.
I am in Rochester, MI, volunteered at a garden near me 2 1/2 years ago, and felt myself getting sick. I left and have not been well since then. I am immunocompromised from breast implants and mold toxicity, and eradicated both.
My doctor said she’s never seen a live parasite of Babesia Microti in anyone before, and she’s been doing this type of thing for years!
I forgot to add that I have one case of Bartonella and 4 borrialis (I think I spelled that wrong.)
I'm so sorry 😞
L
great presentation Thank you.
Do not only concentrate on ticks. These microorganisms are also carried by Moskitos and biting flies.
I have lyme disease Bartonella and Babesia and Pots syndrome had all this since 2008 when I first start getting Sytoms
Can't anaplasmosis and erlichiosis also produce fevers of 103 or higher ?
My question is, is it lymes disease or not?
I was sweeping falling leaves into a garbage can that feel off of a neighbors tree. Not knowing that it was filled with ticks and was attacked by 1000 ticks or more
Been having problems breathing every since. My doctor says that you do not have lymes disease. Stop complaining
I am grasping for air
Babesiosis causes air hunger&night sweats.
If it is not lime there can be other microorganisms Wich cause that. Fasting with or without Keto can starve them.
Fenbendazole or Iverm. can help.
yea it sounds like murder!