Tick Bite

[jesscarmel]

Hi

last night fiancee found a little red tick on his stomach. we called the dr and she prescribed 21 days of doxycline- isnt that alot of days? we are getting married in 22 days so him being on it means he cant even drink for his bachelor party. this sucks

now the tick could be from 2 things- 1. we have a new puppy who has had ticks in thhe past few weeks. 2. yesterday my fiancee went to do paintball in the forest and was crawling around the ground without his shirt tucked in.

i hope its the 2nd cause im really scared to get one now. does anyone havfe any advice/opinions on this??

thankks!!!

jess

i also just rememered that ive had this red circle thing on my leg for oever a month, not sure what it is. showed dr the other day and she didnt know either- could be tick ite maybe?

[rinne]

Check out Lyme Disease.

The three weeks is standard for an initial tick bite but it is disputed as not being long enough, I am not going the antibiotic route myself as I was bitten several years ago but I have read that in 70% of cases that takes care of it. You need to get checked out yourself, a bull's eye is classic with Lyme. This disease is not something to mess around with, as a friend says, "it doesn't play fair".

The timing is awful with your wedding coming up, congratulations , but please take this VERY seriously. Lyme disease destroys lives. I'm sorry to sound so scary but it is a very scary disease.

You could ask questions on the OMG I might be able to eat dairy thread, Rachel has been diagnosed with it.

[cmzirkelbach]

I am sorry, but my advice here is not going to be very promising.

My husband was diagnosed with Lyme disease twice and it is very important to run the full coarse of antibiotics. Lyme disease, if not treated, can be very damaging to the nervous system, and affect everything.

And, if the red circle looks like a bulleye or a target, you should get a blood test. That is one of the telltale signs of Lyme disease. I am surprised your dr did not know that.

Some times the ticks are so small, you do not even realize they were there.

Finally, if you live in an area with ticks, they could be from anywhere. We had an indoor cat that got one a few years ago, we think from leaves that blew in through the back door.

Odds are if they are on the puppy, then they have attached themselves to the puppy and your finance got it from crawling around in the woods. But, there is still a chance that it came from the puppy.

I know this is a huge bummer right before your wedding. I wish I had more uplifting advice, but the most important think is that you both are healthy enough to enjoy your wedding and new life together.

[jerseyangel]

Hi Jess,

My husband was bitten last summer--he dosen't remember being bit, but developed the classic bull's eye rash around the bite.

He took Doxycycline for 21 days. It is necessary to be on the medicine for that long--gosh, the timing couldn't have been worse--huh?!

[CarlaB]

I'd have your rash checked out, too. A bull's eye rash indicated Lyme. You want to take care of it sooner rather than later!!

[jesscarmel]

I'd have your rash checked out, too. A bull's eye rash indicated Lyme. You want to take care of it sooner rather than later!!

i called the nurse practictioner who i happened to show my red dot on my leg too on friday. went in for something else but showed it to her. i called hher today and told her the situation. she said what all you are saying that lyme is typically a bulls eye and that mine is just a red dot- maybe an ingrown hair or something. she said its def not lyme. do you think i should get a 2nd opinion. fiancee is going to get the doxy today. if he takes it for 21 one days then will he be okay?????

thank

jess

[CarlaB]

i called the nurse practictioner who i happened to show my red dot on my leg too on friday. went in for something else but showed it to her. i called hher today and told her the situation. she said what all you are saying that lyme is typically a bulls eye and that mine is just a red dot- maybe an ingrown hair or something. she said its def not lyme. do you think i should get a 2nd opinion. fiancee is going to get the doxy today. if he takes it for 21 one days then will he be okay?????

thank

jess

My understanding is that it grows and the center becomes a lighter color and the red starts moving out. Some get rather large, but some stay very small. I don't know that I'd worry about a red dot, but I'd watch it.

[Nancym]

I have read that you don't always get the bulls eye rash. It'd probably be best to have the blood tests done regardless.

[rinne]

There can be problems with the testing, the lab considered reliable is Igenex, they are in Palo Alto, CA.

[Rachel--24]

if he takes it for 21 one days then will he be okay?????

Not all ticks carry Lyme so your fiance may not be infected but definately should take the whole course of antibiotics. You dont wanna mess around with Lyme. You will want to pay attention to any tell-tale signs that may appear....such as the bulls-eye or flu-like symptoms. The symptoms can develop weeks after the bite.

The 21 day treatment is controversial...many Dr.'s do not believe this is sufficient. The prognosis is very good when antibiotics are taken immediately though....like Rinne said.....takes care of it about 70% of the time. You will just want to be vigilint about any symptoms that may appear down the road....Lyme is very serious. I didnt get sick until 2 years after my bite. I never took antibiotics because I didnt see a tick and didnt know what the little red circle was. I had some flu-like symptoms that lasted a few days but didnt know they were related. I guess my immune system was strong and I stayed healthy for 2 years until I got under alot of stress and other factors came into play. Now I am very sick and tested positive for Lyme. So be careful...chances are very good for your fiance....its just unfortunate to happen right before your wedding.

[linds]

I personally have been bite by at least 10-15 ticks a year for as long as i can remember and have never one taken anything for it. I live in the country in northern minnesota and can barely go out in my own back yard without coming back in with a tick stuck on me somewhere. Since it is so common here to be bit by ticks our doctors tell us to look for the bulls eye rash of where the tick was. If it appears then we are supposed to go in if not we just go on with our normal lives.

[Rachel--24]

Since it is so common here to be bit by ticks our doctors tell us to look for the bulls eye rash of where the tick was. If it appears then we are supposed to go in if not we just go on with our normal lives.

Yeah but half of the people with Lyme never saw a bulls-eye rash.....they just got sick at some point. I think if someone has any symptoms after getting bit by a tick they should seek treatment regardless of whether they saw a bulls-eye or not. This is why alot of people end up undiagnosed for alot of years. I dont know why some people get a bulls-eye and some people dont but I dont think its the best idea to use that as the only basis for treating Lyme.

[jesscarmel]

Yeah but half of the people with Lyme never saw a bulls-eye rash.....they just got sick at some point. I think if someone has any symptoms after getting bit by a tick they should seek treatment regardless of whether they saw a bulls-eye or not. This is why alot of people end up undiagnosed for alot of years. I dont know why some people get a bulls-eye and some people dont but I dont think its the best idea to use that as the only basis for treating Lyme.

hi rachel'

so i have this red circle on my leg- had it for amonth, hasnt changed at all. sort of looks like a flat pimple. do you think that could be a tick bite???

thanks for your help

jess

[Rachel--24]

hi rachel'

so i have this red circle on my leg- had it for amonth, hasnt changed at all. sort of looks like a flat pimple. do you think that could be a tick bite???

thanks for your help

jess

I'm not really sure. Is is the red circle a ring? From what I can remember of my bite is that it was a tiny bite mark with a tiny red circle around it...like a ring. The main reason it stuck out in my mind was that it took several weeks to go away...I felt like it wasnt changing or healing like most bites do....but then finally it was gone. Later on when I was sick and someone mentioned Lyme to me...I looked at pics online but didnt recall ever having big circle rashes like what was pictured...so I sort of figured I couldnt have Lyme. I still wanted to get tested to rule it out though....since I was sick and noone knew why.

Do you think the red circle is a bite of some kind? Did you go anywhere where you might have been bit?

If you feel it could be from a tick it wouldnt hurt to get it checked out or to get tested. Did you have any flu symptoms occur?

I kept telling my Dr. (now that I tested positive) that my red circle was tiny....and it didnt grow or spread like what I see online. He said they can be of all sizes and they dont have to spread....they can just stay small. I think you should trust your instincts.....if you dont agree with what your dr. told you...get another opinion....it cant hurt to be a little overly concerned when it comes to stuff like this.

[jesscarmel]

I'm not really sure. Is is the red circle a ring? From what I can remember of my bite is that it was a tiny bite mark with a tiny red circle around it...like a ring. The main reason it stuck out in my mind was that it took several weeks to go away...I felt like it wasnt changing or healing like most bites do....but then finally it was gone. Later on when I was sick and someone mentioned Lyme to me...I looked at pics online but didnt recall ever having big circle rashes like what was pictured...so I sort of figured I couldnt have Lyme. I still wanted to get tested to rule it out though....since I was sick and noone knew why.

Do you think the red circle is a bite of some kind? Did you go anywhere where you might have been bit?

If you feel it could be from a tick it wouldnt hurt to get it checked out or to get tested. Did you have any flu symptoms occur?

I kept telling my Dr. (now that I tested positive) that my red circle was tiny....and it didnt grow or spread like what I see online. He said they can be of all sizes and they dont have to spread....they can just stay small. I think you should trust your instincts.....if you dont agree with what your dr. told you...get another opinion....it cant hurt to be a little overly concerned when it comes to stuff like this.

its really hard for me to get to my dr. i have a dermatologist who is closer- do u think he would know?

we moved to a house in august that backs onto woods and we saw deer the other day. i go into the backyard to walk the dog so i supposed i could have gotten a bite. i havent had any flu symptoms. i'm always tired though but that is not new....

[jerseyangel]

Jess--

Although we don't know exactly when he was bitten, my husband started having headaches, stiff neck and fatigue slightly before we noticed the bull's eye.

He went to the doctor immediately when we discovered the rash and was put on the meds. For the first week on the anitbiotic, he was very tired and just not himself. By week 2, he was a bit better and improved from there.

He has had no symptoms at all since completeing the medicine.

[Rachel--24]

I dont know if a dermatologist would know anything about Lyme...you could try going that route but I'm not really sure. Deer ticks are the ones that usually carry Lyme but I think any tick can probably carry it. Deer ticks are small...I dont think they would easily be seen. They are like the size of the period at the end of my sentence.

I experienced a massive headache when I woke up one morning and had a fever around 105. I was weak and kind of listless. Halfway through the day my head felt better, fever was gone and I was tired for a couple days. It was later on that I saw the bite. I cant recall exactly how much time seperated the symptoms from the bite but it might have been a few weeks later that I noticed the bite. I dont think I was feeling like myself when the circle bite was there....I think I just felt kind of "different".

[jesscarmel]

okay, i called the derma and he said call the pcp. so i called the pcp and he said the following:

"the lyme rash will slowly spread and get larger over time. if the red spot on your skin isn't growing larger, then it's not Lyme. you are correct that not all lyme rashes have a bullseye, but they all do slowly enlarge over time. so, after one month, if it hasn't grown larger, it can't be due to lyme."

what do you guys think of that? i had emailed to ask him if i shoudl come in to get checked out. i just have major anxiety issues and this whole situation is really freaking me out since our wedding is coming up

thanks for everyones great advice

Jess

[Rachel--24]

"the lyme rash will slowly spread and get larger over time. if the red spot on your skin isn't growing larger, then it's not Lyme. you are correct that not all lyme rashes have a bullseye, but they all do slowly enlarge over time. so, after one month, if it hasn't grown larger, it can't be due to lyme."

what do you guys think of that? i had emailed to ask him if i shoudl come in to get checked out. i just have major anxiety issues and this whole situation is really freaking me out since our wedding is coming up

Mine did NOT spread....if it did it was so small I never noticed. When I first saw it it was probably smaller than a dime...and it stayed that way. Maybe it was tiny at first and then it spread to the size it was when I noticed it...but from the time I saw it until it went away weeks later.....it did not spread. This is what I told my Dr. and he said not all of the rashes spread or get big. They can vary in size.

All I can tell you is that I've never seen a spreading rash on my body....ever....and now I test positive for Lyme Disease after being sick for the last 4 years. It was largely due to this misinformation about the rash that I didnt put alot of focus on Lyme....because, to my knowledge, I've never had a bulls eye rash that spread...or any rash that spread.

[almostnrn]

Grrrr, sorry about the tone of this post but what is wrong with the medical community?! Why won't they just do the test? Isn't this why we pay through the nose for insurance. If the MD's would stop being so hard headed and all knowing how many debilitating or terminal diseases could be treated. My mom walked around for years saying she thought she had lung cancer only to be dismissed by every doctor she saw. It was allergies, asthma and pretty much everything but. If one person along the line would have just ordered a chest xray we might have caught it in time to save her. She quit being persistant about it and it wasn't until she had been walking around with a collapsed lung that anyone took notice....THEN she was diagnosed at stage 4. I have strong reason to believe that there was a long history of celiac in my family of course no one has been diagnosed but me and now I'm fighting tooth and nail to get my kids tested. Since they are growing and look healthy I keep getting a no. I know this seems quite off the subject, but it really isn't. Instead of being so stubborn about what kind of rash it is, if it is a classic bullseye or not why won't they just order the stupid blood test? If not that then 21 days of doxycycline just to be safe. I hope this whole situation doesn't put a damper on your wedding day as you really deserve to have a wonderful moment for just you and your fiancee. Good luck and best wishes to both of you and wishing you a lifetime of happy moments!

[rinne]

My rash was a spiral on my arm, it never really got that big, was faint in color and didn't itch. I thought it was ringworm and I saw a doctor about it, the doctor didn't think it was anything, didn't ask me any questions, said it wasn't ring worm and gave me a prescription for cream. It went away. Six months later deep bone pain started and my health has gone downhill ever since. That was three and a half years ago. I have since seen my rash described on Lyme boards by others with Lyme.

I think the days of trusting the family doctor are gone, if we want our health then we have to take responsibility for it ourselves. I agree about the tests and insurance and such but even with all the best doctors and supposedly the best tests Lyme can be missed.

Check out Amy Tan's story.

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[jesscarmel]

My rash was a spiral on my arm, it never really got that big, was faint in color and didn't itch. I thought it was ringworm and I saw a doctor about it, the doctor didn't think it was anything, didn't ask me any questions, said it wasn't ring worm and gave me a prescription for cream. It went away. Six months later deep bone pain started and my health has gone downhill ever since. That was three and a half years ago. I have since seen my rash described on Lyme boards by others with Lyme.

I think the days of trusting the family doctor are gone, if we want our health then we have to take responsibility for it ourselves. I agree about the tests and insurance and such but even with all the best doctors and supposedly the best tests Lyme can be missed.

Check out Amy Tan's story.

Open Original Shared Link

so do you guys think i should request a test and if so what is the test??? keep in mind i never saw a tick or anything im just aware of it because by fiance had a tick on him. i also have no symptoms. is it too early to get the tests since ive only had the red dot for a month. i heard it can take a while to develop antibodies...

[rinne]

I know now that the first real sensation in my body when I was bitten by the tick was panic. I was completely confused by the emotions I was experiencing. I felt teary, overwhelmed by everything and I wanted to run away. That was not like me but I had no other symptoms of illness so I thought, "I'm 48, it's menopause" and carried on.

Through some of the work I have been doing, I now believe that when the body is attacked we experience it on the metabolic level as inflammation then agitation then anxiety and finally panic. Because we don't understand that a tick bite, or anything else that causes inflammation, can do this to us we look to our everyday lives to interpret our feelings of panic.

It would be natural at this point if you were to have panic attacks or anxiety to fit it into, "I'm getting married" and 'I'm overwhelmed by everything to do for the wedding". And it might just be that.

The other thing I know about Lyme is that it is a stealth bacteria and it will find your unique vulnerabilities which may be completely different than mine so you may never have the feelings I describe. I don't know what you should do about the testing but given that you are living in an area with ticks the smartest thing you can do is educate yourself about it, actually pretty much the whole world is living in a tick zone these days. Hint, Hint.

[jesscarmel]

I know now that the first real sensation in my body when I was bitten by the tick was panic. I was completely confused by the emotions I was experiencing. I felt teary, overwhelmed by everything and I wanted to run away. That was not like me but I had no other symptoms of illness so I thought, "I'm 48, it's menopause" and carried on.

Through some of the work I have been doing, I now believe that when the body is attacked we experience it on the metabolic level as inflammation then agitation then anxiety and finally panic. Because we don't understand that a tick bite, or anything else that causes inflammation, can do this to us we look to our everyday lives to interpret our feelings of panic.

It would be natural at this point if you were to have panic attacks or anxiety to fit it into, "I'm getting married" and 'I'm overwhelmed by everything to do for the wedding". And it might just be that.

The other thing I know about Lyme is that it is a stealth bacteria and it will find your unique vulnerabilities which may be completely different than mine so you may never have the feelings I describe. I don't know what you should do about the testing but given that you are living in an area with ticks the smartest thing you can do is educate yourself about it, actually pretty much the whole world is living in a tick zone these days. Hint, Hint.

i actually have an anxiety disorder and i tend to channel all my anxiety onto my health. i think i am projecting all my anxiety about my wedding whcih has been stressfull to plan onto this lyme thing. i probably will request a test but im not sure if that is being paranoid given i have no symptoms and really what looks like a red pimple or ingrown hair??!!!! i supposed it is easier to stress about this then all the details and family issues of the wedding

[kbtoyssni]

its really hard for me to get to my dr. i have a dermatologist who is closer- do u think he would know?

we moved to a house in august that backs onto woods and we saw deer the other day. i go into the backyard to walk the dog so i supposed i could have gotten a bite. i havent had any flu symptoms. i'm always tired though but that is not new....

Could you take a picture of it and email it to your doctor? My doctors are very good at returning my phone calls when I just have a quick question so maybe yours will be, too?

Even if your doctor doesn't think it's a tick bite, you could still request that you get tested for Lyme Disease. It would probably make you feel better if you had the test done. I think it's just a blood test because I know I've been tested and don't remember anything out-of-the-ordinary, so a dermatologist could probably do it for you.