What should I do?

I live in Ohio and a group of my friends went to myrtle beach this past week. After driving 11 hours to our condo, I was tired so I decided to take a nap in one of the beds. I slept for a couple of hours and I woke up and it felt like I had been bitten by something. I immediately thought bed bugs.

The next day at the beach, my friends noticed bites on my back. I counted a total of 8 bites that resembled mosquito bites. The bites were only there for one more day and I still thought they were bed bugs. '

Since they were gone, I didn't think much of it the rest of the trip. However, two days before we were to leave, I woke up with flu-like symptoms. I threw up twice throughout the day and had a fever and chills. My lower back was very sore as well as my neck. I laid in bed all day with cold towels on my body. I can say that this was the worst fever I can remember having in some time. I was not able to think right or do anything. I had no appetite and my whole body was achy and I had an upset stomach. My fever and chills only lasted 24 hours and I started to feel better. On the way home, I still had an upset stomach and I was starting to feel the diarrhea coming on.

I returned home still with an upset stomach and diarrhea with the occasional head ache. I assumed my illness was something I ate, or being in the sun. It wasn't until my girlfriends mother was at the laundromat washing our towels and said she had found a tick in our towels, that I began to research. I knew that ticks carried disease and I felt like I got bit so I began to look up information.

I found that my symptoms were very similar to lyme disease. I have been waiting for a rash to show up to go to the doctor but i do not have a rash. My stomach is still easily upset, I have very little appetite, i feel weak and confused, I have been having crazy vivid dreams and i constantly get headaches that come and go.

I am just hoping that someone on this forum can help me and tell me if I should be worried. This has been on my mind for that past couple days and I am becoming stressed out.

Thank you for the direction. I just needed people who know about lyme to tell me this before I did anything.

Unfortunately, my girlfriends mother killed the tick and disposed of it before I could research the topic.

It has only been a week and a half since I could have been bitten. If I get antibiotics ASAP what are my chances of a full recovery?

Nolan and Lymster,
Forgive me, but I needed to edit your posts as we don't like to give out too much info on our LLMD's. Because of their dedication to their patients, some LLMD's are at risk of loosing their license in some instances, just for treating these tick-borne infections aggressively...as they should.

Traveler said...
Nolan and Lymster,
Forgive me, but I needed to edit your posts as we don't like to give out too much info on our LLMD's. Because of their dedication to their patients, some LLMD's are at risk of loosing their license in some instances, just for treating these tick-borne infections aggressively...as they should.

I would call you paranoid for saying such a thing. However I saw Under Our Skin a few weeks ago and it has made me much more aware of things. I never mention a lyme doc by name except by PM. I fail to come up with a similiar case of covering up the facts in my medical research.

To the OP as many others have said time is paramount and cost is secondary. I thought Lyme was all hype when I was first dxed in 2003. I wish I would of taken treatment more seriously then. Even if I did it was an occupational hazard since I work outdoors. Anyway insurance doesn't cover half of the stuff anyway in my experience. So make an immediate appointment. Some offices will work with you on finances.

I am still trying to cope with how devastating lyme is and don't want any others to be in the same boat.