OTHER than a tick bite?

Is there another way of getting lyme disease besides actually having a tick bite? i'd sure remember if that happened and if the lil devil was attached to me and had to be carefully pulled out. when i was a kid, i vaguely remember knowing a dog that had a tick bite, but that was maybe 30+ years ago.

my neuro and my pcp docs both said it's unlikely that i'd have lyme because i live in california and it's not found around here. but, my dermatologist told me that her neighbor is recovering from lyme disease after a long period of treatment...he had the same symptoms as i do.

also, somewhere on this site i found a long list of symptoms. now i can't find. can anyone send the link?

thanks

Hi infjlady,

Welcome to the forum.

There are now documented cases of the Borellia bacteria that causes lyme disease being carried by insects such as mosquitoes, fleas, and deer flies. While it is rather hard to prove that you might have contracted Lyme from one of these sources, it isn't impossible.

It is rather curious that doctors are insisting that Lyme is not present in their given state as there are documented cases in every state of the union as well as across the world. We joke here about the idea that migratory birds stop at every state border and unload their parasites like some kind of natural immigration check point!!

I would like to join springsjean in encouraging you to find a Lyme Literate Doctor. They will be able to diagnose and treat you without your having to "prove" the existence of Lyme.

HI Infjlady,
Maybe you should check out the website for California Lyme Disease? www.lymedisease.org/

Their name used to be CALDA (California Lyme Disease Assoc.), but they have recently changed their name to LymeDisease.org.

On this page of their site, you can clearly see how wide spread the issue truly is with Lyme infected ticks having been found in 42 counties in California - not to mention that's where I picked up a few of my infections www.lymedisease.org/california/california_map.html

It's very unfortunate when we end up with uneducated doctors trying to "help" us. They don't even know that they are feeding people false information!

And here you can see the incidence map for Lyme Disease for the whole nation and the number of reportable cases. Just remember that even the CDC has stated that only about 10% of the actual cases are reported - that means that for California the number being reported is shown to be 2,370 - the actual number of reportable cases is actually 23,700!!! And that's only the "CDC positive" cases! There are thousands of us that are infected and receiving treatment but don't test "CDC positive"!!

You really need to be seen by docs that understand this disease, not by those who don't even understand that it's in their state.

Those lists of symptoms can be found in the "New to Lyme?...Start here!" thread. And don't give up on yourself because of a few doc's that don't even know that there is an epidemic going on right under their noses!