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Do I need to see a Doctor for Lyme?

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Posted 8/16/2014 7:27 AM (GMT 0)
Hi, I removed a little black tick from my shin on Wednesday with my fingernail. A red rash the size of a dime appeared almost immediately and was itchy. It's now close to 72 hours later. The rash is about the same size but has gotten redder from scratching it. I was going to go the Emergency Room to get antibiotics, but my rash doesn't look like a bulls-eye and I have no other symptoms. I attached a picture of the rash with a quarter beside it for scale purposes. Does it look like lyme or just a reaction to the bite? (I am very allergic to bites and get big red welts from scratching simple mosquito bites). VIEW IMAGE
Posted 8/16/2014 1:16 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Taylor. That looks very similar to what my second tick bite looked like which was also on my lower leg. It's not a bullseye but I never had a bullseye either and now I'm dealing with a toxic soup of bacteria that's pretty happy where it is.

I would go see a doctor and ask for a script to treat this prophylactically. You may never develop symptoms but the longer you wait to treat the harder it is to eradicate. Typically symptoms can take a week or maybe even months to develop so just be smart and try to find a doc that will treat you as a precaution so you don't end up here.
Posted 8/16/2014 7:25 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you ToddPaul. I will definitely bring it to my doctor's attention. It looks about the same today. I'm sorry you're dealing with toxic bacteria.

I had been scouring the internet for rashes that looked like mine, and I couldn't find anything referencing a non bulls-eye rash.

In the meantime, since I posted this picture, I've chipped my tooth on a fennel seed, and to my great luck, it's starting to swell and get painful, and the dentists are closed until Monday. Nobody is getting back to me. I haven't had a dental problem in years, so maybe somebody is trying to tell me something - like I need to be on antibiotics.

Either that, or I'm having a really bad week.
Posted 8/16/2014 7:31 PM (GMT 0)
TaylorD—

I can't really comment on the bite but regarding your swollen, sore tooth—I would not mess around with that. If you can get to an ER to ask for some antibiotics I would do that today. Dental bacteria is quite toxic—especially if your body is already busy dealing with that bite—whatever it is.

And I would just show up at the dentist's office first thing Monday AM… don't wait for them to get back to you. Consider it an emergency—they'll figure out a way to treat you. ;)

-p
Posted 8/16/2014 7:39 PM (GMT 0)
If you do go to a doctor, make sure they have a good understanding of Lyme disease. Not many do. There are Lyme literate doctors who have training to diagnose and treat it. You can start a new thread here to ask for the names of doctors in your area. We can't post them on the forum.

Hopefully you don't have it!
Posted 8/17/2014 2:10 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you for your responses. I sat in emergency for close to 5 hours. I was finally put in a room with another dental patient who was bleeding excessively. The doctor came in and was very angry/aggressive and told her to apply pressure and that there was nothing magical they could do for her. Her husband said she had been bleeding for 6 hours, and I did see the gauze she removed from her mouth and it was covered in blood. The doctor begrudgingly said he would get her a styptic pencil (he referred to it by another name), and almost an hour had passed, and he still hadn't returned.

So, I got up and left. My dental swelling is a worse issue, so I'm going to try and get into see a dentist tomorrow (Sunday). There is one that is open, and what I have is classified as a dental emergency according to their website. Dentists disappear on weekends.

Thank you for the advice on just going to the office, whether they answer my phone calls or not. Wow, what a nightmare.

Post Edited (TaylorD) : 8/16/2014 10:50:19 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 8/17/2014 4:16 AM (GMT 0)
I would absolutely begin treatment. I would take cat's claw, astralagus, and demand 3 months of minocycline.

There is a decent chance you got something bad from that tick bite. If you got nothing, and treat for 3 months, no real harm done. If you don't treat though, and it turns out you have lyme and/or any of the coinfections, you would be much worse off and it will possibly take years and tens of thousands of dollars and a lot of pain and suffering to get your health back.

Please realize that the sooner you treat, the better. The longer you wait, the more likely it will go systemic and become much more difficult to treat. Every day counts as far as you should be concerned.
Posted 8/17/2014 4:41 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks sKBM. The triage nurse didn't even look twice at my tick bite or enter it into the system - only the dental issue. Until I mentioned the dental problem, she was just looking at me like I was a nut, frankly.

I'm seriously reconsidering telling my family doctor about it at all. I know she won't take it seriously. I'm in Ontario, Canada. And, the hard fact is, I will need her when serious medical issues arise. And I do believe she will perceive me with less credibility if I come off as fearful of Lyme Disease at this point. She'll write me off as a hypochondriac.

I would have to have medically undeniable classic symptoms, and from what I keep reading, it's having that bull's eye. Even if I develop the flu-like symptoms in the next 30 days, she would just tell me it's the flu. And she's a young doctor too. We finished our undergrads in the same year. I know because her degrees are on her wall.
Posted 8/17/2014 5:26 AM (GMT 0)
Even before I contracted lyme, I would get rashes like that even from random skeeter bites.

So, while I'm with skBM, it's super ok to be overly cautious, I would not freak out just yet. But what to do next is the tricky part. 90% of MDs haven't a clue—especially the ER crowd.

It is incredibly difficult to "rely" on a bull's eye rash. That really doesn't look like one but it doesn't have to be in order to be something of concern. Plus, the statistics for people actually developing the rash is so low, it's almost irrelevant. What tells a more complete story are the symptoms that frankly, mimic so many other ailments that they, too, are confusing.

So, be very aware of how you're feeling for the next couple of weeks and watch the rash. In the interim, check out the "newbie" thread on this forum and do your research. There are a couple of other Canadians on the forum so maybe start a thread with a query to them for info/advice.

Hope this helps—

-p
Posted 8/17/2014 7:29 AM (GMT 0)
It does help Pirouette. Thank you so much for taking the time to write so eloquently and thoughtfully. I live on the shores of Lake Ontario, so I'm actually in a significant risk zone for Lyme. There are between 100 to 200 new cases in my province every year. So, I guess that is extremely low. So, keeping a balanced perspective is important. But the rate is steadily growing every year with climate change.

The tick itself freaked me out a bit. I had never seen one on me before, and I was shocked at how small it was. I thought it was a little blackhead. But the creepy thing was alive. Yuck!
Posted 8/18/2014 12:17 AM (GMT 0)
Ahh yes, that little bugger was likely a nymph. They are so small—easy to miss.
You're welcome!

-p
Posted 8/18/2014 2:06 AM (GMT 0)
That's a big enough welt to cause Lyme. Any sane doctor should at least give you prophylactic treatment.

I highly recommend a month's treatment.

However, should you develop any symptoms whatsoever post treatment, you need to see an LLMD, or Lyme Literate Medical Doctor.

MDs get very little training on Lyme Disease in med. school.

Margaret
Posted 8/18/2014 2:07 AM (GMT 0)
Oh, and yes, go to Buhner's website (Buhner protocol) and see what the recommendations are for Stage I.

M
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