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tick bit will not heal for over 2 months

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Posted 8/21/2014 9:24 AM (GMT 0)
Hey everyone my name is Daniel. I am searching for some advice, and hopefully you guys can help out. I was bitten by a tick about two months ago. I know it was a tick because i pulled it out myself. I had never been bitten by a tick before so i just pulled it off like a scab. To be honest i didn't think much of it. I Forgot about it and never gave it to much thought. It just left a purple/red circle where it bit me. It never grew it stayed around the same size.(about the size of a watermelon seed) and a month and a half later i started to worry because it wasn't going away. So i took to the internet to find some answers and i started to scare myself and i started to panic because it seemed like having lyme is not very fun at all. So i decided to go to the doctors they told me that the bite did not look infected and asked me some questions on how i have been feeling the past month and i told him that i have not had many symptoms of lyme the only wired thing in that period of time was for two week i had my middle finger on my right hand very numb. Also some trouble with my arms falling asleep at night and loss of appetite. Just to be clear i do not know if these are even symptoms are related to lyme i am just pointing out all the wired symptoms i have had in the past month. So anyway the Docter told me lyme is very rare where i got bite(geographically) but if i do show signs of lyme i should come back for another visit. He didn't prescribe me any thing, no blood test nothing. He just looked a the bite and asked me questions and told me it didn't look infected. And two weeks later the bite has not gone away and that is my main concern. So i have a question for you guys out there if the byte has not healed for two months but apparently its not infected is that a sure sign of lyme? Also i was bit in North Dakota ether in Minot or Williston. But i live in Denver co so if you guy think its a good idea to go see another doctor in Denver please recommend a hospital that can tell me for sure if i have lyme or not so i can quit worrying about it. Thank you so much for reading this i hope it wasn't to boring and yes i know my English teacher would be ashamed.
Posted 8/21/2014 10:06 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Daniel. I've been studying rashes for the past week because I got my first tick bite, and am concerned. I think I could pass a dermatology exam now.

A small residual mark, two months after the initial bite doesn't indicate lyme necessarily. Could you be scratching or rubbing it, inadvertently, when you're sleeping? Are you a slow healer? Any skin hyperpigmentation can take time to resolve. I'm very pale and the redness from a simple cut can take 6 months or longer to disappear from my skin.

You could pay for a lyme test if you wanted. I keep reading tick-borne tests are notoriously inaccurate, and require "more research." They can say you have it when you don't (false positive) or say you don't have it when you do (false negative). If it's positive, the doctor would probably put you on Doxycycline (an antibiotic).

If you have no skin infection and no symptoms, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Try some cream to help it heal. Did he check your whole body? Do you have any rashes anywhere else? That could be a symptom of bacteria spreading (if you even have lyme, but I wouldn't assume you do).

It's too late for you take a prophylactic dose off 200mg (first 72 hours). And I, personally, wouldn't take antibiotics without a really good reason. If you're allergic to them, they can literally be fatal. And you may not know until you start taking them. I found out the hard way when I took an antibiotic from a different family than the main one used to treat lyme.

If it were me, I would either ask for a lyme test as your blood would have antibodies by now (more than 30 days), or just wait and see if any stage 2 symptoms occur. And take the antibiotic at that point. But, don't panic. That will just infiltrate your skin with histamine, which makes rashes worse.
Posted 8/21/2014 10:18 AM (GMT 0)
I also want to add that you should read the symptoms of Lyme Disease, so you're aware, but just to let you know in advance, the early stage symptoms are ridiculously vague. I had just about every one of them before I even got bit by the tick, so the list is useless to me.

I get the impression that short of a positive Lyme test, you wouldn't know after the 2-month mark unless you got some truly "weird" thing (to use your term); sleeping 20 hours a day, paralysis, tremors, knees swelling up, and/or any other horrific thing you could imagine.

But, I'm new to all this myself. I'm no expert, although I think I've read the entire internet now, with every Google search pertaining to ticks, lyme and rashes. It's been an awesome way to spend a week. rolleyes

Post Edited (TaylorD) : 8/21/2014 4:29:41 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 8/21/2014 2:05 PM (GMT 0)
Daniel I would demand some antibiotics from the doctor, it is easier to get rid of when your first infected then to wait. Somebody else will come on and probably tell you how much of a dose you need, I would say you need at least 6 weeks of treatment but then again idk.

Better to be safe then sorry.
Posted 8/21/2014 2:11 PM (GMT 0)
The nice thing about you living in Denver is there are a LOT of alternative practitioners. If I were in your position, I would go to one of those like an herbalist that is considered lyme literate and start a very mild generic protocol.

Better safe then sorry! I did NOT have any of the lyme symptoms except for the bullseye rash at first. It took YEARS before the others showed up. And if your skin does heal slow - as another member suggested that may indicate a weakened immune system. In either case, herbs can help more then just lyme.

Good luck!

~beth
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