Had a bullseye eight years ago after a tick bite in Indiana. Do I have Lyme?

TheresaP lyme disease is a clinical diagnosis. That means that if you have the symptoms, you have lyme. The reason they call it this is because there are very few lab tests that are reliable in this world to diagnosis lyme disease from a blood sample.

First, welcome here and you must have read a list of symptoms and suspect that you have lyme. Secondly, please read the first thread entitled New To Lyme?..... Start Here. This thread has a lot of great information in it.

To get treated for lyme disease effectively you need a Lyme Literate Doctor. There are Naturopathic Doctors, Medical Doctors, Acupuncturists, Chiropractors, Herbalists, etc but they need to be trained in lyme disease. If you don't use one that is trained in lyme you probably won't be believed that you even think you have lyme. So go for the doctor that knows this disease!

To find a doctor in your area you might want to start a new thread that says "Looking for LLMD in MO" That way you will get help in your area.

Also you might want to enable your email so someone can write you the name of a doctor via email. We do not put our doctors' names on posts because there are still many places that penalize doctors for treating lyme patients. In order to enable your email you go to My Profile, then Edit Profile, make sure you list your email address and right below that you bull's eye the circle that says enable your email.

Glad you are here and hope this was helpful. Feel free to ask as many questions as you want.

And, I am so sorry you have this. It stinks big time, but help is here!!

~Annette

I forgot to say that it is totally possible that you had a bull's eye tick bite, were infected by that tick with lyme and now you continue to have lyme. Very possible. The bull's eye is the first tattle tale to a doctor as a positive for lyme.

Hi Theresa and welcome :)

A bullsye (EM) rash is in itself diagnostic of Lyme - I had one, though it was initially misdiagnosed as ringworm. I also saw an ID doctor who did not believe in chronic Lyme, even though I had plenty of Lyme symptoms.

An LLMD will diagnose you clinically, based on your tick bite, EM rash and symptoms. Any blood tests would confirm Lyme if they are positive, but would not rule it out if negative (since many of them returne false negatives) hence the clinical diagnosis. My history of tick bites, the rash and ongoing symptoms were my diagnosis. I did not spend money on blood tests since my doc said they would not tell her anything she didn't already know and so they would be a waste of money. This is the sort of doctor whose advice you need. Infectious diseases doctors are generally not this way inclined (though some certainly are I personally haven't found one).

I wish you the best of luck in finding a good LLMD and starting you treatment. Keep us posted and like Peteza said, this is a great forum to get your questions answered, so ask away :)

mpost, I think the fact that she mentions having a general lack of health post tick bite and rash would indicate possible symptoms (granted perhaps mild - depending on what those symptoms are)?

Hi TheresaP!
Welcome to our community!! I'm so glad you found us! It looks like you've been given a lot of really good information so far, so let's see what I can add to it.

If you haven't ​yet​, it would be helpful for you to start with reading through the thread at the top of the forum titled,"New to Lyme?...Start here!!", as it is packed full of important information, symptom lists, helpful links and pdf's, how to detox when one has these infections, information on probiotics and much more. And this is another good list of possible detoxing routines: www.tiredoflyme.com/detox-methods.html

A Bulls eye rash is completely diagnostic for Lyme disease. At this point in time (when the rash is present), the Lyme bacteria contained within the skin - from there it spreads through out the body quite quickly and effectively. The only way to completely cure Lyme (from what we know at this point) is to catch the bacteria at this very early stage and treat aggressively. When that opportunity is not used (many don't get a bulls eye rash or a rash of any type), then it's known as chronic Lyme because the bacteria have had the opportunity to spread throughout the body and is no longer localized. This process can take anywhere from hours to months, depending on a number of factors.

Symptoms can remain so mild that the person doesn't even realize they have an active infection, until just the right amount of stress or some trauma or other illness/condition just becomes too much for the body to be able to keep the infection that mild. The infection doesn't just go away on it's own. These are highly complex bacteria that create a highly complex infection.

For information on finding a​n ILADS ​(International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society)​ trained​ Lyme Literate Medical Doctor(LLMD) in your area, you can send me an email by clicking on my screen name or the small blue envelope under my screen name. I may have contact information for some LLMD's in your area as well.​ ​Please include your state (or province) and area that you would like to find a LLMD in and I will be happy to share the names I have.​ I also have a contact for the St. Louis Lyme support group.


You can email the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance at [email protected]​ for LLMD referrals and you can go to ​tbdalliance.org​​ to learn more about these infections.


You can go to The Lyme Disease Association and search for LLMD's 3 times in a month. You have to register first. Here is the link:
www.lymediseaseassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=277&Itemid=74​​


ILADS has their own referral system as well:
ilads.org/ilads_media/physician-referral/


​ You will want to find an ILADS trained doctor, not one that has self proclaimed themselves as a LLMD or an ID Doc (Infectious Disease Doctor), as ID docs believe Lyme is hard to catch and easy to treat, and don't believe in the reality of chronic Lyme. Go to the ILADS site to read the new (2014) Treatment guidelines to get you started on your healing journey:
www.ilads.org/lyme/treatment-guideline.php