A Few Questions

Disclaimer: New member/First Post


I have been doing some research and often end up on this forum. I went through the new to lyme thread and didn't see what I was looking for. Could have overlooked it though since it was pretty lengthy.

I think I can summarize my research in 3 questions.

1) Does anyone have or know of information about Lyme making a person more high risk for other illnesses or diseases.

2) I know the norm is that most people have trouble attaining an official diagnosis of Lyme, but has anyone experienced the opposite of this? As in a doctor claiming Lyme is the cause of your symptoms and it actually ended up being a completely separate illness?

3) Pictures of actual tick bites. Yes I know I can google, but searching for this is pretty much set to default you to the rashes and bull-eyes mark. I'm looking for the pictures of the bite site rather than the after-effects.

Thanks in advance!

Side note, let me know if new member initiation is to share their story.

For #3, I mean the actual bite. I know the usual story is "I don't remember a tick bite" but I figured there had to be some cases where people were able to take pictures of the bite early on.

Here are some links that have tick bite pictures, along with some bulls eye pictures as the appear on the same page.

This one, if you go to the 3rd picture, it shows a bruise like presentation. I have one of these right now.
pawsnaturenuggets.blogspot.com/2015/05/tick-talkits-lyme-tyme.html


This one shows a couple of different reactions:
www.outdoorlivingnashville.com/tickbitepictures.net/Tick-Bite-Fever.php


This one shows a tick bite and an eschar. It almost looks like there is a small tick still in it, but it's necrotic tissue instead:
www.mainelyme.org/i-have-a-tick-bite-what-to-do-now/


www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/picture-of-tick-bites

This one shows a tick bite granuloma:
www.medicinenet.com/image-collection/tick_bite_granuloma_picture/picture.htm


If this is still not what you are looking for, maybe you can explain more and I'll see what I can find to help.

Atlas -i thought it was a spider bite 10 ys ago. I thought it was old injuries . The said mine was a false positive ..so treat as if .treat hard , order abx online or start herbs do both , do not become chronic if it is new ..and yes please share your story

Psilo-they are using doxy for cancer and cpnhelp.org has put ms in remission which may all be spirochettes. .if h pylori can cause stomach cancer then ...

Since I have the time today, I can give the detailed version of my story.

I live in Louisiana and my story started when I went to an RV camping site last June. I woke up in the morning (a Saturday) and had a tick attached on my leg. Pretty sure my pup brought it in the camper with him and since he slept in the bed with me, the tick had easy access. My brother woke me up and I sat up in the bed and noticed something on my leg, I tried to flick it off as if it was a piece of dirt or something but it didn’t move. I cross my leg to take a closer look and it was a tick. Naturally I just plucked the tick off me but then accidently dropped it on the carpet. My brother and I then got on our hands and knees to search for the tick. We found it, brought it outside and I burned it with a lighter. Then I went back to bed to lay down for a bit. (**Note: I have no recollection of this incident). Then about 20 minutes later my brother came back and asked if I wanted some coffee, I thought this was the first time I woke up and the first time he came back to the room.

I noticed a bite on my leg that Sunday but didn’t think anything of it. On Tuesday, while walking down the hall at work, I noticed I had a catch in my step. When I felt the top part of my leg and groin region, my lymph nodes were swollen, tender and painful. I said to myself, this bite isn’t normal and began documenting with pictures. The next day I went to the urgent care clinic because the bite started to have a blackened center, I figured it was a spider bite or something. The NP said it wasn’t big enough to lance, sent me on my way with antibiotics and an ointment. The symptoms hit that night, I felt terrible. Thursday was worse. I started to do my research and my bite looked nothing like a spider bite but more like a tick bite. Friday I felt worse and went back to urgent care, different NP this time. Described my symptoms, told him I think it could be a tick bite and it made sense because I was around woods the previous weekend. The guy flat out told me it was not a tick bite, he had been doing this for 20+ years, he has been bitten by ticks many times and it never looked like that, etc etc. I said ok then, what is it? He said it is most likely a scratch that got infected. Told me to continue antibiotics and sent me on my way. Looking back on that visit, my hunch is he thought I was trying to get pain meds so he completely disregarded anything I had to say.

I went to my brother’s office after the clinic since it was lunch time and his office was right down the street. I told him the story and how I feel something is wrong because of how bad I was feeling. My brother then says, “is that the same leg when we found the tick?” I sat up in the chair and asked him, “What did you just say? What tick?” He says, “Dude, you don’t remember the tick from Saturday morning?” I told him I have no idea what you’re talking about but give me an exact play by play of what happened (paragraph 1 above).

Now I have information that it was in fact a tick that bit my leg. My doctor’s office was closed by this time Friday so I said I’ll call them first thing Monday morning. Over the weekend, symptoms worsened and I felt like death. From the advice of some nurses in my family, I ended up making a trip to the ER on Sunday night. ER doctor told me to quit taking antibiotics from the clinic and prescribed doxy.

Went to my doctor the next day on Monday morning. Did blood work to test for Lyme and other routine checks. Tested positive on ELISA. Did WB test around 20-30 days later, those results gave back negative, no bands across the board. Fast forward, the next 8 months were hell. I didn’t start feeling any better until February, then March was even better, and by April I felt like I was completely back to normal.

So, why would I be on the Lyme board when I’m back to normal. Well, about 2 months ago I started having very intense stomach pains. The pains were random in their timing and intensity. about two weeks after that I started with a sinus infection and swollen lymph nodes. Sinus infection passed in a week but now I’m in the middle of my 6th week of having all my inguinal lymph nodes swollen. Feels like buckshot in my leg. The lymph nodes in my neck and collarbone are swollen but not hard like my lower ones. Did blood work to look at lymphoma or possibly colon cancer and everything came back clear. I asked to have the IGG WB and results were band 41 only. So, I’ve been doing research and cross referencing symptoms to try to determine if this is just a Lyme flare up or something else.

Did the area that the tick bit you look similar to this? goo.gl/ou7qng That's called an eschar, a black spot of necrotic tissue that forms on the top of the bite. This is commonly associated with African Tick Bite Fever or Rickettsia infections (like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and others). Although this doesn't rule out Lyme, Bartonella, Babesia and other infections.

It's quite normal for a person with these infections to feel fine for periods of time, only to have the 'illness' come back again at a later time, until they finally get the treatments they need.

Your positive ELISA told you that you have Lyme, the eschar tells you that you likely have one of the Rickettsia infections, and the glass in the leg/feet feeling tells you that you need to be concerned about a possible Bartonella infection. You need to see a LLMD in order to get the treatment you need to recover from this.

Traveler--
Yes.

Computer virus will not let me post. I had two posts about husband and deleted both when I tried to delete one.

Oh no!!!!! Darned computers!

So, did he get treatment for the tick that was attached like that?

Wonderful!!! And, I'm concerned about every person with these infections! But I take a special interest in members here and their families!! You all are my online family!!