All that about
ticks in ________ (insert any state) not having Lyme is nothing more than a fairytale that people wish were true is the thing. I was infected no later than 1970 in Central California. That was both before it was "discovered" in the East and on the other side of the country. Now that I live in Arkansas, they also say that it's not here (even though most of the surrounding states admit that Lyme is there), and I've talked to MANY people locally that either do have, or have had Lyme. States have to report it for it to be acknowledged and there is still a great effort to keep it quiet - for whatever reason.
Lyme can first present in soooo many ways! Purely as an arthritic condition, purely psych issues, purely as anxiety/depression/OCD/dementia, as Lupus/MS/ALS, as muscle aches and pains or any other number of things - and that's just Lyme.
Lyme rarely is the only infection passed at the time, so there are any number of other infections that can show up with strong symptoms as well. For me, as a child, my first serious system was out of control fevers - so I had tons of ice baths for several weeks. One of my strongest memories as a young child.
Herxing is an overload of toxins. Not all herxing has to be serious, but it all depends on how well your body detoxes on it's own, and how much you use the detoxing routines, as well as possibly taking supplements if you have gene mutations that prevent the body from detoxing well. It's not for sure that everyone will herx - some never do, but most do on some level. We can help you with learning how to detox your body though. We have some good suggestions in the "new to Lyme?' thread on detoxing as well as this site:
http://www.tiredoflyme.com/detox-methods.html