Another tick bite- minocycline

Hi Everyone,

I had another tick bite. Ugh!

I went to citi md and this time they did not give me prophylactic treatment doxy etc.

I brought the tick with me and I had photographed it but the doctor did not even look at it. She looked at my photos at some point. She thought it was not on me long enough to have transmitted disease. So she said come back for testing in four weeks.

Well I was up all night worrying about this because I knew that this tick was partially engorged I have looked at ticks many times over the years and I know what they look like. They get that light color and you cannot see the shape of their body or the markings. Plus this tick was so tiny that I was highly suspicious that it was not only in the nymph phase but I thought it was a deer tick. I looked at a gazillion pics, read a lot and learned a lot but my pic was not magnified enough for me to tell for sure which tick it was. It was so small I needed a magnifier to see it at all.

For some reason she decided it was only on me for two days because I would have felt it. I don’t know how she decided all of this but clearly she does not have a lot of knowledge about TBD.

So I called the infectious disease specialist who I went to in January for my other bite and by some miracle I got an appointment for yesterday a.m. I had no sleep and was exhausted but I said I better go to this appointment because I don’t wanna let this go. I did have some doxycycline left over which I had never continued taking after it made me so ill and I was thinking I could just take the double dose of that and forget about it until I get the tests. But I really want to know what was going on and I wanted to see if I could get another medication to try.

So this doc who I had not seen before had this superduper little microscope which attached to his cell phone- he photographed the tick and he immediately told me that as I had suspected it was an engorged or partially engorged deer tick! He showed me super close ups which was gross😳😹 I plan to get one of those devices myself- he said it was only about $20 and I could get it online.

So I asked him about trying amoxicillin he said I could take minocycline and I said could you prescribe both of those for me so if one upsets my stomach I can try the other one. But he only ended up rxing the minocycline. I will call tomorrow and ask about amoxy. I was worried about taking the minocycline because I had read about all of the crazy side effects but I think someone here said it is easier on your stomach?

I was so ill last time that I just only took two doses of the doxycycline after I had a positive ehrlchia test. I did go to the infectious disease specialist for that and she told me it was an older infection because of the levels of the IgG which really made perfect sense to me and she said I don’t need to treat it anymore which I was very relieved about because the doxycycline had made me so ill. But when I asked her about other medications she was not really very good about that and she said I could take a liquid form of Doxy if I get another bite. I told her that it had made me so ill that I was not gonna take that again.

Anyway I just took my first minocycline dose. For the prophylactic treatment I’m supposed to take 50 mg twice a day for three days. I’m just very worried about side effects and I’m wondering what to do. I was thinking maybe I should just take two pills of Doxy and suffer for a few days because at least I know I do not have any severe reaction to that other than feeling very ill and the severe reflux- well the reflux was severe but it would be better than possibly getting Lyme disease and all those other diseases etc. And it would be over quicker.

Has anyone taken minocycline? I’m just wondering what your side effects were and how you tolerate it. I’m also wondering about natural treatments for our garden for ticks because clearly I have a major problem going on here with these deer ticks. I also have several community cats who I feed and moles so that could’ve been another way that the ticks were able to get on me but I had been gardening two nights before I found this one at 4 AM two days ago now. i am worried about essential oils which a landscaper mentioned because they can be toxic to cats and may others.

We do have deer in our backyard now for the past several years but it is only the past few months that I have ever had imbedded ticks on me and bites. In the past they were always larger ticks that I noticed and I got them off of me or off of my pets usually before they even bit. Although since I did have erhlichia at some point in the past it obviously I was bitten at some point without even knowing about it.

One interesting thing this doc told me was that the prophylactic treatment will not 100% stop transmission but he said it will lessen it to 10% chance of transmission and only 20% of the ticks actually carry diseases. He also said the deer ticks in the nymph phase are so small that you would never feel them crawling on you and that is why they embedded in me and I didn’t notice until they were partially engorged.

I asked him about fighting off Lyme disease and why the body does not just attack the bacteria when the tick puts it into the bloodstream. He said most people actually do fight off Lyme and don’t even get an infection if they get a transmission. Some people get an infection but they overcome it easily with treatment and others develop chronic disease like many of the people on this forum and elsewhere.

Post Edited (meowee) : 6/19/2019 11:35:40 PM (GMT-6)

I take minocycline after I’ve had something to eat - otherwise it bothers my esophagus.

Thanks. I am taking a prophylactic dose to prevent I don't have lyme etc. so far it is ok, I have some increased reflux and fatigue but nothing major. I am takingbit with a meal and not before sleeping.
I am not sure how long it was on me, but it was partially engorged, it also could have dropped off another host and crawled onto me, but I probably would have noticed faster in that case if it was already feeding on someone else.
I panicked last night when I thought I had another tick but it was a skin tag😹

Post Edited (meowee) : 6/21/2019 4:29:39 PM (GMT-6)

Thanks so much wbf,

I feel calmer now that I am on some prevention, and I am able to tolerate it. I am so worried about going in the garden now, but yesterday I gardened all day an d just made sure to check myself and showered after etc. 😊

That is not the cdc duration or dose for prophylactic treatment, that is the treatment for a positive test or symptoms of lyme such as rash etc. - 10-21 days. My father was given that after having a bulls eye rash which indicates lyme.

The doc you mentioned is on a quack list for questionable pos tests of lyme and treatments of lyme. Last time I was given 200 mg one dose doxy as prophylactic and I did not contract any tbd. I think the lower dose this time and extended treatment is due to mino and my size and digestive issues.

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickbornediseases/tick-bite-prophylaxis.html

You were given 200mg doxy maybe it prevented something or maybe the tick did not transmit a tbd. Most mainstream doctors will scoff at 1 dose of doxy preventing anything.