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9 yr. Old treated for Lyme 2 yrs. ago

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Posted 9/2/2009 8:15 PM (GMT 0)
In August of 2007 my 7 yr. old daughter developed a bulls eye rash. We remember removing a tick from her about a month before that. The rash took almost 2 weeks to develop the bulls eye and her doctor finally put her on antibiotics, but for only 3 weeks. about a year later she started to have headaches on an almost daily basis, along with dizziness and fatigue. about 5 months ago she had pain in her shoulder that lasted about a month. I thought at the time she had just pulled a muscle. She is still having headaches and dizziness and outbursts of anger which are very unlike her. She has difficulty focusing which may be her age, but putting these symptoms all together makes me wonder if her Lyme disease was not treated correctly in the beginning. I don't want to over-react but I know it could be serious if I ignore her symptoms and they are related to Lyme.
Posted 9/2/2009 8:19 PM (GMT 0)
Was she test for other co-infections, such as babesia or bartonella?

The difficulty in diagnosing Lyme symptoms is that the symptoms mimic so many other diseases and conditions.
Posted 9/2/2009 8:29 PM (GMT 0)
She was never tested for anything...the bulls eye rash was obvious and the doc thought there was no reason to test further.
Posted 9/2/2009 8:52 PM (GMT 0)
I would recommend getting her tested for other tick-borne infections. It is very common to be infected by more than one disease from a single bite. Co-infections also make getting rid of the Lyme infection more difficult. The tests aren't completely accurate, but they might show something that needs to be treated.
Posted 9/2/2009 9:00 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks IH8Ticks
Posted 9/2/2009 9:04 PM (GMT 0)
You're welcome. I wish I could provide more help, but it's difficult with such a young patient. Her symptoms could all be attributed to a recurrence of the Lyme infection, but it could be something else. She could have a co-infection that was never caught. She could have a new infection from being bitten again. There's just no way to tell. Maybe someone else on the site with children who have been infected can provide more insight.
Posted 9/2/2009 9:14 PM (GMT 0)
It is hard to tell at her age, especially with all the changes she is going through that are normal. She does have a physical scheduled for November, although I may take her in sooner if the symptoms persist. My biggest concern is the the amount of time between when she was bitten and when she actually received treatment, being about 6 weeks, and then reading that they should receive at least 6 weeks of antibiotics, not the three she had. One huge bummer is that her adult teeth that have come in since are discolored and soft...only time will tell if the rest of her teeth come in the same way.
Posted 9/2/2009 11:49 PM (GMT 0)
I had a bullseye rash and received 3 weeks of antibiotics. Turns out it wasn't enough. :-(
Posted 9/3/2009 12:07 AM (GMT 0)
When did you know it wasn't enough, how long after your treatment? What symptoms did you have?
Posted 9/3/2009 1:37 AM (GMT 0)
mission,

Sorry to hear this is happening to your daughter. This is exactly what happened to my children and also to my husband. 3 weeks of abx is often not enough. The symptoms with your duaghter are exactly the same as with my boy and my husband. My 3 children all have lyme and numerous coinfections. They have been treated for a year so far and are much improved.

The anger and behavior issues in my children were caused by bartonella. In one son, rifampin has helped immensely (along with different abx for lyme). Our LLMD said he will probably need 6 to 12 months to get rid of the bartonella. My other two kids also tested positive for bartonalla, and bactrim helped theirs. They also all tested positive for babesia.

The best thing you can do now is to try to get your child in to see a good pediatric LLMD. I would not wait. In my opinion, it is lyme coming back, along with bartonella. The testing may or may not show lyme. If you decide to get testing done now, I would get a lyme test through Igenex laboratories in CA. You can go to their website at www.Igenex.com

I would also go on lymenet.org and ask parents about their children's symptoms. There are a lot of parents on that chat room, so you can get additional feedback there.

Good luck to you,

tickbattler
Posted 9/3/2009 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
Mission,
One thing our LLMD said is that if you don't treat lyme in that first 30 days, it becomes chronic and takes much longer to treat. The fact that she had it for 6 weeks prior to treatment is another big red flag to me.

Also, the subtle symptoms coming on slowly are what happened with my children, so it was very difficult to diagnose. Our ped did not think it was lyme. I had to figure it out myself.

Does she have insomnia, night waking or too much sleep? Increased anxiety or nightmares? Red ears? Night sweats? You might feel her head and back of her neck about 2 hours after she falls asleep.

Hope this helps,

tickbattler
Posted 9/3/2009 11:27 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks so much tickbattler. I have been looking for a LLMD in our area and think I found one close by. She does have trouble falling asleep...I'll have to check her after she has been sleeping for the night sweats. One thing that I have noticed is that she has started sweating a lot and the odor is strong...something I thought was unusual for a 9 yr. old.
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