2 year old son with bullseye rash

Hi, my almost-2 year old son has a bullseye shaped rash in his lower leg (lower calf).  It showed up about a week and a half ago, and at first was just a nickle-sized raised red spot with what looked like a bug bite in the middle.  I called his doctor, but she was off for 4 days.  So we waited and put some hydrocortisone on it.  It seemd to be getting better -- turned kind of brownish and wasn't growing at all.  Well, friday night he developed a fever and by saturday morning the rash had doubled in size (bigger than a quarter now), was still perfectly round, but now had a bullseye look to it.  We took him to the ER (labor day weekend - his doctor's office was closed).  The ER doc said it didn't appear to be the "classic" lyme disease rash, but she wasn't sure what it was.  She definitely thinks it started with a bug bite as you can still see the mark in the center.  She gave him an antibiotic ointment and a steroid ointment and said if it didn't improve to take him to his ped.   We have been using the antibiotic ointment, and the rash seems a bit better but is still there and looks even more like a bullseye now.  His fever is gone now, so that may have been unrelated (he had a runny nose too). What do you think -- could this be lyme even if the ointment has helped a little?    I will take him to his ped tomorrow to have it checked, but I'd like to go armed with information.  If she wants to treat for lyme, what would be the proper course of treatment (I've read that some docs don't prescribe the a/b for long enough).  He is so little - I don't want to mess up his life by not doing the righ thing.  Thank you so much.

PS... I posted a picture of the rash on my facebook page so that my family and friends could have a look and let me know what they thought of it.  Here is the link, hopefully you will be able to see it too... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=795540&l=501a5aa642&id=1148710040 VIEW IMAGE

Post Edited (Penelope Dessena-Gray) : 9/7/2009 9:37:19 AM (GMT-6)

Oh, Penny, that is one scary looking rash! It's a good thing you got good photos of it!

Let's rely on others' opinions as well, but to me, it looks like nothing BUT a bull's eye!

I might defer to a Dr who sees this in person, but I'd be really careful, because a bull's eye always means lyme. ie; nothing else causes a bull's eye rash. That is one certain piece of information with which you can arm yourself at the ped.

Considering the circumstances -- that he developed this AND became ill -- is really serious. The ER really should have started him on abx. I don't know enough about abx ointment.

PLEASE keep us posted on this! And please, if he starts getting sick again, take him back to the ER. Because if he has Lyme, he could very well have one or more of the co-infections and a couple of them are extremely dangerous in the acute phase.

God bless you and your family. I will pray that he gets the proper attention and treatment!

Topical treatment is not adequate to treat Lyme Disease - best thing is to see a Lyme-Literate MD for proper diagnosis and treatment.

I have a 2:30 appt to take my son to his pediatrician, but now the rash has faded quite a bit!  I will take the picture so she can see what it looked like at its worst, but do you think it could still be lyme if it has faded with the use of the topical antibiotic?  He had it nearly 2 weeks before it faded.  as for size, it never got bigger than a quarter -- is that significant?  would it be bigger if it was lyme, or isn't there any set "rules" for how the rash behaves.

So the ped says its definitely lyme, but she only put him on 2 weeks of amoxicyllin. Is that long enough?

I agree with +Lyme on this!!
Also - my 2 cents worth -I don't believe a topical cream of any sort will help with LD.

My suggestion is that you read, read, read on LD & the co's & insist that your son gets the treatment he needs to irradicate (sp?) this insidious disease!! Then push as hard as you can to get it!

My Mother & I both believe a lot of my health issues could have been avoided for me had anyone known that I had a TBI back when I was 5 yrs old.

The longer a TBI is in a persons' body, the harder it is to get rid of it - and the worst part of it - the disease marches forward to infect every bodily system it can while it goes unchecked or under-treated.

My "war" cry:
We must be our own health care advocates!!!

I wish you & your son the best...
~Trav

Unfortunately, I am not alone in my situation. It's really rough to grow up that way.

Have you looked into the newest (I think) LD book? "13 Lyme Literate Health Care Practitioners Share Treatment Strategies"?

This is a book that I am hoping will make it possible for anyone living anywhere to get good, reliable tx - no matter how much a person knows or understands all there is to know about TBI's.

Finances are tight for us right now, but we are hoping to buy this book asap - so that I can get tx.
~Just a thought.
I wish you the best on getting good tx for your son & getting back to a life that doesn't circle around LD!!!
May you find peace and health on the same road.
~Trav