If he has had lyme for a while, 2 and 1/2 weeks is barely even scratching the surface. Those of us who have had it for a while (more than a year) some times take as long as a year to turn a corner although symptoms tend to subside say a few months in. At the beginning most people feel alot worse before they feel better. But some feel better right away. It has a lot to do with genetics and how toxins are metabolized in the body as well as total bacterial, virus, and parasitic load in the body.
Just to give you a heads up - a lyme patient tends to feel alot worse at 72 hours after beginning the medicine. That is the first die off. Then at the 3 week point it tends to get really bad as well. Dr. Burrascano describes these patterns in his 2008 Lyme Guidelines for Treatment. He has treated 1000's of lyme patients in Long Island and is since retired. I can say for me that rang perfectly true. At 72 hours, I was dry heaving, major headache, out-of-body feeling that just came on out of nowhere. Then symptoms subside. Then at 3 weeks I felt absolutely terrible and took an emotional downfall to put it nicely. It took a month or so to completely come out of it. But I pushed through because Dr. Burrascano had written about
it and so I knew it was 'normal'
. I tell you this to let you know at 2 and 1/2 weeks, your son may start feeling worse when he gets into the 3 and 4 week point. Not everybody does though but it again is 'normal' for that to occur.
If your son has only had Lyme for a month or so, he will probably do really well, really quick with the meds. By really quick, I don't mean as quick as normal bugs respond to antibiotics but quick in terms of Lyme. That is unless he got a co-infection with the bite. Those can require other meds that are different than the meds for Lyme. Most people get a co-infection but there are some that just get Lyme (Borrelia).
As far as your husband, I don't know what to say! Sometimes these dang bugs are easier to treat than our husbands minds! LOL! Although I have to say, I was a serious doubter myself - everyone (best friend who had it, doctor, etc.) kept telling me lyme and even with a super positive test, I was still thinking maybe they all got it wrong. Then I read and read and read, and realized I did have it. After I took the doxycyline, I was without a shadow of a doubt that I had it. I even got the recurring EM rash 10 days in. As Americans, we are used to taking an antibiotic and having our symptoms get better in a few days, so if we apply that same logic to Lyme, and we don't get better - we think - must never have had it in the first place! Must be something else! But Lyme is just a whole different ballgame than all the other bugs out there that mainstream uses antibiotics for! Anyways....I digress.