Hi I have 4 kids. Two of them tested positive for Lyme by labcorp. Another one tested negative but had Lyme specific titers including 23. He also had the most ticks found on him. The 4th tested negative with no titers, however I was nursing her when I got infected and during early part of my treatment.
All received 30 days of Amox within weeks of exposure regardless of testing results. None were tested for coinfections.
I also tested positive via CDC and received heavier and multiple antibiotics for over 3 months. I still have subtle symptoms and Bart symptoms that come and go and maybe even Bab. I've become convinced I have coninfection anf feel strongly that whatever tick got me came off one of them during my frantic tick-picking session.
One of the positive kids had nonspecific but mild symptoms which she only affirmed after being prompted. She complains of stomach ache, sore throat and even headaches from time to time still, but she's always had these type of complaints even before Lyme. The borderline child with multiple ticks in him has had many many illnesses since our Lyme trip. Diarrhea for a few days with a day of fever, another few days of low grade fever with running nose, two episodes of croupy cough with wheezing, two ear infections and I've seen a change in him. Mainly he's whinier, quicker cry and quick to anger/fight. There are many innocent explanations for all this - a) he just started school - a big adjustment for him in behavior and immune system. He also had pre-existing illnesses and he's always been my sickly child. It's not at all unusual for him to have multiple croup/wheezing episodes this time of year. He already had tubes in for chronic ear infections and Already dx with asthma due to croup snd wheezing pr
opensity, and of course normal toddler defiance. He never had the terrible two's so maybe this is the terrible three's. Forget the 4th child bc she's not even verbal so I have no clue what's going on with her, but she's had some persistent diaper rash, diarrhea, and croupy/wheezing.
I'm simply an having a hard time distinguishing common childhood illnesses from lingering lyme and coinfections. If God forbid they get worse I need to know I did everything I could to avoid that. There are no pediatric LLMD within 4 hours driving distance of me so I figure we can just take a plan 3 hours away.
I made all 4 kids appointment with Dr Jones. I made myself an appt with Jemsek clinic. I like Jemsek philosophy of going after coinfections and not wasting, time, energy and money on unreliable testing. However I'm cognizant of risks of using heavy meds on kids who might not even need them but I also don't want to spend tons of money on unreliable testing for 4 kids. My husband may need Jemsek down the road too and with my own treatment and travel - this is going to be a huge dent in our finances.
Part of me wants to bring some of the kids to Jemsek with me but our appointments would be about
a month later. But i figure Dr Jones has seen it all and has years and years of experience with early, mid and late stage lyme in kids.
Thoughts? If you had kids with Lyme, Dr Jones or Jemsek?
Post Edited (lymebug) : 11/17/2016 3:30:12 PM (GMT-7)