Posted 6/2/2020 3:02 PM (GMT 0)
"Lyme" is technically Borrelia bergdorferi, but we use it as an umbrella term for tick-borne disease. Many of the Borrelia species produce the same symptoms and react to treatments similarly. You could have one of the 30+ species of Borrelia known to cause disease in humans, or you could have several of them. You could have had one before and another one now. You could have the tick tested if you're just curious, but it's obvious from the rash and knee response that this recent one had at least one or more Borrelia species in its system. (And of course possibly also Ehrlichia, Bartonella, Chalmydia, Babesia, Mycoplasma, etc. ... all of which also can come in a variety of species...). And the tick testing just looks for the most common strains.
That's my long-winded way of saying that you might have picked up one or more new infections, but you very well could have had tick-borne infections before. Were you tested for and/or clinically diagnosed with tick-borne diseases in the past? Did you think that you had Lyme but now are doubting it because of your reaction to a recent tick bite?