Topic: Anyone here with Lyme that NEVER saw a tick OR a rash but still has it?
BackinStOlaf
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 23725
posted
I am waiting for my Igenex results. I have lots of symptoms. No rash, and no tick though. Which is why I think the LLMD did not put my on abx yet. Just wondering how common that is.
-------------------- First Symptom 9/09 Multiple docs, negative Labcorp test LLMD: 1/10 Positive Igenex/CDC test Treatment 2/10 2/10-8/10 Amox, ceftin, zith, flagyl Currently: Bicillin, Minocycline, still dealing with severe breathing issues
Posts: 1121 | From New York, New York | Registered: Dec 2009
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sutherngrl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 16270
posted
I never saw a tick or a rash. I think about 50% never do.
However, my LLMD did begin treating me based on a clinical diagnosis.
Posts: 4035 | From Mississippi | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
I never saw a tick, nor a bulleye's rash. I have noticed other weird rashes though.
I think that's also a good reason to get tested for co-infections, spotted fever, etc. Even if you don't have symptoms of co-infections, if you are positive, it means an evil tick bit you at some point, regardless of what the WB says.
Posts: 584 | From NY | Registered: Feb 2009
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I'm a total indoors person: I don't do picnics, hiking, or even cut across the grass. But I have lived in endemic areas all my life, and more importantly, I have improved with treatment.
I was negative on several ELISA's and in my spinal fluid. I had just 2 bands on Igenex.
Good luck with the testing. I started abx before my Western blot results, and my response to treatment meant more to me than the bands.
Posts: 455 | From Was in PA, then MD, now in the Midwest | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
i did not have a known tick bite when diagnosed with rocky mountain in 2005, and no known tick bites since but diagnosed with lyme in 2009.....from the same bite i dont know but no known tick either time.......had symptoms a long time before positive western blot just kept getting misdiagnosed....
-------------------- Oct 09 Positive CDC Western Blot Jan 10 Positive Babesia Duncani Jan 10 Cd57 28 Mar 10 EBV, IgM, IgG HHV-6 IgG Posts: 739 | From NC | Registered: Oct 2009
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posted
I pulled a tick off me, but I never got a rash.
I asked my LLMD why I mostly get pain on the right side of my body, and especially my neck and right hip, and sometimes my whole right leg. I told him the tick bit me at the top of my left leg.
He thought it was odd that the pain is on the right and not the left, so he speculated I could have gotten bit by two ticks (one of which I never saw, but which could have bitten me on the right side, and that was the one that made me sick).
I am skeptical, because I checked very well after I found the first tick. But if so, then it could be that I never saw the actual tick that made me sick.
I think it more likely that the bacteria just moved to my right hip before they started causing me a lot of trouble.
But I very nearly missed finding my tick, and didn't even know it WAS a tick until I pulled it off, and it started walking on my finger.
It wasn't even big enough to see at all until it had been there for 2 days already. (It looked like a deer tick nymph, which is the size of a poppy seed before it bites you.)
I could very easily have missed it, if it bit me somewhere not easily visible.
-------------------- Don't forget to laugh! And when you're going through hell, keep going!
Bitten 5/25/2009 in Perry County, Indiana. Diagnosed by LLMD 12/2/2009. Posts: 756 | From Inside the tunnel | Registered: Jan 2010
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posted
No tick, no rash, still got lyme. I often wonder if I got it from fleas. When I moved into a rental years ago it had fleas (before I flea-bombed it), and I was bit all over my legs the day we went to clean before moving in.
I was told somewhere along the line that the previous tenant had dogs and was a hunter, too. Hmmmmm. Sure wish he had cleaned up his own mess.
Posts: 873 | From WA | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
No rash. Had ticks when I was a kid, back when you didn't know about Lyme. Doc thinks I got the Lyme back then.
There is documentation available of people getting Lyme from spiders, bees, and mosquitos (can't spell tonight!). Lyme can also be sexually transmitted.
Posts: 111 | From York, PA | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
I never saw a tick or rash. I have been tested through Labcorp with Elisa and WB at 3 different times, and all have been positive. I doubt my ID doc would have given me AB's if they were negative. He was trying to rule EVERYTHING out at the time bc I was very ill. We were both surprised when the testing came back positive.
Posts: 84 | From Seattle, WA | Registered: Sep 2009
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posted
Never saw a tick or had any type of rash. I did live in 2 epidemic areas on the east coast (PA & NJ) I was IGENEX positive and after 1 yr of treatment, I am 75% better.
My mother & brother both got HUGE red, black and blue bulls eyes about 15 yrs ago. And were treated with Doxy for 1 month...you know how that goes...
Posts: 379 | From Sydney, Australia | Registered: Nov 2008
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Dekrator48
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18239
posted
I never saw a tick or a rash either.
Looking back 22 years ago all my symptoms were pretty classic...flu-like illness, later an aching hip, later throbbing joints and then later fibromyalgia.
-------------------- The fibromyalgia I've had for 32 years was an undiagnosed Lyme symptom.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". -Jeremiah 29:11 Posts: 6076 | From Pennsylvania, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
I have pulled off several ticks (both dog and deer ticks) but never saw a rash.
I have a relative who is a retired LLMD from California. He treated over 800 LD patients and said that, in his opinion, only about 20% of people get (or notice) the bullseye rash. This may be due to the particular strain endemic to California.
Interestingly, my Igenex testing came back positive for IGM Band 28, which is thought to be indicative of surface protein of a Calif strain.
I have been to Calif, but I live in South Carolina (no Sanford jokes please; I have been saying for years to anyone who would listen that he was a liar and a fake), so I figured I picked up LD while hiking in Calif.
However, a recent study out of Georgia found a strain in SC that is substantially similar to the Calif strain, which would beter explain why I had a positive Band 28.
IckyTicky
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 21466
posted
My two youngest children don't even know what a tick looks like and they have LD. My husband never had a rash..and no sypmtoms until 9 years into our marriage.
I didn't have an EM rash until last year when a med. I was on made one show up.
My teenage daughter with Lyme had an alll over severe body rash when she was 5 .. at least 12 doctors trying to figure out what it was. They finally told me "let us know if you ever find out". I showed the pics to my LLMD and he said it was a classic case of pediatric Lyme disease...and that only a few trained LLMDs back then would have ever said "Lyme".
None of my family of five infected had an initial bullseye rash. We are from TN where "Lyme doesn't exist" according to all the medical doctors.
-------------------- IGM: 18+, 23+, 30+, 31+++, 34+, 39IND, 41++, 58+++, 66+, 83-93IND IGG: 31+, 39IND, 41+ Also positive for Mycoplasma Pneumoniae and RMSF. Whole family of 5 dx with Lyme. Posts: 1014 | From Texas | Registered: Jul 2009
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joalo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12752
posted
I never saw a tick or a bulls eye rash. I wish I had because maybe I would have figured this out quicker.
I mentioned lyme disease I was asked if I had ever been to the east coast and was told there was no lyme disease in California.
-------------------- Sick since January 1985. Misdiagnosed for 20 years. Tested CDC positive October 2005. Treating since April 2006. Posts: 3228 | From Somewhere west of the Mississippi | Registered: Aug 2007
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