My son has been diagnosed with Lyme (CDC+ in Western Blot), from beginning of August 2010. He was on Amoxicillin for 2 weeks then Doxy for last 3 1/2 weeks. Now has gotten a rash all over his body (mostly on legs below knees and arms below elbows)that he thinks is poison.
Was in the woods with poison around recently. He is 19 years old and has lived in the woods his whole life, pulls out poison doing yard work, etc and has never caught poison (nobody in my family gets poison). He has not gotten in with the LLMD yet so I'm not sure of co-infection status.
Rash is not blistered but itchy, raised red patches covering his arms and legs. The rash came up about 3 days after being in the woods and started with what looked like spots or bug bites then spread out to big patches.
He's at college and I did not get to see it until it's been there for a week. My question is does this sound like 1) fungal infection secondary to doxy use (is on acidophillis as well), 2) poison, 3)Herx, or 4)Babesia or other co-infection.
I don't know whether to stop the Doxy until this Friday when he gets to the LLMD or not. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
Posted by steve1906 (Member # 16206) on :
Call his doctor and tell him what meds hes on and tell the doc about the rash.
You should do this now...
Posted by onbam (Member # 23758) on :
Could be poison...could be Lyme from his bite in August (people don't usually recover with the short-term therapy he took, lymecryme.com has a lot on treatment failure), or could be something entirely different. You definitely should see the LLMD.
How is he otherwise.
Posted by lizking531 (Member # 28524) on :
Urushiol (the active oil in poison ivy) can affect anyone. Just because you haven't had a reaction in the past, doesn't mean you can't ever get one - just something to keep in mind - no on is "immune" their entire life.
I've had several run-ins with it - couple that were a little more than I bargained for. I never had any reaction to it growing up. It wasn't until my 20's that I would get a rash or blisters.
Sometimes I'll get a noticed localized blister. Other times it shows up in more of a red patch. From some things I've read, they give 3-days as the time it can take for a rash to show up.
Did he happen to be around a fire? Not saying it is ivy or not, but the worst time I ever had with it (& coincidentally the first time I really noticed a reaction) was after a large amount was burned & I came into contact with the smoke. I ended up with an even, itchy red coating of a rash for weeks. Not fun - at all....
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I don't know whether to stop the Doxy until this Friday when he gets to the LLMD or not. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.