posted
I might have Lyme, or I might not. It's hard to tell when I've got a bunch of symptoms, but I live in an area where Lyme is "not supposed to happen."
To start, I got bitten by HUNDREDS of juvenile deer ticks over a few days on 2001. I had a job where I was working in the woods in August in the Mid-Atlantic region, and although I did my best to cover up with DEET, I still had a few dozen to pick off at the end of each day.
I never got a rash (not anything conclusive, although some of the bite-sites got a little red), so I was able to get a script for antibiotics for two-weeks as a "precaution."
A few weeks after that I started getting killer headaches and a fever, and I started getting TMJ issues that I still deal with. It might have been Lyme then, but I was never "diagnosed" and in time I generally just started feeling better.
Fast forward to two about two months ago, when I got two strange bug bites but didn't think too much of it, mainly because I never saw any ticks.
Around the two bites on my leg got dark red, slightly raised, warm, itchy rashes a few inches across. They looked more like chigger bites than anything else, but bigger. The centers of the bites blistered a bit and weeped, but then again I couldn't help scratching them.
I don't recall ever getting a fever. After 14 days or so, the bites cleared up (I never thought to take pictures), although there are still some signs there, like a little bruising or scarring.
Another few weeks after that, almost out of the blue, I got hit with what I'm guessing was a panic attack. My heart was racing, I felt hot/cold, kind of lightheaded, with terrible heartburn. I know it wasn't a heart-attack, but it felt pretty scary, fortunately it passed quickly enough.
In the next few days I realized that I was having some lingering feelings of "anxiety" but not the full-blown panic. I still felt jittery, like I had drank WAY too much coffee, and started feeling really bad aches and pains, cramps in my legs, and fatigue.
It felt a lot like the flu, but without all the head and sinus stuff.
I got in to see a doctor who tested me for some thyroid issues (never occurred to me, but now I see that the symptoms are a good fit), mono, some other types of ulcers and tumors, and nothing came back abnormal (I didn't see the results myself).
I told him about the bites, and although he said Lyme doesn't really occur here (Nashville, TN), it could still be that or STARI (Southern tick-associated rash illness), or similar.
He put me on doxycycline for two weeks (and I got him to give me a third), and I couldn't really tell if it was working or not until the end. Just in the last few days of antibiotic I think I was feeling better, but then the meds ran out.
A few days later I started feeling like the aches and pains and jitteryness started coming back. --Don't worry, I'm having the same thoughts as I type this all out.--
In short, the doctor says that... 1: Lyme isn't in my area, and STARI or other tick-borne diseases are rare 2: all I saw was a bug-bite rash, I never saw any ticks, and never had a fever 3: two weeks of doxycycline would have been enough, three would have certainly taken care of it ... so I should be better, or it's probably just stress-related anxiety. Granted, I've had some life-changing events this year, but who doesn't?
I guess my questions would be... Does this sound like Lyme or something like it? I think the answer would be inconclusive, but a good enough chance that it's worth pursuing, not assuming that I should "see how it goes and come back in a few weeks."
And most of all... Can anyone point me to an LLMD in or around Nashville, Tennessee?
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