Hello! I can't believe I'm back here again, and I hope I'm totally wrong. I lived in rural upstate NY (ground zero for lyme) in the early 2000s, where walking the dogs in the woods every morning led to two rounds with lyme, once in 2000 and again in 2002.
The first time I had the bulls-eye around my groin, all the symptoms building up, and a positive test, but I caught it with antibiotics -- maybe chewable amoxocillin (I can't recall). The second time I had a big round rash on my thigh but I don't remember any other symptoms. I took two weeks of doxy then.
Now I'm in Florida -- free of those lyme-causing deer ticks, right? So a couple of hours after walking the dogs a week ago Saturday, my husband pulled a smallish brown spotted tick out of my skin in my chest area. I thought nothing of it, because I often see a tick crawling on me or the dogs (though this one was in me and needed to be pulled out with the "tick spoon").
THEN, a few days later, I started getting the worst headache and achy feelings all over. I thought I was getting the flu, but there were no sniffles, coughs, or intestinal symptoms at all. Just headache, fever (100.6 was typical), body aches, no appetite, sensitivity to light/sound/touch, and mostly the inability to move at all.
I was in bed for three days. I started to feel better Sunday night, but yesterday I started getting so dizzy. I felt almost stoned last night and still "woozy" today. Headache has gone but I still feel achy and weak.
Maybe I'm just recovering from a mild flu. Maybe it's not lyme at all.
Is there really any way to diagnose? Once you have a positive test, which I had the first time around, then it's always positive, right?
If you know an MD in the Tampa Bay area who can help sort this out, please let me know.
Do we even have lyme disease in FL? Many thanks, everyone. Joan Z.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Yes, there is Lyme in Florida! Don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise!
and yes, your test will likely come back positive, regardless
Does sound like you could have Lyme and possibly babesiosis. That needs expert care and treatment.
You will need to find a really good dr. I'll send you what I have.
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