It seems like a lot of folks on here remember a bite of some sort.
I guess I'm one of the ones who has no recollection of being bitten, nor do I recall having a bullseye rash (or any rash for that matter.)
Just wondering who else was in the same boat? How long do you think you ahve had lyme?
I think I probably got it in 2008 or 2009, but I could have gotten it in the early 90's as I had my tonsils out in '94 and had odd symptoms come and go over the years.
Posted by Beth22 (Member # 30232) on :
I remember no bite and had no rash. Symptoms started in August, I had been working in the yard in July. I had not been outside all spring and part of the summer because of a broken wrist/surgery etc. So I can narrow it down to WHEN, but have no proof of bite.
Posted by FYRECRACKER (Member # 28568) on :
I dont remember a bite or a rash of any kind. I just started having back pain and fatigue in 2002.
July 2010 I got an off the chart Western Blot IGM and IGG positive result for infection. Long lived persistent infection.
Only one (can't remember if it was IGG or IGM) was a positive CDC result.
It will forever be a mystery what I got bit by or when. Could it have been from a mosquito? Could I have been born with it but my immune system fought it off for years until my immune system was hampered?
I got sick after emotional and physical trauma that I just never recovered from, yet.
Posted by Abxnomore (Member # 18936) on :
Never knew at the time, never had a rash but did wake up feeling sick, flu like with very stuffed ears and sinuses. I wasn't even aware of Lyme disease but it was the early 1980's.
Certain circumstances allowed me to figure it out when and where it happened about 16 years later.
Posted by MichaelTampa (Member # 24868) on :
No memory of any tick bite, sick since childhood. We did go to deer petting zoos a couple times as a kid, so perhaps there was a bite at some point. Of course, there are other ways to get infected...
Posted by BleedGreen (Member # 33468) on :
I didn't find a tick around the time we suspect I got it, just a strange three week flu and it all went to hell after that.
My wife is in the same boat, no tick and no rash.
Of course we had ticks prior to that, but couldn't have lyme until around a year after the last tick we saw.
We are in an endemic area that is out of control with the big and small ticks, we also have a problem with deer flies in our backyard so who knows.
Forgot to mention I have a bit of a bug phobia so I wore deet anytime I was outside, never walked in unkept grass, and didn't go in the woods. Kind of funny the amount of friends I have that spend all of their free time in the woods and they're fine.
Posted by penguingirl (Member # 28688) on :
Never seen a tick, no rash, no clue of when I contracted it.
Had awful immune system since 1996. Lived in a city my entire life but I did attend music camp several times since 8th grade.
Now I can't walk near grass for fear of another bite! I am also extremely mosquite bite prone. Bugs just LOVE my blood. wish I knew what my blood type was..
Posted by bearlythere (Member # 31973) on :
I do remember a tick bite around my belly button around six years ago. the area was slightly red and the doctors dismissed it. I've been sick for about 12 years in total.
I remember working outside with my horses and being bitten by numerous biting flies. I'm wondering if this was the start of my illness and the tick bite was just more infection.
Posted by momcap (Member # 31420) on :
I do not remember a tick bite or rash. I grew up in Northern Ontario, and got sick in 1990, when I was 12. I was very sick for 5 years, then slowly got better. I never would have found out about lyme at all, if it wasn't for my 7 y/o son. He has severe psychological symptoms and cycles of pain. After 4 years of seeing every kind of doctor, I finally realized I would have to figure this out by myself. I researched like crazy, and when I read about lyme it was like a lightbulb went off and I knew that's what I had as a teenager. I was tested last December and I'm CDC and IGeneX positive. My 3 kids are all IGeneX positive. Haven't tested hubby yet. None of us ever remembers a tick bit or rash.
Posted by BoxerMom (Member # 25251) on :
No rash. Never saw a tick.
Got a horrible meningitis-like flu after travelling to an endemic region (OK) in 1990.
Didn't make the connection until my Lyme diagnosis in 2008.
Posted by jackie51 (Member # 14233) on :
I had a tick on my arm last year but never a bullseye. I had a tick removed from my leg as a little girl, I was probably around 10 yrs old. Other than that, no bites that I know of.
Both of my kids have TBI but I've never seen a bite, never removed a tick.
I think this just makes it worse for the doubting Thomas'.
Posted by jackie51 (Member # 14233) on :
penguingirl & others--a friend told me the other day that she takes B100 to keep the bugs away. She says it works so good that she'll see a mosquito land on her and then fly away without biting.
I guess they don't like the smell. haha
Posted by Dexter (Member # 30590) on :
no visible bite or rash. lots of exposure to ticks from hiking. last time I was in the woods(October 2009) I removed 12 ticks from my clothing.
symptoms started about 3 weeks later.
Posted by lymeboy (Member # 24769) on :
I have been bitten at least 3 times over the past 8 years. Was treated for Lyme with 6 weeks doxy after the first bite. Have no idea how many times or if I was re infected. But small annoying symptoms eventually became god awful.
Posted by sutherngrl (Member # 16270) on :
Never had a bullseye, and never saw a tick. I just have an idea that I was bitten while playing golf. No real proof though. I had some kind of small bite after playing, but it didn't look like a bullseye. Took 2 years to get diagnosed.
Posted by amk33 (Member # 13206) on :
Jackie51, what's B100? I, too, get bit by mosquitos all the time. I have never seen a tick, but did have a round, raised rash (not bullseye)about a year before getting sick. I was working in archaeology outdoors at that time.
In my opinion, I believe that mosquitos and fleas are capable of carrying lyme disease. I also believe that they carry many unidentified pathogens that are contributing to some of our illnesses.
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
I never saw a tick or a bull's eye rash. I was bitten by a red fire ant in the California Desert when I was 4. Symptoms started with wandering leg pains shortly after that bite. No confirmation that the bite is what gave me Lyme, but I have heard that fire ants eat ticks...
Posted by rera2528 (Member # 29886) on :
No bite, no rash, no ticks. Like some others, I couldn't even identify a tick until I started looking into Lyme as a source of my problems.
I have been "sick" since July 2010. However, 14 months before that I had hepatitis of unknown origin (non A, B, C, etc.), and I was constantly ill the 9 months before that with colds, etc. That is the only thing that lingers in the back of my mind about possibly contracting it earlier than last summer.
It's stunning how many people say, "But didn't you get a rash?" I tell them, "I wish! It might have made this a much shorter, easier journey if I could have identified it as Lyme 8 months earlier!"
Posted by MannaMe (Member # 33330) on :
my husband never had a rash - at least not that he noticed - doesn't remember getting bit by a tick either. His health went downhill in 2000, when his adrenal's crashed. His doctor thought he had Mono, but the test came back negative. He did a lot of hiking and camping in earlier years........So who knows when he got infected?
Posted by hopeful4 (Member # 8486) on :
No known tick bite. No rash. There was a time when I had numberous flea bites at the same time, and I've always been suspicious that I could have been infected then. But, it wasn't until ten years later that I had symptoms...so, it's quite a mystery.
Posted by jackie51 (Member # 14233) on :
B100 is a B vitamin complex. It has 100 mg of all the essential B vitamins. Supposedly you need B100 and B50 won't be strong enough.
Posted by hopeandfaith (Member # 19884) on :
Never saw a bite or a bullseye rash. My first symptoms, which caused me to look into testing for lyme, were ringing in my ears, confusion, anxiety and fatigue.
Posted by momlyme (Member # 27775) on :
I was bitten by a dog... then I got sick. No tick, ever.
Posted by onbam (Member # 23758) on :
It was just a freak accident that I found my tick, and I hadn't even been spending much time in "tick habitat." Everyone should do daily checks.
Posted by Susie R (Member # 30780) on :
I have no idea when I was bitten. Don't remember any rash, any ticks, nada, nothing.
Susie
Posted by MichaelTampa (Member # 24868) on :
Venus Williams?
Posted by Beagle (Member # 29698) on :
My business and hobby had me removing ticks from myself on a daily basis for the last 15 years. I did have the rash at least once. The problem here was a stupid arrogant PCP who assured me that it would be very hard to get Lyme. Although a few Elisa tests over the years were positive for Lyme, he assured me since the Western Blot was negative there was no Lyme. I believed him for so many years until I had a TKR surgery at which time all the tick born infections took over my body with a vengence.
So even when all the signs proof positive Lyme, the holy grail is the Western Blot, unfortunatley in my case Blot was always done at Mayo Clinic and always negative. Now, I have been house bound sick for a full year.
How in hell these doctors have gotten away with this I'll never understand. While the few doctors who don't ignore the signs and want to get us better end up losing their license to practice.
We really somehow gotta get a huge movement going - against the main stream docs. There's gotta be a way??
Posted by scorpiogirl (Member # 31907) on :
I have no idea when, where or what bit me. Recently our baby was diagnosed as well... so now we have more questions than answers. Could I have had it much longer than we thought? Did I pass it onto her in utero? Neither of us had the bull's eye rash. So I don't know.
Posted by opus2828 (Member # 15407) on :
No idea when or where I acquired lyme and co. but symptoms started appearing by the time I was a pre-teen. My mother thinks it could have possibly been at an animal farm as a small child. Otherwise, who knows.