posted
Hi everyone, I am just curious if many people know when they got bit or how they got lyme? I am getting blood work done today to send to igenex. I have just been having weird symptoms (primarily neuro) and my dr. is saying it is anxiety.
I did have a pos. ana come back a couple of weeks ago.
I did get bit by a tick when I was a little girl about 20 years ago. Could the lyme just now be showing up? I also got bit by a spider this summer. Can you get lyme from spiders?
P.S. I have dogs also (which we use tick/flea preventive). But we have fleas every now and then???
Do many of you know when/how you got this disease? thanks for your input, vdean
Posts: 18 | From mississippi | Registered: Jan 2011
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posted
I never saw the tick. I never remember a bite and I never got a bullseye rash, or any rash of any kind for that matter
I dont own any pets but a friend that I was hanging out with ALOT over the past few years owned a dog I was always playing with and a few cats. I was always over his house. I believe I got bitten from a tick that was on the dog. or somewhere in his house that the dogs brought in
I am not an outdoors girl. I dont even go in my own backyard. I just dont like nature. I know that sounds horrible but hey.
the fact that I could get it just proves how easy it is to get.
Fleas have been shown to transmit lyme. Even if you use tick preventative the dogs can still get ticks. nothing is 100 effective and guaranteed
I believe I read somewhere that spiders may also transmit lyme
most people honestly dont even remember the tick. they can be SO SMALL. and you dont even feel them bite.
Posts: 995 | From somewhere out there | Registered: Oct 2010
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posted
Thanks lymegal. How long do you think you had lyme before your diagnosis? Thanks for your help vdean
Posts: 18 | From mississippi | Registered: Jan 2011
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jackie51
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14233
posted
I've not a clue when, where or how. I did remove one tick when I was 8 yrs old, removed one last year on my arm. I've had medical issues my whole life, but nothing real major until 4 years ago. Even then, the doctors were attributing it to stress, age and motherhood. It was the bone crushing fatigue and new type of headaches that made me refuse to accept their "non-diagnosis".
I've recently been treated (treating) for Babesia and did a 30 day course of Humaworm. I can't even remember when I felt this good before. I am just hoping I don't crash when I go off the meds. Am doing everything in my little power to stay/get well. Eat better/exercise/eliminate stressors.
Good luck and I hope you find your answers.
Posts: 1374 | From Crazy Town | Registered: Dec 2007
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posted
My son has been sick since he was about 4 yr old... we lived in NH at the time and he was pretty much an outdoor kid from April - October. His stuff was mostly neurological but over time involved his whole nervous system and then his heart...
He was diagnosed officially with Lyme in 2008 and the doctor who diagnosed told us that his case was so severe and his medical history so complicated for someone his age, that he most likely has had Lyme most of his life. I believe it even though some other medical professionals still doubt it- but we lived it, they didn't...
He is better than he was, but because it was chronic and undiagnosed for so very long, he still deals with complications from it. Hopefully those too will resolve in time... and hopefully yours will too! Best to you.
Posts: 89 | From NC | Registered: Jun 2008
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BoxerMom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25251
posted
I took a trip to Oklahoma with a friend in 1990. We were in college at the time. We went horseback riding and were instructed to check ourselves for ticks when we returned. Found none.
I got the worst flu of my life when I got back home. Recovered completely. I have since learned that I had a typical Babesia flu.
I began a general decline in health after college, around 1994. I have never been healthy as an adult. I had a completely healthy childhood.
I was diagnosed with Lyme and co-infections in 2008, 18 years after my exposure.
Mine is a very common story. Yes, one tick exposure is all you need.
I'm sorry for your diagnosis and wish you happy healing and a full recovery.
posted
It was xmas '03 for me, watch what you do on the floor at your inlaws' during the holidays! They had a cat whom they allowed to go outdoors. Well, that nite one crawled up my back and got me! Pretty big one too. The ER who removed the embedded leg said that I had nothing to worry about, but look at me now.
Long story short, this is the only ailment that matches ALL of my symptoms. Been told I have chronic sinusitis, asthma, GURD, possible pancreatic cancer, chronic gastritis, thyroid issues, the list goes on!
The point is, I KNOW I have this, searching for a good doc now before this becomes worse. There's no way I have 10+ diseases, unless I fell into a steel barrel full of communicable diseases head first and forgot to wash off when climbing out of it! Seeing as I have never even seen an illegal substance, impossible!
Good luck to you all, and God speed and God bless!
I have been ignored by "professionals" for nearly a decade.
Posts: 4 | From Maryland | Registered: Jan 2011
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posted
Wow guys! Thanks so much for your stories. They are convincing me that this could really by lyme or something related! Good Luck to you all in your recovery and God bless!
Posts: 18 | From mississippi | Registered: Jan 2011
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nefferdun
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 20157
posted
I was at a picnic at a local lake with my family. The next day I felt something at the base of my neck and pulled it off. There was a squirming wood tick in my fingers so I screamed and threw it.
A short time later I had three EM rashes and I felt like I had the flu. Several trips to the doctor, each time being admonished that the ticks in this state do not carry any diseases other than Rocky MT Spotted Fever so I could not have gotten anything from the tick bite to cause my illness.
Here I am, living proof that they were wrong, having tested positive for babesia, erlichia and Bb from a WOOD tick - that big ugly things you find on your dog.
-------------------- old joke: idiopathic means the patient is pathological and the the doctor is an idiot Posts: 4676 | From western Montana | Registered: Apr 2009
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posted
I beleive when I was 8 or 9. I'm now in my late 40's.
We were visiting our cousins in NY and I remember all of us climbing a tree.
My cousin said be sure to check for ticks. We tried to pick them off each other but I doubt I was successful at getting all of them.
Posts: 911 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I think I got some of this in 1989...Lyme, bart, and babs...from fleas, not ticks.
We had rented a townhouse that just happened to be infested with fleas due to a dog who was living in the house just prior to our move-in (the landlord's).
My indoor cat was covered in fleas. I even woke up with a flea feeding off my upper lip (heard the 'pop' when I pulled it off, which would indicate that it was feeding). I even had to have a wart-like growth removed from that area of my lip several years later...it even required 2 stitches.
-------------------- Urge Congress on EMF Safety, FCC Must Change Exposure Guidelines for Microwave Radiation Exposure: http://tinyurl.com/2cjq54y Halt Universal Broadband, A Public Health Hazard: http://tinyurl.com/3x7xrmq Posts: 495 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2010
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onbam
Unregistered
posted
Unattached wood (NOT deer) tick I found after a shower. The only tick I ever saw anywhere near where I lived, which got me as I slept in my bed. Had I not had the good fortune of catching it out of the corner of my eye as I looked in a mirror, I'd never have found it. Started 2 days later on the CDC/NIH/IDSA/EIS recommended prophylaxis-doxy at 200/day for a month--and treatment completely failed.
According to Alan Barbour, in his 'Biology of Borrelia Species,' one germ is enough to transmit the infection under the right circumstances, and we all know that no circumstances are better than a tick bite (there are other articles out there stating the same thing--google "single spirochete infection.")
Thus, every tick bite needs to be treated as if it transmitted lyme. For all his ruthless, calculating, diabolical evil, Barbour probably knows more about Borrelia than anyone out there.
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posted
I had a known tick bite on my foot, and that one tick gave me Lyme disease - I can date every symptom - took a year and a half for full-blown fibromyalgia to happen.
The tick was in my foot a week - only the adult females will stay that long. The nymph ticks can bite and drop off. That's why it can be so confusing.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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sutherngrl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 16270
posted
I saw two bites on my leg after playing golf on a local golf course. These were small bites, not bullseye rashes. I wouldn't have known about bullseye rashes anyway. I thought it was spider bites and maybe they were. Maybe they had nothing to do with me getting sick.
I became ill a month or two later and did not coorelate being ill with those bites. I spent a year going from doctor to doctor until I got diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I spent another year researching until I discovered LD and found a LLMD.
Posts: 4035 | From Mississippi | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
It's impossible to get Lyme from spiders. I can guarantee it.
Spiders don't prey on mammals; when they bite it's strictly in self-defense. It's highly unlikely that the same spider would bite more than one mammal in its lifetime (as opposed to ticks which feed at several stages over their lifetime). The opportunity to transmit the pathogen just isn't there.
That said, spider bites can cause some nasty symptoms, but these are simply a reaction to the chemical components of the venom (which can include some neurotoxins, depending on the species). There is also the possibility of secondary infection at the wound site.
Symptoms of spider bite can include: -tremors -hyperactivity -difficulty breathing -muscular rigidity -sweating -uncontrolled crying -hypertension -muscular twitching -irregular heartbeat -salivation -loss of sensitivity at the bite site -fever -nausea -appetite loss -muscular aches -chills -tenderness in lymph glands -blisters at bite site -sloughing of dead tissues -impaired vision -diarrhea -disorientation -memory loss -anemia -internal hemorrhaging -necrosis of the tissues at bite site
(Just finished a unit on spiders in medical entomology)
-------------------- Currently infected with Lyme, Babesia, Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Mycoplasma, & Q-fever.
10 months into treatment, currently on Bicillin, Rocephin, Doxy, Biaxin, and Mepron. Posts: 87 | From USA | Registered: Sep 2010
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Haley
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 22008
posted
I had a big ol Deer tick (didn't look like a tick) on my leg and a big ol bull's eye after I flicked it off. A month or so later I got violently ill. I didn't relate it to the bite I had gotten. I didn't know anything about Lyme disease. A year and 1/2 later after many doctor's visits someone mentioned Lyme. I knew the minute I looked it up that that was my problem.
I always have flashbacks to the day I was bitten. Why didn't I go to the doctor, ugh?
Posts: 2232 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2009
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posted
wow, i am amazed at how many folks don't know for sure! my problem is i can't seem to test positive with standard elisa and WB. But i live in an infested area in the woods, and had a bullseye on my calf in 07'. Was under-treated with 14 days of Ammox. at that time....Probably average pulling two imbedded deer ticks out of my body per year, and see hundreds around and on my kids and pets. Been re-DX'ed Sept. 2010.....Me, my two kids, my ex, my ex's partner, his child, and their new baby have had or has Lyme.
Posts: 3 | From southwest wisconsin | Registered: Jun 2010
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Either a horse fly bite back in 1972, as I tried to slap it off my leg, and within a day I have a huge red hot spot on my leg where it bit me.
Or... two blood transfusions in 1981.
Or... flea bites as my ex was a government trapper for Montana.
Or...chiggers in lakes growing up in MN... in which I can look back at weird childhood diseases from that time frame.
Who knows... it's my first question when I get through the Pearly Gates. I'd like to know where I got this too.
-------------------- Lyme, Babs, Fry Bug..... Whatever it is, may a treatment be discovered to make us all whole again! Posts: 941 | From AZ-MT | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I was bitten by a few ticks when i was a child. I remember who we tried to get em off with gule and stuff like that. We didn't even know that lyme exists.
Posts: 159 | From Germany | Registered: Nov 2010
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