Topic: Survey: Who here has NO IDEA when / where they were bitten?
bcb1200
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25745
posted
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.
-------------------- Bite date ? 2/10 symptoms began 5/10 dx'd, after 3 months numerous test and doctors
IgM Igenex +/CDC + + 23/25, 30, 31, 34, 41, 83/93
Currently on:
Currently at around 95% +/- most days. Posts: 3134 | From Massachusetts | Registered: May 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 236 | From Zionsville IN | Registered: Jan 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Abxnomore
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18936
posted
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.
Posts: 5191 | From Lyme Zone | Registered: Jan 2009
| IP: Logged |
MichaelTampa
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 24868
posted
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...
Posts: 1927 | From se usa | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 80 | From US | Registered: Aug 2011
| IP: Logged |
penguingirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 28688
posted
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..
-------------------- Posts: 1204 | From USA | Registered: Oct 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 131 | From Maryland/USA | Registered: May 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 41 | From Ontario | Registered: Apr 2011
| IP: Logged |
BoxerMom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25251
posted
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.
jackie51
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14233
posted
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'.
Posts: 1374 | From Crazy Town | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
jackie51
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14233
posted
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
Posts: 1374 | From Crazy Town | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 44 | From Pa | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
lymeboy
Unregistered
posted
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.
IP: Logged |
sutherngrl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 16270
posted
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.
Posts: 4035 | From Mississippi | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 418 | From NJ | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged |
Razzle
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 30398
posted
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...
-------------------- -Razzle Lyme IgM IGeneX Pos. 18+++, 23-25+, 30++, 31+, 34++, 39 IND, 83-93 IND; IgG IGeneX Neg. 30+, 39 IND; Mayo/CDC Pos. IgM 23+, 39+; IgG Mayo/CDC Neg. band 41+; Bart. (clinical dx; Fry Labs neg. for all coinfections), sx >30 yrs. Posts: 4166 | From WA | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
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!"
Posts: 447 | From Vermont | Registered: Jan 2011
| IP: Logged |
MannaMe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 33330
posted
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?
Posts: 2252 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 873 | From WA | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged |
jackie51
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14233
posted
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.
Posts: 1374 | From Crazy Town | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
-------------------- Shelly Posts: 73 | From New Jersey | Registered: Apr 2009
| IP: Logged |
momlyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 27775
posted
I was bitten by a dog... then I got sick. No tick, ever.
-------------------- May health be with you!
Toxic mold was suppressing our immune systems, causing extreme pain, brain fog and magnifying symptoms. Four days after moving out, the healing began. Posts: 2007 | From NY/VT Border | Registered: Aug 2010
| IP: Logged |
onbam
Unregistered
posted
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.
IP: Logged |
posted
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??
Posts: 348 | From MA | Registered: Dec 2010
| IP: Logged |
scorpiogirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 31907
posted
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.
-------------------- Posts: 1391 | From Lyme Land | Registered: May 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 581 | From CT | Registered: May 2008
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic