posted
So, I'm trying to understand a timeline of how symptoms appear and progress with this.
I never had that initial flu-like issue that some people get immediately after a bite (and also never knew I had a bite). I just suddenly started developing odd symptoms in a short span of time.
I'm wondering if that means I was bit RIGHT before these symptoms started. For example, would you get bit and then the next day have muscle twitching and numbness start? Or would that have to take a while to set in?
Not sure if I'm wording that correctly, but wondering if anyone can help me understand this and how it all progresses?
Posts: 62 | From Chicago, IL | Registered: May 2014
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WPinVA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 33581
posted
I don't know the answer to your specific question but I do recall reading that those with the flu-like onset are also co-infected with babesia, while Lyme alone comes on more slowly.
Lyme does have an incubation period, so doubt you'd feel those sx the next day. Don't recall what the period is right now though.
Posts: 1737 | From Virginia | Registered: Aug 2011
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
Here is a quote for you:
"CLASSIC LYME (Bb infection)-
· Gradual onset of initial (viral-like) symptoms- this often makes it difficult to pinpoint when the infection began." (page 26)
Because lyme has a gradual onset, it is very difficult to know that you have it at first, or even for a long time--like for years.
I had one symptom--extreme muscle weakness--that came and went for the first 5 years.
Others get told they have fibromyalgia. They say it is also often episodic at first.
So, when I finally found out I had lyme, it was extremely difficult to figure out when I got it.
But, what I have learned over the 10+ years that I have been helping lyme patients is that this disease is VERY INDIVIDUAL.
There is no set way that lyme behaves. A lot seems to depend on how strong of a constitution a person has, if they do things that weaken their immune system (like drinking and smoking, taking immune-suppressants like prednisone or other steriods), or if they do things that strengthen their immune system (like weightlifting).
I doubt you will ever be able to figure out when you were bitten. The only folks who know that are the ones who saw the tick and/or got a rash.
I never saw a tick attached to me and I never got a rash.
Some people get very sick very quickly, but the majority, it seems to me, definitely do not.
Sometimes your immune system is able to handle the first tick bite (it can keep the germ load under control). But, then you get bitten again and it is too much for the immune system and the symptoms then start popping up.
So, there is no timeline of how symptoms appear and progress.
I had lyme, babesiosis, and bartonella when I finally got to a good lyme doctor. I had been ill for 10 years. I was still working full-time by will power alone.
Most of my friend were also working full-time when they finally got diagnosed with lyme. Some had been infected for 30 years or more. Some for just a few years as best as they could tell.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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gigimac
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 33353
posted
I felt weird one night and two weeks later I felt run down and thought I had a bad sinus infection. a month later I had joint and muscle pain and a month after that I was all to pieces and couldn't go to the store or get off the couch for the most part.
I actually got better on my own before starting treatment so it seems my body was able to fight some of it off.
Mine was pretty quick onset compared to those gradually getting sick over years. I had a traumatic incident about two weeks before first symptom, though.
Posts: 1534 | From Greensboro NC | Registered: Aug 2011
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LisaK
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 41384
posted
I don't remember feeling sick within any certain amount of time .
I think I was reinfected many times and this compounded my sepcific case of all the tick diseases I have had/have.
I DO remember having some terrible flues that no one else in my house cought from me , and now I know they were probably tick disease as the season was more for that than the flu.
my sx got worse over years and years. I wsa not properly tx when I DID have a bullseye, and so if I use that as my official starting point I would say that my first changes in my body were things like , suddenly becoming allergic to penecillin increased anxiety and stress as well as short temper, anger at nothing, feeling like a caged tiger sort of things.....
as years went on I had just about every organ challenged with sx. mostly brain, eyes, GI, and I slowly became allergic to almost every food.
I also had another time- about 4 years after I had the bullseye- when I had another strange, undiagnosed virus of some sort. now knowing it was tick disease, of course, it all fits together like a puzzle.
at that time it went all to extreme debilitating fatigue.
so much. too much to write here. it's been one crazy ride.
-------------------- Be thankful in all things- even difficult times and sickness and trials - because there is something GOOD to be seen Posts: 3558 | From Eastern USA | Registered: Jul 2013
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