Check out some old links--I believe i gave my kids LD either through breastmilk or through the placenta.

One boy had Bell's Palsey symptoms at 6 weeks.

A lot of people think you can get this sexuall also.

You might want to see if the ole serch function is working in the upper right hand corner--it often has problems.

Best of luck to you.

Linda

Then again, ticks are so small and hard to notice and many Lymies don"t recall a rash.

He didn't get sick until after we were married.

Never been an outdoorsy person. No picnics, no hiking, no playing sports, etc. No pets.

He could have picked a tick up somewhere but the fact that he started to get sick after me makes me think he caught it from me myself.

There may be other routes too.

Lisa

quote:

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Originally posted by Bill ATL:
I have my suspicions on how I acquired this. I'm just wondering if there are any others out there thinking the same, or experience with other means of transmission.

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I asked Dr. F at Columbia Univ Med Center in NYC if lyme was sexually transmissable. He said one very definite word "no."

In their experience (and they've seen hundreds of patients)...few partners have lyme also. If it were sexually transmissable, many more partners would have it, in their opinion.

However, people here attest that they believe they've gotten it sexually.

My opinion on that (and I'm no expert)is perhaps it is transmitted sexually, but it is not easily transmitted that way.

In my case...10 years ago, I thought I had a spider bite (brown recluse) on my index finger. I took erythromycin for it. About a week after the erythromycin, I got a rash on the trunk of my body, and my hands and feet (the hands and feet were kinda swollen too). I've always thought I was allergic to the erythromycin. Now, I'm wondering if that whole thing wasn't lyme, for lyme bites can present as a brown recluse spider bite (an open necrosing wound).

Then the lyme went dormant in me...and a steroid shot (1) in the knee was enough to suppress the immune system in that joint and activate the bacteria. Three weeks later, I started falling apart!

Although it is interesting for us to figure out how we got Lyme....the bigger question is How Do We Get Rid of It?

By the way...welcome to lymenet...I think I first wrote to you on braintalk.org

So, lyme MAY be sexually transmitted, but like the other posts said if you are exposed to ticks AT ALL, you are much more likely to get it that way. They do NOT have to be attached for a long time and some ticks have the bacteria on the mouth parts. one camping trip or hike through grass could be enough.

When I alone was diagnosed (was probably bitten 20 years ago on a hking trip), I ws very skeptical of claims that Lyme was passed on to babies, in utero or thorugh breastmilk. As each of my children in turn tested positive, I changed my mind. I nursed my kids for 2-3 years each, so maybe that was it afterall...

It may be that there are times when the baceria are moving round actively, and are therefore to be found in body fluids (blood, saliva, semen, milk etc.-?), rather than just sequestered away in tissues. One such time would be right after the bite, when the infection is disseminating, but this could also happen during flares.

They are still studying the likelyhood of being passed by other means (including sneezing)