posted
Just curious how many of you KNOW how you contracted Lyme, and how many really arn't sure.
I for one, KNOW when I contracted Lyme. I was turkey hunting in May of 2005. My symptoms started showing in Sept of 2005.
I pulled a tick off of my back that was attached for nearly 24 hours before I found him. The funny thing is... that I saved the tick for 5 months just in case I got sick. It was like I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.
Well in August, I got tired of looking at him, so I tossed him in the garbage, never to be seen again.
I wish I could have taken that time back. I would have never gone on that trip.
-------------------- 26 months of treatment. And counting....... Posts: 298 | From Northeast Kansas | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
I was in Shelbyville TN looking at property for sale - walking the fields - flew home that night and next afternoon found tick in my calf.
Funny thing is, that even though I didn't know much (if anything) about Lyme Disease, I did know about ticks as my parents both grew up in the south and we used to vacation there when I was young and my dad would always do a "tick check" when we came in from outside.
So, I actually thought about ticks as I was tramping through the tall grass of those fields - but quickly forgot about the possibility....
I, too, saved the tick like they say you should, until an infectious disease "specialist" told me there was NO WAY I had Lyme Disease and so I threw it away (after 3 months of saving it in the fridge!).
My sypmtoms started about a month after I found the tick and all were seemingly unrelated...
Posts: 438 | From SE Michigan | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I truly believe that I got Lyme from my husband who is an avid hunter and is pretty much in the woods from mid Sept. through Dec. He was (and still does) coming home with ticks on his body and on his clothing. We suspected he had Lyme long before he was diagnosed. Of course, they did the old Elisa and he tested negative so he just continued on his merry way getting sicker.
When I was diagnosed first, he went to my LLMD and was tested the right way and was positive.
Whether or not it was sexually transmitted is a posibility, according to my LLMD, or I could just have been bitten by a tick brough home by him.
The odd thing is, our daughter also has Lyme. None of us ever had a rash.
Sadly, our almost 6 yr. old grandson was just diagnosed 3 weeks ago - probably got it in vitro.
-------------------- "Few of us can do great things, but all of us can do small things with great love". Mother Theresa
lymebytes
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11830
posted
Hi, my husband, son and I all have tested positive for LD, but my son is inactive, my husband has totally different symptoms and this garbage has nearly killed me.
Weird thing is we started all having "symptoms" mildly around the same time we were doing a lot of camping 10 years ago.
But...my sister now has LD, her husband and daughter. We wonder if our mother has it as well and possibly passed it to us and we passed it to our husbands and kids.
There are liiterally endless way to get LD, I don't think anyone knows for sure unless they actually saw a tick bite and even that may not have been the way they got it.
posted
I believe I was bitten sometime around age 8....way before Lyme disease was identified as a tick borne illness.
The very first weekend we went out to our inherited land, my brother and I ran around in the woods and under the brush. We came back to our camp with over 100 ticks on each of us.
We didn't know what they were, but my mother did. We continued to get tick bites every weekend for the next 10-15 yrs.
PS...NEVER were they removed correctly since we knew nothing of the dangers.
Editing to add: I never had a rash that I know of.
posted
I was born in northern Ohio and lived in New York, the Santa Clara valley in California and in Washington state--all places where Lyme "exists".
I now live in Florida, where the officials have their heads in the sand, where there are ticks everywhere (but not many doctors who treat Lyme).
Despite this, I got sick in an unlikely place: Northern Colorado.
We went on hikes and picnics almost every weekend, our favorite place being along the Big Thompson River, where we could sit and watch the water and play on the rocks.
One Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon I picked an engorged tick off of my back. I remember looking at it and wondering if it was something I should worry about.
I tossed it down the toilet and forgot it, and when I later got a strange, hot, rough sore on my back that kept coming back I thought it was ringworm, even though repeated applications of fungicide had no effect.
I had never heard of Lyme Disease. When I got very seriously ill about six months after the rash had stopped coming back, I thought I had the virus from hell.
This was in 1990.
I only figured it out in the fall of 2005, after seeking medical treatment for years for one symptom after another.
Now, the lab tests are negative and I've been living with it for the better part of 20 years, and my story is just a story.
Posts: 353 | From Florida boonies | Registered: Nov 2005
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Aniek
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5374
posted
I had a bulls eye rash around a bug bite on my neck when I was 12. I lived on Long Island. I can only assume it was a tick bite.
That was 20 years ago.
-------------------- "When there is pain, there are no words." - Toni Morrison Posts: 4711 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
We lived in the country in Ohio (in a county where there is no Lyme ) 1972-1975. I got countless tick bites and they were all removed improperly (cigarette).
I was tired through high school and was always affected by the heat.
It was in college that I had my first flare up that put me in bed for months. My roommate took me to the emergency room ... since I was in college, the duck said it was from drinking too much.
I got better, but had two more flare ups after that ... in 1991 had my amalgams out, chelated, went on an anti-candida diet and got mostly better until 2003 when I was put on doxy for an unrelated illness ... I was also under a tremendous amount of stress during that time.
So, I'm sure it dates back to living in the country.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
I think it was last summer. I don't remember exactly when. I just know that we were living in our new house. I went to the bathroom and saw a tick on my pubic area. I was horrified. I yelled to my husband to come get it off of me. He pulled it off, flushed it down the toilet, and that was that. Shortly after I started getting sick.
I'm hoping this is when I was infected because if it was earlier I might of passed it to my son. I know I was bit by a tick when I was younger. And I'm sure there have been times where I might of bitten and never seen a tick. I've NEVER seen any bulls eye rash EVER. In April I went to the dr. and told him about the tick and he said since I had no rash, I couldn't have Lyme.
Posts: 248 | From Tejas | Registered: Jun 2007
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posted
I was in New Jersey doing field work this past May. Had ticks all over me. Even though I had my pants tucked into my socks and my shirt tucked in, I believe the bite occurred on my head.
I did not have a rash, nor did I have an attached tick (that I know of) for more than a few hours.
There were nymphs everywhere and I have thick hair. I washed a few out in the shower that evening.
There are definitely pro's and con's to having a job in the field of natural resources.
Posts: 10 | From Central Pennsylvania | Registered: Jun 2007
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groovy2
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6304
posted
I was swimming at Stone Lake here in Austin- Its a old rock quarry --
If you want to see the Quarry where I got bit- Watch the History Channel show about Jupiter-
The water where the Robot sub is tested is where I got bit --
I sat down on a Log that was covered with what I Just found out was Tick eggs --
Tick Eggs look like small Brown Glass beads-- The size of sand --
I found out what Tick eggs look like several months ago while doing research for a Lyme video I made --
I remember Looking at eggs and wondering what they were -20 yrs ago --Ouch--
I had only lived in Austin for 1 year or so when I got bit -I had no Clue about Ticks- -- Ouch -- Jay --
[ 08. July 2007, 04:47 AM: Message edited by: groovy2 ]
Posts: 2999 | From Austin tx USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I think I got lyme in Early october 2005 in south carolina deer hunting. never seen tick or rash. Starting showing some symptoms that winter, but had no clue it was lyme disease. Same here if thats where I got it,I wish I could turn back time, I would have backed out of the trip. brian
Posts: 217 | From Everywhere | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
I grew up on the North Fork of Long Island, where it's Lyme disease infested.
I showed horses competitively and woods and deer were everywhere. I remember my parents picking a good number of attached ticks off my head every summer.
I think I was bitten really early, because I was tired all throughout high school and looking back now, I realize some of the symptoms I have were present way back when. But this was the 70's. We knew ticks were bad, but we weren't really sure why.
My father also has Lyme. We have very similar symptoms. Neither of us ever saw a rash. He worked outside a lot. In the 80's I learned quite a few people I know from Long Island have Lyme.
A few of you have said you wished you never took a certain trip or done a certain activity. Sometimes I wish I never grew up on Long Island, (even though I always felt lucky to grow up there and bragged that it was one of the most beautiful places in the country!)
Also I often wished I never rode horses. But, we must remember--we were just living life...and could never have predicted the crazy ride Lyme would take us on...
-------------------- "Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead Posts: 290 | From New York | Registered: May 2007
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Andie333
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7370
posted
I grew up in Florida and played outdoors constantly; we always had tick bites and thought nothing of them.
In 1996 when I was living in PA, I was walking my dogs in the woods and was bitten. I saw the tick (didn't save it) and the subsequent rash. I was given 15 days of abx by an ID doctor and thought I was fine.
In the next few years, I'd find more ticks but didn't get concerned. But during those years, I started having weird symptoms.
By June 2005, my symptoms had worsened to the point that I feared for my life. By then I'd seen 14 specialists and had all sorts of tests and diagnoses. But NOT Lyme.
Finally alerted to the possibility of Lyme by an acupuncturist. I found this site and my LLMD.
Posts: 2549 | From never never land | Registered: May 2005
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savebabe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9847
posted
I think I got bit walking the trails in Wildwwod State Park, which is located on the northfork of LI.
Posts: 1603 | From ny | Registered: Aug 2006
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Michelle M
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7200
posted
Outside working in my shade garden, down among old black oaks (I live in high mountain forest).
Itch, itch, under my right breast.
Took a look and there was a miniscule tick. Took it off and tossed it, thinking 'psshaw.'
Noticed a rash there after getting out of the shower within a few days. Rash persisted. However, it never got bigger than a quarter. It stuck around a coupla weeks.
Never heard about lyme disease except on the east coast.
Months later, massive headaches nonstop. Suspected a brain tumour they were so bad!!! MRI showed 11 brain lesions due to lyme, vasculitis, or MS. Saw a clueless neuro, who dissed lyme after a negative ELISA. Having read up on LymeNet, I saw a good LLMD; was CDC positive.
Idiot ducks.
My daughter also has lyme.
We live in Tick Central.
Michelle
Posts: 3193 | From Northern California | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Got bit on my foot in the forest in Big Sur, CA in the summer of 1981. Went to a health clinic a week later and asked what was in my foot. A tick, they said, and removed it. Didn't say anything about possible disease. I had zero symptoms at the time.
My first symptom, sore shoulder muscles, started three months later. I thought it was due to my work, and I went to repetitive strain injury support groups for many years.
Then my neck got stiff and I thought it was due to an old car accident.
Then I got full head-to-toe muscle pain, and the rheumatologist said it was fibromyalgia, of no known cause. Met in FM support groups for several years. No one had a clue what we were dealing with.
One of the people I reported the discovery of Lyme to was my podiatrist. The place in my foot where I got bit has had to be scraped every six months or so, because it builds up a keratosis.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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Geneal
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10375
posted
Unfortunately, I will perhaps never know for sure when, where or exactly how I was infected.
I believe my children to have congenital Lyme.
However, as my husband, myself, two children and 4/5 neighbors definitely have Lyme disease,
One can only conclude.....there's something in our area- ticks, mosquitos, etc.
That are passing this disease like wildfire.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
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LisaS
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10581
posted
I dont know how or when I contracted it. I just assume I was a serial killer in my last life or something and this is my punishment!!!
posted
I was sitting in a meadow in N. Calif. leaning against an oak tree. The grass around us was all flattened down and it looked like the deer had slept there the night before. The meadow is called Hidden Meadow and now I know why. There is something hidden in Hidden Meadow.
I had a bulls eye rash early on but was so out of it with neuro symptoms - panic attacks, could not breath deeply and deep anxiety I did not know to get to a doctor. I thought the bite might be a spider bite but I was gone mentally with symptoms and the rash looked like some alien from another planet planted it. I stayed in bed with flu like symptoms. I was off the planet for 5 months mentally and would barely eat.
I saw a number of ducks and shrinks and it took me probably about 16 years to get diagnosed in 2006.
As a child I had an attached tick behind my ear and I pulled them off our dog too.
I also suspect my grand mother passed it on to all of us too but my oak tree bite put the disease over the top for me.
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posted
My daughter was on a school field day in East Brunswick, New Jersey in 1996. Despite bug repellant, she came home with an attached engorged tick right above her pubic bone. She had a localized rash and was tested (ELISA) by her Pediatrician, a few weeks later when she began having symptoms. When the Elisa came back negastive, we erroneusly dismissed LD as a possibility. She has been sick ever since. She finally was retested (WB) and it came out positive last march...
Posts: 217 | From New Jersey | Registered: Apr 2007
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
After clearing brush from our new property all week I found 3 huge engorged ticks yes, between my buttocks whilst showering... I removed them improperly (popped them left heads in) and then got rash at bite site of one bite. Beginning of my nightmare, of my new life which hasn't turned out so bad after all!!! After abx got me better!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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lymeladyinNY
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10235
posted
I grew up on a farm in upstate NY but never noticed any ticks on me. My LLMD thinks I got Lyme there, as a child running around in the fields and woods, because I had a few symptoms all my life.
What really got me, though, was an adult female deer tick that was deeply embedded and engorged just above my navel when I was 36 weeks pregnant with my son. This happened in Frederick County, Maryland, and I hardly ever went outside at the time. I think my older son brought the tick in the house after playing outside.
I got 4 weeks of amoxicillin after the bull's-eye rash showed up, but that's all my HMO would do for me. My ob-gyn refused to deliver the baby early, even though he was a scheduled c-section.
The baby got IV amoxicillin in the NICU and went home on 3 weeks oral amoxicillin. At age 10 months we had him tested for Lyme just in case. He is positive and remains that way to this day, at age 4.
So far, very few symptoms for him (Thank God!), but I have been terribly ill for the past 4 years.
I always hated living in Maryland - I wish we'd never moved there!
-------------------- I want to be free Posts: 1170 | From Endicott, NY | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
Lyme is not just ticks people!
Posts: 770 | From USA | Registered: Jul 2006
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tailz
Unregistered
posted
I'm with Myco here. I get a bit irritated that Lyme is called a 'tickborne' disease because I think that misnomer actually perpetuates the problems surrounding it's late stage diagnosis.
I got my Lyme or one of the coinfections from a MOSQUITO as a child (sometime after 1965). Every summer I had at least one - if not several - ringed 3 or 4 inch WELTS on my body.
Then I believe I was infected with something FLEAS were carrying in 1989.
I think I was later reinfected with something else - perhaps a different strain in the late 1990's - again, a MOSQUITO. No ticks here whatsoever.
If we really want to dispel the myths surrounding Lyme, we really need to stop referring to it as a 'tickborne' disease because I think it gives people a false sense of security. And it all start here.
Had I been asked if I'd ever been bitten by a mosquito or a flea, I probably would not have gone through the hell I did over the last decade.
I also think Lyme is not the enemy here. I believe cell phones, wireless, cordless phones are causing something that would ordinarily be harmless to cross the blood-brain barrier and replicate out of control.
Try googling 'cell phones - health effects'. And go to www.antennasearch.com. This may explain why some people test positive for Lyme, yet show no symptoms.
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