posted
Hi everyone, my 18 year old son is working as a landscaper this summer and got bitten his first day of work. It was not a deer tick and was attached most likely for an hour.
I called my LLMD's office and the PA said that if he were a patient of theirs they would start him on meds.
Well, I told my son everything ... he has seen what this has done to me, but he still isn't taking the meds. He even told me yesterday that he would post here to see what you guys thought, but he didn't.
He has been bitten before and has not gotten sick .... that has been several years ago.
Will you please post your opinion? He and I both know he may or may not have gotten it from this tick .... I contracted it about 20 miles from here and I never got bitten by a deer tick (that I know of) .... mine were all dog ticks.
Thanks. I'll try to show him this thread later. I'd especially like to hear from teens/young adults ... you know, those of you who are invincible.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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adamm
Unregistered
posted
Yikes--you really need to make it clear to him
that not treating prophylactically is a non-option, IMO. I'd do
whatever it took to get him to take the abx.
I'm his age, would be glad to relate my expriences via e-
mail
(my tick wasn't even attached ) if you think it might
help.
UP for other teens and individuals who were infected by dog ticks.
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posted
Thanks Adam .... I'll let him give you his email if he want's to correspond about it. I really don't know why he won't treat. I thought maybe some of you could convince him .... I know he's excited to move out this fall, and I'm afraid for BOTH of us that he'll end up sick at home instead.
PS - Adam, your mailbox is full
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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Alv
Unregistered
posted
My daughter had the same thing when she was 10 years old but the drs said is just alergy.
And during the summer she keep getting bit and see her fatigue just sleeping for a few hrs than she was fine.
Now after 5 years and 1/2 she start having insomnia , gained wight , loss interest in sport ...things started slowly and you can not even notice in yourself as they look so normal .
She is in denial but I can see complelty changed and boy -I keep fighting to get her treated.Spendt $2000 in lab works.She has bart henselae( can tell by VEGF that Dr S says in his last book) and started breaking out in acnes...Also band 39 shows in IGENEX.
She had 2 episodes of GASTROintensinal problmes , Vomiting and diarea turned pale ( 1 year diferen) and denied that is lyme and bart.
Than now sits in computer as her legs hurt.
She is so hard headed to get treatment and in denial and does not want to take anything.
i have to chase her with HH capsules or cats claw or andrographis at least to keep her imune system up ...She got a bronchitis last yer ..now her eyes got red and some inpatient with people or noises...the changes again are so slow.
But I know.I can not force her as she is turning 16 .I have begged her , spent money on detoxifiing her.She does not listen.The problem is that she will slowly loose an ability to have a normal life and achive in shcool.FROM the only student in middle school that got rewarded with the A BOND from govermnet ..now she is undisiplined child.
Picks on her teacher and does not even care.The disease is horrible .I do not buy the teanager BULL***** stuff.
I wish I had a perosn in my life to tell me ONLY the name of the disease.I have spent $$$$$$as I just want to feel normal once as I used too.But I self diagnosed it when a beautiful day at my work -MY lyme bacame active overnight and SAW death in the EYES.
One more tick bite and BOOM!!!Exsplodes.
BOY how much I wihs I had known and had treated myself years ago .WHO KNEW ?...The lower the load the better chances to recover...the longer... you wait...more you will suffer like me.
IRONICLy some kind of people have no will power and responsabilities for their action and LIKE to be in denial as they do not like the schedules and rules on fighting the disease and they find the short cut "DENIAL".
When they will miss ocasions of having fun with thier frineds and not beein able to walk or have a normal conversation ,than is too late .You can never go back where you were.
I saw feel upset and get mad when I see kids that suffer and parent have no clue( some friends of mine are in denial as the kids are assymtomatic) and they are in denial.My son even noticed people that have it and says "I know that they have it but they have no clue-I used to be like that before"
My son that is suffering 8 years old says" MOM I wish I was back as I was 5 years old , I was happy than 'Now he keep saying I wish I am over the lyme when I will be in the 4rth grade.I just want to be normal.He was saying something bit me...who knew...IF the Dr were ignorant and said it is alergies HOW SHOULD I HAVE KNOWN.
It took me 1 year of swallowing my tears for blaming myself for the ignorance and trusting every doctor in my life with the misdiagnosis that they gave me.
But when they sent me home and they did not knwo what I had and looked at me as I was making it all up I started reading on my own.BOY was I wrong and saw HOW IGNORANT the doctor were .EVEN when I wetn to ER and said I HAVE LYME Disease " they said YOU DO NOT HAVE what you think you have"
My son was bitten several times in backyeard...every summer ticks and mousquitos and I have no deers in my backyard but squarils and might have been mices going around even though I never saw one.
But the last bite( was a musquito bite) brought everything to the level the body could not handle more...DOES HE wants to go to that point?
If not now...he is building the foundation to go there one day he will have all symtoms come at the same time .I JUST hope that he will realize how important that is and start treating agresively himself just for a few months.
A child 8 years old as my son comes home and remind me for the medication as he was so sick and was telling me I need to see a doctor -and every doctor will say -he is fine.Need attention.The symtoms have changed .
He had days that he was normal and he was very bright and smiling and laughing and days that he was not himself.Imagine to be 24/7 like this.NOW he has seen the worst and wants desperatly to feel better.
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disturbedme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12346
posted
Hi, Six. I don't get it. It's so easy to just treat for a month or two with antibiotics to keep whatever illness that tick may have had at bay or get rid of it before it can do more harm.
Let's see... I was bit when I was 14. Don't know what tick it was, but I saw it on me, attached in the crook of my elbow and had to pick it out myself. At the time, I didn't know anything about lyme, neither did my parents. The tick came from our dog who we had gotten from a family who kept her outside at all times. She wasn't taken care of very well... she was VERY thin and covered in TONS of ticks.
I saw the one bite, but probably had more that I never saw. The dog (Sadie) had so many ticks on her that she infested our house with them basically. I remember going into the kitchen and hearing popping and looking down and you'd see blood from where you had just stepped on a tick. I don't remember how long this lasted. Too bad we had no idea back then what a nightmare those nasty things could be.
Over the next several years, I had symptoms on and off, but they weren't severe. During high school I had headaches every single day.
I went almost 10 years without getting sick (I'm 24 now). Then last year (soon after I got married) is when I guess the spirochetes decided to come out of hiding. I got very sick, have since lost my job (just last month). I'm only 24 and have no job anymore. Finances are getting very low and it's getting so hard. A 24 year old shouldn't have to worry about this kind of thing...
What I'd say to him is just because he didn't get sick from the first bite, doesn't mean he won't eventually get sick (like I did), especially now that he got bit again. This bite could have added to the load of bacteria (buggies) he has already. Your immune system can only do so much. It can only keep fighting for so long. When the bacteria load gets too high, it won't be able to fight against it anymore and that's when the symptoms will all emerge.
I really don't know what to say other than that, and not sure if that will change his mind. If he sees what you've been through, I don't know how in the world he could still be so blind to it.
Good luck.
-------------------- One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. ~ Helen Keller
My Lyme Story Posts: 2965 | From Land of Confusion (bitten in KS, moved to PA, now living in MD) | Registered: Jun 2007
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posted
Six, Tell your son, to get over himself and take the abx!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously though, if I could have taken 1-2 months of abx when I was bitten, I wouldn't spend my days in bed, with no energy to SHOWER!!!!
If I could go back in time, I would have done ANYTHING to take abx. It is a pain now to remember (when you're not really sick), I know, but when it becomes your life (I take meds 8 times a day,) you will have wished you just took the couple pills a day when you had first gotten bit.
This disease can be prevented from it's late stages. There's no need to suffer for so long like so many of us have.
[ 18. June 2008, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: knshore ]
Posts: 215 | From Student | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
Thanks guys. But, you know, if we all hadn't gotten so sick we wouldn't have found such great friends (even if we've never met .... well, except for kn, LOL).
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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disturbedme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12346
posted
quote:Originally posted by knshore:
If I could have taken 1-2 months of abx when I was bitten, I wouldn't spend my days in bed, with no energy to SHOWER!!!!
KN, I agree with every word. When I first got very ill, I couldn't even make my bed without feeling like I had just ran a marathon, huffing and puffing and feeling so extremely weak and dizzy at 24 years old with many, many heart and lung tests that came back normal.
I couldn't even take a shower, and a bath was tough as well, feeling so dizzy and out of it the entire time. I'd have to have help with shampooing my hair, etc.
He does NOT want to have to deal with that....
-------------------- One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. ~ Helen Keller
My Lyme Story Posts: 2965 | From Land of Confusion (bitten in KS, moved to PA, now living in MD) | Registered: Jun 2007
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
six,
he's in DENIAL like the rest of us were! but i hope he will correspond with adam, his age!!
sorry to learn he was bitten 1st day on job!
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
He can borrow my old wheelchair if he doesn't have one of his own.
posted
I'm not sure I'd worry about Lyme as much as other nasty things these ticks give off (e.g. tularemia) that we don't know as much about (i.e. attachment time necessary for transmitting other diseases). Yeah, all of us here will never understand why someone wouldn't just be overly cautious and just take some antibiotics...afterall, what's the harm?!
The good news is that it is very unlikely that he did get anything AND he is old enough to be able to appreciate and react to symptoms if they start cropping up.
Posts: 561 | From mass | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
Good news, he came home from work and told me he took the meds. But keep the stories coming .... this will be good for him and for others to know they did the right thing.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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lymednva
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9098
posted
I would suggest ordering a copy of Under Our Skin and asking him to watch it with the rest of your family, to help them all understand Lyme better.
Another good source of info is Cure Unknown, but I doubt you will get an 18 year old boy to read that, but he might sit still for the DVD. PM me if you need to know how to get it.
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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