posted
Hi, I just found this community recently after being diagnosed with Lyme Disease this past Monday. I've done a lot of reading and I am pretty scared about everything. Especially since I already was diagnosed with fibromyalgia years and years ago. The pain from my fibro has never been as bad as what some people have experienced and I've been able to work and lead a somewhat active lifestyle.
Here is a time line of photos of my bite since last Thursday, 9/13:
9/13, shortly after finding red spot from a couple days earlier.
9/14, Sunday night
9/15 Monday morning, shortly before first doctor's visit.
9/16 Tuesday Morning
9/16, early afternoon.
Anyway, since then the blisters have drained. I went back to the same doctor this morning because people at my job were really concerned about how it looked. At first he didn't seem all that concerned, stating that my symptoms were from the lyme disease. (stiff neck, sore neck, headache, the other night I had a fever just over 101, chills, horrible body aches, and just feeling really really really bad).
He then came over and poked at the wound. It leaked more clear fluid and that's when he became concerned. He ran off to read about spider bites because my wound had necrotic tissue!! and that's more common with spider bites. He came back, was still researching, and then eventually decided it's still lyme, still a tick bite. and that in rare cases it can end up like mine. It was an unusual presentation he said. Another doc came in to look at the wound, looked shocked and was glad to see it since she'd never seen a tick bite like mine.
They did an EKG on me while I was there. It came back normal. They dressed my wound and I am going back on Friday morning to have it looked at again. They measured the redness and the area that was necrotic. No work til Monday. Not that I feel like working anyway. The antibiotics I am on are making my stomach upset and the doc just prescribed vicoden for the pain. The pain comes and goes.
The redness has spread, the wound looks disgusting. I'd post another update photo but right now it's covered up and I don't want to mess with it until later if I decide to shower.
Anyone else experience this problem with a tick bite? Im really concerned right now:( Can't find much info about this happening to a tick bite online.
thank you! Posts: 16 | From Massachusetts Boston Area | Registered: Sep 2008
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posted
Please read the Dr. B treatment guidelines on www.ilads.org.
They say to treat for four weeks past the last symptom if you caught it right after the bite, for a min. of six weeks.
The dosage of doxy should be 200 mg twice daily.
Most doctors under-treat, so I wanted to make you aware of this. I would highly recommend seeking a Lyme specialist (LLMD). Consider yourself lucky to have gotten a rash! Good job taking pictures of it, you might need those for insurance reasons later.
I hope you start feeling some relief soon! Your fibro might be from a previous tick bite .... you never know.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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Dawnee
Unregistered
posted
I had necrotic tissue when I was bitten on the head 20 years ago. So it's really not like it's rare. Then when I got bit again 5 years ago the center was also necrotic. I didn't have the impressive EM rash that you have though.
Please seek an LLMD... anyone else is not going to treat you properly.
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-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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lymie tony z
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5130
posted
Yeah well you chose a good name...cuz whoever believes this is a bullseye rash associated with lyme disease specifically....well...
You might want to check another arachnid like perhaps a brown recluse spider....but it sure isn't anything I've ever seen related to lyme ALONE!
Co-infections or infection of something else delievered by some other vector then a tick...
now if you get angry about my opinion...I'll know I'm right.....
zman
-------------------- I am not a doctor...opinions expressed are from personal experiences only and should never be viewed as coming from a healthcare provider. zman Posts: 2527 | From safety harbor florida(origin Cleve., Ohio | Registered: Jan 2004
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merrygirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12041
posted
zman-
What?
yeah, maybe a flea bite.......not.
This is an EM rash!
Posts: 3905 | From USA | Registered: May 2007
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disturbedme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12346
posted
I agree with Merry. It's a very obvious EM rash, bulls-eye and everything.
And as Dawnee said, she's also had this same sort of reaction to a tick bite with the necrotic tissue.
Tony - you're not a doctor. So... you say it 'sure isn't anything I've ever seen related to lyme ALONE!', but you're just a person with lyme NOT a doctor.
Hoodwink - have you looked at it since you last took a picture? How does it look now? How are you feeling?
-------------------- 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
The bite I had looked like a spider bite, and when I told my llmd this, he said that spiders can carry Lyme. Is that true? He said ticks are part of the arachnid family?
-------------------- "~*~My smile hides my bite~*~." Posts: 506 | From N/A | Registered: Jun 2008
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adamm
Unregistered
posted
That rash is diagnostic of Lyme, so you need to make
an appt with an ILADS LLMD ASAP and, in the mean time, do
whatever it takes to get enough doxycycline to be able to treat
for 2-3 months with 400 mg/day. Early disease is a medical
emergency, and one day could make the difference between
getting over it and becoming chronic.
Seriously--check out lymecryme.com. There's an abstract
on there in which it is stated that IV Vancomycin could not remove the
spirochete from the mouse brain of treatment was delayed a
posted
This has been documented in the medical literature, but I wouldn't look for help from these authors now because they are working the other side of the street.
Arch Dermatol. 1992 Nov;128(11):1495-8.
Vesicular erythema migrans. Goldberg NS, Forseter G, Nadelman RB, Schwartz I, Jorde U, McKenna D, Holmgren D, Bittker S, Montecalvo M, Wormser GP.
Department of Dermatology, New York Medical College, Valhalla 10595.
BACKGROUND--Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. The characteristic rash, erythema migrans, is an early sign of the disease. Clinical criteria remain the "gold standard" for diagnosis at this stage of illness.
OBSERVATIONS--Five (8%) of 65 patients with erythema migrans seen in a Lyme disease diagnostic center in Westchester County, New York, had a lesion with vesicles. Borrelia burgdorferi was cultured from two of five. In one case the positive culture came from a swab of the blister fluid.
CONCLUSIONS--Recognition of erythema migrans and its variants is important, since early treatment of Lyme disease may prevent late complications. Vesicular erythema migrans should be added to the differential diagnosis of inflammatory vesicular rashes in the appropriate clinical setting.
PMID: 1444504 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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Excellent photos. No matter what bit you, that is clearly a bull's eye rash..... diagnostic of lyme disease.
Knowing what bit you would be interesting, but not very relavent in the critical stage you are in.
I ditto what Adamm said. And others, LLMD ASAP, and doxy 'any way you can'
A lot of us, most of us I think have co-infections.....
(why are they called co-infections, when they are infections all by themselves? this bugs me)
The bull's eye is for sure lyme, AND the necrotic tissue pattern MIGHT be a clue about another co-infection.
Different co-infections need different antibiotic combinations. So, again, at least doxy right away, and get to someone asap who will know what to do next.
You did yourself a huge favor taking those photos. get these photos in front of someone..
Don't do what I did. I waited a few weeks to see an infectious disease doc, who said I didn't have lyme, then another ID doc, and another month went by till I started treatment.
And I had a good bull's eye photo.... there are a lot of docs out there that don't have a clue.
Find a good LLMD from this site. ID docs generally are not lyme literate......go figure.
Again, your photos are obvious. Most people with lyme are not nearly as obvious. You are a no-brainer case as far as lyme goes. Don't let anyone tell you that is not a bull's eye/lyme.
That would be like seeing a dog, and you say 'that is a dog', and I say, 'how do YOU know it is a dog? Have you had extensive training about dogs?'
Posts: 258 | From Washington State | Registered: Nov 2005
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lymie tony z
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5130
posted
Gee thanks TUTU...but you're wrong...not everyone who is here....but there sure happens to be plenty around here lately....
Someone IM'd me accusing you awhile back as well so I would'nt go throwing stones....
You're correct however I am NOT a doctor... Whoever mentioned that can at least read my signature at the bottom...
Thank you. The reason I remarked that it did'nt look like any Bullseye rashes I've ever seen is because the center was red and it had a white ring and then more red....
I wonder if it itched as well...and then the necrosis thing...
I personally have never seen that....on me or another person or in literature....
Usually the bullseye is formed because the bacteria start to disseminate from the bite site in a uniform circular pattern and this area stays white or slightly off white...
Whenever our immune system rushes to fight the bacteria the red ring is formed, outside the clear or white center, due to the battle going on and the slight inflammation which that causes...
The rash that is pictured seems to be the reverse!
Exactly what did the doctors find in the culture they took from the leaking pustules or blisters....
No merry I know what a fle bite looks like and that isn't it...ok!
Besides you guys....whenever there IS a troll around here....they never lack co-horts to back them up... or they always seem to have the "exact same thing" an original troll might come up with....
And NO....I'm not saying this lady is one....if she is....or wherever this picture was taken from....they have pretty good legs !!!
Now go ahead and bust my chops about being a chauvinist pig....
I'm impervious....don't forget I have lyme too...although....I think I only have Babesia left....(ONLY)! Perhaps Bartonella since I saw those pictures of what was denoted as being a Bartonella rash....I had the same things a couple of weeks ago....from BED BUGS!
So either someones doctors are dumn or mine is....but the recollection of the way a migrans rash is supposed to look is opposite of what she is presenting....
But then again...my first rash was'nt even a migrans rash....I had a poison oak,ivy type of rash on my ankle(yes Merry where fle's like to bite ya)and then a rash twice over my torso which came after a 105 fever that I had to crawl into the bath and give myself an alcohol and cold water bath before I passed out....
Only to be told by a dermatologist that she felt I was taking too too hot of a shower....and perhaps too harsh of a soap...
so kindly get off my case there TUTU!
and the rest of what I think are preppies for steere and company!
If it doesn't pertain to you then you won't be offended now will ya!
I was just giving my opinion in my usual opinionated way...take a pill or something and stop attacking contributors to this here little website cuz that's what it's here for...
I have'nt been here for a long time because I chose not to be...but I can see it's even gotten worse then it used to be...
seems there's an awful lot of con's and trolls and other such stuff around here...
Perhaps you don't need an experienced and well read comment around here any longer...I'll go back to my garden and landscaping work around the house...
It was a much nicer place to play!
And PS to you tutu....I was never far off with my accusations....or do you care to bring someone to my house who I thought was one and was'nt dear...???
I'll buy the drinks!
Funny I never met ANY of them at any conference I've ever been to....cept lymeblue...and she was'nt one!
zman
-------------------- I am not a doctor...opinions expressed are from personal experiences only and should never be viewed as coming from a healthcare provider. zman Posts: 2527 | From safety harbor florida(origin Cleve., Ohio | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
I did not see this post until after I responded to the same thread in 'General'. Please read my post there.
It is docuemented that coinfections such as tularemia and Rickettsial bacterial are known to cause necrotic lesions at the site of a tick bite. It is also well documented that Lyme can cause necrosis. This is a perfect example.
-------------------- **Eat Chocolate** Posts: 942 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
It most likely is a Lyme rash, though you'll have to wait a few weeks-months for your body to begin producing an immune response (if your body produces any response at all...)
I saw someone mentioned spiders-- I think that the black widow spider bite develops tissue necrosis in the center (Though, I am unsure). A black widow bite would be extremely painful, I would think. So, it is most likely Lyme disease.
Best to get to an LLMD ASAP.
Posts: 371 | From CT | Registered: Jun 2008
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posted
Well, it has been five days since your post, are you on an antibiotic? What does it look like now? Did you find a good doctor that will treat you based on the bulls eye?
Been concerned about you.
Yvonne
Posts: 258 | From Washington State | Registered: Nov 2005
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lymie tony z
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5130
posted
Since you were told by several other posters that the pictures you posted is "INDEED" a "LYME RASH"...
I shall just have to see more of them I guess! I meerely meant that it was like none I had ever seen nor experienced previously! I also gave my understanding of how and why a typical migrans rash for borrelia burgdorferi spirochete should present on ones skin.
It would certainly be nice to here further from you as what I said should never have offended you that much...
Just listen to TUTU....I'm crazy as a LULU!
I also observed no one has a sense of humor around here any longer either!
Ah well such is life!
zman
-------------------- I am not a doctor...opinions expressed are from personal experiences only and should never be viewed as coming from a healthcare provider. zman Posts: 2527 | From safety harbor florida(origin Cleve., Ohio | Registered: Jan 2004
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
That could be Lyme + Tularimia? Get a LLMD quick!!!
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
posted
Wether this is a 'lyme rash' or not, I think the bottom line is to NOT TAKE THE RISK OF ASSUMING ANYTHING ELSE AND GET TREATMENT RIGHT AWAY!!!!!!!
Also, my origal bite had am EM in my hair line where the tick was. But, about a week later I developed a rash on the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands which migrated up my lower legs and arms----Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Then the second bite looked EXACTLY like yours!!! However it begain to spread down my arm, ( the blisters). Infected again!
This is only my opinion but our immune systems are different and each person reacts differantly. Also, there are sooooo many strain that are still being researched. So, in time I think we will learn a lot more.
I do want to tell you to try not to allow yourself to feel that your future is 'doomed'!! I know that reading many experiences of others can/will scare you to death. Please don't let that happen!!!
You have caught it early and that's the key! However, I agree with everyone----get to a LLMD A.S.A.P.
Wishing you all the best!!
Posts: 351 | From Georgia | Registered: Feb 2008
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Dawnee
Unregistered
posted
Well, I know that I'm not a troll..and I had a blister just like that (just not at large) right in the middle of my EM rash on my hip 5 years ago when I got re-bitten.
Not all EM rashes are the same... I've had an EM rash that was only red...egg shaped with no white clearing, and then got deathly ill within 2 weeks.(still was told "Scarlet Fever")
And I've had an EM rash from being bitten in July in Arkansas that was a perfect triangle and my LLMD says definate EM (you can search for the pic if you'd like)
please see below link to look at all the many variations of EM rashes. You will notice many times the center is red. It does not always have a white center and it can come in many sizes and shapes.
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The
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