posted
Mars, I live in the NYC area. Just curious if you could share where you were when you got bitten?
Posts: 655 | From USA | Registered: Sep 2007
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
fyi, lymetoo and others have had them tested, it is NOT 100% ACCURATE; it missed on tutu's positive results.
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I did stumble on that a few minutes ago while doing a search
Maybe the question is what to take now. Why bother to have the tick tested if its not accurate?
Yan, I came back to Westhampton after being in NYC, Boston but I know I got the tick out here. I picked up branches in the yard for 1o minutes and played with my neighbors dog who knows.....
Posts: 465 | From New York, NY | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
James did you order the other tests as well? ($65 for each test)
What treatment did you use? I havnt got any answers on my other post. I started myself on amoxicillin, not sure how much to take.
Thanks!
Mar
Posts: 465 | From New York, NY | Registered: Aug 2005
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
By the way, you never get immune to ehrlichia. Wish it weren't so.
And, if I remember correctly, it took Igenex about 30 days to send me the results on the tick I sent to them. (Put a damp cotton ball in with the tick so it doesn't dry out. That's what Igenex told me to do.)
So, I think your amoxi plan sounds good. It seems to me my second lyme doc had me on 1,500 mg of amoxi 3 times per day. It helped me, but it did not get rid of my babesia and bartonella.
So, in case the tick gave you babesia, you should take Bactrim DS two times per day also until you get the results of the tick test or for 30 days.
Babesia is so common that this is what my now famous lyme doc had me take when I got rebitten in August 2008 and never saw the tick, just got bulls eye rash.
He said if I didn't get any symptoms, I was done after 30 days of meds. But, I was on doxy and bactrim. I don't know how long you should treat if using amoxi. (He said doxy will kill ehrlichia, lyme, and bartonella. And, the Bactrim will kill babesiosis.)
Also, he had me do a blood test to test liver enzymes before starting treatment and 2 weeks into treatment.
And, he said that 30 days was enough if I didn't get any symptoms. If you get symptoms, you need tested and treated by a doctor.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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So obviously the Doxycycline worked, the test was a false negative then.
Still want to take something just hoping that the amoxicillin will cover me since I cannot take doxy.
What a shock to find a tick after treatment. Ive been to the ER before with pretty bad emergencies my pressure is always around 110/70. I was so terrified my pressure shot up to 140/95!
TF,
Was the tick you sent the one that gave you the lyme, babesiosis and bartonella? What turned up on the IgeneX test?
Thanks
Posts: 465 | From New York, NY | Registered: Aug 2005
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
Marsy, the tick I sent to Igenex about 4 years ago (shortly after finishing lyme treatment) tested negative, and I did not take any meds that time and I did not get sick either, not a rash or anything. I pulled off the tick myself in a late night panic and then had to get a doctor to surgically dig out the mouth parts that remained embedded in my abdomen.
In August of 2008, I pulled some weeds and then, a few days later, got a bulls eye on the arm that carried the weeds. I never saw a tick. I got in with my old lyme doc the next day.
So, I got treated for a bulls eye within a week of the bite. No tick to test. So, doc treated me for all possible tick borne illnesses--lyme, babs, bart, and ehrlichia--using the doxy and bactrim DS.
I venture to say he would have done the same thing even if I had the tick. It was a small price to pay. I had a mild herx on day 3 or 4. It was a day where I got played out easily.
I would get up and start doing something, and in about 20 minutes, I would feel the need to lie down and rest. Then, I'd get up a little later and go to do something else, and I'd be out of energy again in no time and have to lie down again.
I told this to the doc at the end of the 30 days of meds and he said, "Sounds like a herx to me."
So, that was my recent adventure. Hope that description helps you as to what you may want to look out for and how to treat a brand new tick bite.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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I don't remember exactly but I did a whole panel of TBDs, it was expensive, like over $300.
I didn't get treatment until I started to have real symptoms about 7 months later. But I knew to go to a LLMD first. Naturally, I had no rash. I should have gone sooner but I had a lot of other things going on. And I knew I had lyme before so I figured I had some immunity.
(A few months before I got bitten by that tick I had sent in an Igenex test since I always suspected I had been previously infected. That test showed a weak positive for Lyme and a weak positive for Babesia, which the other tick didn't have.)
So when I went to the LLMD in NYC, he put me on Omnicef, Azith, and Mepron.
The reinfection with Lyme made the babesia much worse and it has been a bigger problem for me than the lyme.
James
Posts: 872 | From New York City | Registered: Jun 2008
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