I was only given 100mg 2x per day. What I'm worried about is if I start taking the abx. now and am infected, what is the chance of it showing up on a Western Blot 2 weeks later. If I take a ride to the LLMD I was seeing a few months ago, I know I can get 30 days of doxy out of them.
I am also confused about others taking Doxy (I took Doxy too) when a person is going to have a WB test done. Does the antibiotics mess up the antibodies? I guess Ticker knows.
I am taken with your story about the lady in the nursing home, poor woman! Yes, I have a couple of friends who were diagnosed with MS and found out later on they really had Lyme all along. Isn't that scary? As I said in one of my other posts, LD is so "under" treated.
The woman who was diagnosed with MS was in her early 30's and TOTALLY bed ridden. She had children, too. Her husband remarried. MS from then on was a disease I was petrified of. I mean, chances are. MS is what she had, but then you consider if it was lyme, that would have been something that could've been treated. It's ironic that I actually thought of MS when I first started having involuntary muscle spasms and eye twitches.
The other woman who woke up dedridden freaked me out. I was 23 when I worked at this nursing home and I just couldn't believe that something like that could happen to someone and no one could help her and there was no medical explaination.
I remember the very first time I heard of a serious tick related illness (I don't recall it being called Lyme Disease). I was pretty young and heard the story on the news. But the story sounds like it wasn't reported correctly. It was about a boy who was admitted to the hospital because he became very ill (I don't recall symptoms reported). And by chance a nurse found a tick in his scalp and then he was miraculously cured. Sounds bizaar, but I recall this news story being reported this way. I remember it because I thought how lucky the boy was. I was in my early teens and lived on Long Island.
Well, here's the situation. I couldn't sleep because I was getting shooting pains in my shoulders and hips all night. I didn't start taking doxy. My knees hurt. Not running related because I haven't run in 10 days or more. My neck is stiff, but that could be the herniated discs. It's just that hasn't bothered me this much in a while.
This is bearable, and I still don't know if I was re-infected. I'm just afraid of going thru the headaches, the fatigue and the brain fog. So now I'm 2-1/2 weeks from the time I was bitten, and I have to decide what to do.
I went to the GP to begin with because of convenience, but not too confident with the amt of abx I was prescribed and doing the bloodwork after. When my son's pediatrician prescribed medication, she told me not to start until after the bloodwork and she already had a script ready for us for 30 days. He ended up doing IV treatments, but thank goodness we knew.
Hi ciconner. The bullseye rash is a definite sign of Lyme. The rash alone merits treatment, and a knowledgeable doctor knows this. I would not delay taking antibiotics.
Please get the proper treatment now. From what I understand, 200 mg of Doxy is not strong enough. I believe the recommended dose for Lyme is 300-600 mg daily. I hope you will go to the Lyme doctor. Getting the proper treatment early in the infection may reduce the chance of long-term complications. The longer the infection remains untreated or under-treated, the harder it will be to eradicate.
Oh boy. I called the LLMD and the good thing is they agree that the minute a tick bites you can be infected. But they also think 10 days of doxy will do the trick. But, since I haven't started taking it, they are double-checking with the doc. So I guess if you know you were bitten by a tick, you need to take abx. immediately.
Also the place where I had that little "reaction" that I don't think looks like a rash is still a red 1/4 inch circle and you can barely make out a 2" diameter clearing and that is outlined with slightly darker irregular ring. It wouldn't show up in a photo and if I didn't know where I was bitten, I wouldn't know it was there. To make sure I wasn't nuts, I had my husband look at it and he could see. If you look too long, it gets lost in all the different irregularities of my skin color.
Truthfully, it was wishful thinking on my part that I would have bloodwork done and if it was negative, not take abx. at all. (I was told by the LLMD that I should have known better). I think I was avoiding taking anything because I'm looking forward to nausea and/or herxing. I have a total of 14 days worth of abx.
I know some of you did abx. for 10 days as soon as you had a bite and are still sick. I think that's also what I'm afraid of-still being sick and bloodwork coming up negative. But if I still have symptoms, I know I can still be treated by the LLMD. Do I sound like I'm starting to freak out, considering I underreacted to begin with?
Hi ciconner. I cannot understand a Lyme doctor prescribing only ten days of Doxycycline. A bullseye rash is a definite sign of Lyme. It is my understanding that an infection caught within two weeks of the bite should be treated with a minimum of six weeks of the proper dose antibiotic. If symptoms are still present, futher treatment is warranted. If your infection is longer, longer treatment is need.
I hope you will take this seriously and get the treatment you need. Getting the proper treatment now, may reduce the chance of long-term complications.
I was bitten while I was out of town and unfortunately what I did was looked up deer ticks on the internet to see if what I pulled was a deer tick. The site I looked at said if removed within 48 hours, you are not likely to be infected. First mistake. So I kept an eye on it and noticed a little reaction, which didn't look like much and then I called the doctor as soon as we got back and I expected to get 30 days of abx. I was surprised to get only 10 days worth, and I have 4 days left from last time. Now I have shoulder and hip pain, which is like the pain I had for about 5 or 6 years when I lived on LI, then it just went away. I never did go to a doctor about the joint pain because I just thought is was something that you lived with when you hit your 30's and I thought my physical activities were to blame. Stuff I did to stay healthy.
Treatments vary so much, I thought I was doing the right thing waiting to get bloodwork and a few symptoms (I figured I'd get 60 days of abx). You know, I just feel like the docs, even the LLMD I go to give you just enough to hide the symtoms and show a negative result. I usually respond pretty well to abx. The symptoms are not the same as last time. My heel was hurting this morning and my joints are more sore than last time. But no headache. That was the worst. I'm not fatigued either. I wonder how long it takes for the abx. to get rid of this joint pain.
When my neighbor was bitten, she must've had the Elisa. She said the numbers kept getting higher and she didn't start abx until the test was positive.
When I took my son to the pediatrician (after I pulled a tick from his neck), he was given an order for bloodwork and no abx. and I was told to look for symptoms. That was before anyone was ever diagnosed with lyme in my family and we knew nothing about lyme other than it was a tick borne disease and you never get rid of it.
I still have the tick and I am in enough pain that I think they'll give me at least 2mos. of abx. (they only give 30 days at a time, then I have to go back). I also started writing down the symptoms in date book. I have to try to convince them to give me more than 200mg per day. One doctor I asked about the dosage said she'd give me the same dosage because of my size. That doesn't really make sense. I don't think the bacteria care what size you are.
I just can't believe how quickly my joints are being affected. It's like this pain came out of nowhere. I started abx. today, 2 weeks and 2 days after I pulled the tick. I did make an appt. for Monday, so that's the good news. I just don't want to do this again, but I have to. Well, it's not like I have to have a PICC line, so I shouldn't complain too much.
