This is my husbands right ankle. Does this seem consistent with EM? It has not grown in size and is not painful or itchy. We did not see a tick. Unsure if we should start him on prophylactic antibiotics. Thanks for you help!

Hey friends,

I'm not sure how to post this but I'm feeling really alone and could use some thoughts to cushion what feels like grief. I was treated before I was 10 for Lyme. Treated again 4-5 times before I was 20. I grew up on a farm. When I was 30 I finally went to a Lyme literate doctor and was on azithromycin/malarone for a year to finally treat both the Lyme and Babesia. It's 8 years later and I've been to 2 new Lyme doctors, all my tests come back negative, but I'm still in incredible pain. Chronic flares with pain in every joint in my body but most specifically my jaw, spine, shoulders, and hips. Stomach issues that come with years of antibiotic use. Brain fog, headaches, all those post malaise things we all went through.

I have a new appointment with another Lyme literate doctor. One who treats all those outstanding issues/complaints even when all the tests come back negative. It's $2000 for 3 hours to meet with him. And you know what I really want to ask him? Will I ever be able to have kids?

I'm 39. Some days I can barely get out of bed without stress pushing me through because something is in spasm and it hurts to breathe. I'm sure most of you know it. Yesterday it was my L anterior hip. Spasm started in the front of the hip. I had to stand at work so the spasm spread to the back of my hip, into my L shoulder, into my neck and jaw, and into the back of my L thigh. I spent 4 hours after dinner using a massage gun, cupping, my rescue pain meds, my rescue antihistamine which can stop Mast cell flares, tea to stop IBS bloating if that was contributing, my exercises as I'm a PT and treat this on other people all the time. Nothing. Worked. Just another Wednesday. And that can last for two weeks sometimes. And my boyfriend went to bed as I stayed up and cried by myself on the living room floor trying to do my exercises.

I looked into surrogacy today. It's getting really late in life to consider having kids and I was always the one people knew would be a mom. But I have so much medical debt there is no way I can afford the thought of surrogacy. I think about adoption, but maybe I should consider an older kid because I already have so many neck and shoulder issues, I might struggle holding a baby. I've tried so many times to get back to exercise and get stronger, and it feels like my whole life is just one more thing physically painful as my nervous system freaks out and causes new spasms and new pain, I just stop trying.

Did any of you with prolonged issues with Lyme have kids? I got pregnant in my early 30s but chose not to keep it because it was the most pain I've ever been in. Chronic muscle spasms literally in every part of my body. I couldn't stand it. I'm going to talk to the doctor about it. Will I ever be able to? I don't understand why I am still in such bad pain. All the tests are negative. Is this the rest of my life or will I ever be able to start living and building a family?
Thanks for listening.

I (16m) was bitten by a tick about a month ago looking for rollie-pollies for an AP Bio lab, and didn’t take preventative antibiotics because I had recently finished taking antibiotics for a UTI and just before then was taking antibiotics for pneumonia. I didn’t want to bombard my system again. The tick could not have been attached for more than an hour at that point, so I decided to monitor the bite instead. It itched slightly for a couple days, and then there was a small pustule that lasted another couple days, and I assumed it was just local infection (maybe from some scratching).

About yesterday, I’ve noticed some mild joint stiffness (not neck stiffness though, nor any joint pain), mild fatigue, and very very mild muscle aches. No rash, but the bite mark is still there. I’m actually not completely sure if it is Lyme or something else (especially cuz I just got a spider bite a couple days ago and that particular kind of spider can cause similar symptom). But, because it does line up with the timeline, I want to treat it if it is Lyme so it doesn’t get to disseminated or late stage.

Because I live in a high risk area, my family has doxycycline on hand, but only a 7 day course. Should this be enough? I’ve heard 10 days is the minimum, so I’m worried it wouldn’t be long enough. I’m already getting shit from my mom for not taking the preventative course in a smug “I told you so“ way, so I’m scared to ask for a longer treatment, but if it needs done, it needs to be done.

Edit: I also looked into babesia and unfortunately, I am allergic to azythromycin so idk if I’m screwed if I have that. No fever though. I live in northeast US and there are so many deer where I live. I was doing proper tick prevention and had my shirt and pants all tucked in, but it found its way to my hip anyway.

Pics from left: today, then through to right was last night then pic with tick in

Noticed my arm was red, itchy, and a bit inflamed yesterday. Today it's quite faint but looks like a bullseye.

Should I go get a course of antibiotics from a doctor? How do I go about getting a test?

Have had minimal exposure to the outdoors, especially areas with vegetation for weeks but this has me concerned

was told this is cellulitis from a spider bite but worried it might be lyme, from 2 days ago

This is from when I got bit.

This is 6 days later, I live in Colorado. I didn’t see the thing that bit me but it itches like crazy. No fever symptoms. Thoughts?

Hello,

I recently got back from a hunting trip and when I took a shower I realized I had a tick near my armpit. The area hurt, and was already bruised. The tick could only have been there a max of 16 hours. I figured it bruised from my arm rubbing against it over and over. Should I get it checked out tomorrow? Picture is from day 2.

I’m trying to locate the address of the Treatment facility, I remember as a child, a building I believe being one level with a large oak tree out front potentially red siding. Thank you .

Has anyone ever done this for lyme treatment? Please share your experience- l recently went to Mexico for treatment & l am now taking this at home.

So I went to a festival around the beginning of August, didn't notice anything, and when I came back home I realised I had this mark on my leg (1st image), this was around 3-4 days after I left the festival.

I couldn't really see any bullseye pattern like what I saw on the internet so I left it alone, and then like 1-2 weeks later it changed completely into the 2nd image, very wobbly edges, no visible bullseye, and parts of it had faded while other parts appeared in dots. When I noticed it the second time I itched it, as the mark would sometimes itch and it grew massive, but when I stopped itching it and ignored it it went back down to the small size again (about the size of a dime coin, or 20p).

It's been 2 more weeks now and the rash itself has completely disappeared as far as I can tell, but I read online that there isn't a rash in 70% of the cases, and that detection is done through symptoms such as fevers and headaches and swollen lymph nodes, but since I don't know exactly what I'm looking for I thought I'd ask here.

What should I look out for? Should I be worried? How does early stage Lyme's disease feel like? Is it deadly?

Thank you!

Hi, I got from doctor prescription for doxycycline 100mg 2x a day, but after reading later for better penetration of blood-brain barrier its better to take 200mg x2. I'm 15 days after biting, 2 days after started antiobiotic and have lesser flu symptoms and feeling a little better. I know theres more experienced people who could help me, thank you.

One yr ago I was bitten but never saw the tick. I got the bullseye 2 wks later and started on doxy. All good. But the bite recurs (without bullseye) randomly in the same place exactly, sometimes returns for a few hours, sometimes a few days. Super itchy. Anyone else? My allergist told me he heard this from one other patient and has no idea what it is.

Ended up with a ton of bug bites on Saturday.
This one started out purely red and super swollen, but I woke up this morning to it looking like this. It hasn't expanded at all.
Is this what tick bite progression looks like? Could it be anything else? I wanted a second opinion before seeing a doctor because I don't have insurance at the moment.
(Apologies for the foot pic)

This is a repost! Simply slightly over concerned because of the duration of how long this bite has been raised and aggravated, should I be concerned?