dont read if you have a weak stomach

[AhBee01]

(DR's)They used to do that with my Dad, one Dr, wouldn't call the nurses back about my Dad's pain, he waited till the morning, by then my Dad had he colon burst, had to wear a bag the rest of his life. He had a rear disease and the Dr never knew what to do for him, he never complained so when he did, we knew something was wrong!
You have to take control of you medical health, and sometimes insist on treatment.
I love my DR I was bitten by a tick, and started to feel bad, so he treated me just in case, and the test came back neg. He said better to be safe than sorry. He has many patients that waited to come in for treatment, and they are doing bad. So now he takes action!
Brenda
PS I hate ticks! Gives me the willies!

 

[gypsy2621]

I am still fighting Lyme Disease and its been 10 weeks so far.
There truely is no "classic" symptoms as my Dr told me , every one reacts differently to the toxin these little bugs carry.
It depeneds on ones immune system a to how this bugs germs present themselves.
the disease charges to the first weakest immunity.
I am asthmatic and I thought I had a case of a super flu,( omg sick) I went to the Dr's and he immediately put me on 2000mg of antibiotics not knowing what had hit me but he knew it was creating some sort of Phneumonia.
3 days later I found a very tiny tick starting to engourge. took it to the dr for testing( which came back positive on the tick) He then put me on 400mg more a day of Doxycyclin(sp) so 2400 mg of antibiotics for14 days and no relief.
On to 900 mg of Emycin, whiich isnt helping a whole lot either.
I was barely able to make the chicken stock, by the time I got home I was totally exhausted.

If you find a tick on your child bring the little bugger with you for identification. There have been reports of wood/dog ticks creating a toxin that puts suseptable children into immediate jepoardy.
If you suspect a tick biteinsist the dr put the child or person on antibiotics imedately

As I mentioned it has been 10 weeks for me and according to the dr even though I was on antibiotics earlier than finding the tick the after effects will be with me for the rest of my life.

 

[2manyhats]

I was treated for Lyme's when I lived in NJ about 10 years ago. No rash, just fever and terrible aching. My doc jumped all over it because Lyme's is very prevalent in that area. Mine was caught very quickly and I don't think I have any "left overs" from it. But, as a Physical Therapist, I saw many people back about 15 years ago (when they discovered that Lyme's was a problem) who had severe and permanent damage from having Lyme's for months before diagnosis (some even years). When it comes to the medical community, be your own advocate. If you are not happy with a doc, find another who listens to you. You are not only a patient, but the customer. Insist on being heard. When a patient talks, I listen. I usually can tell what's wrong before I even look because they told me. I have found that with the more arrogant of the breed, a little flattery goes a long way. Here are some key phrases,

As you already now....
I'm sure you know much more than I do about this, but ....
Since you're the expert, could you explain .......

I'm not trying to be funny, but many people (including me at one time) are very intimidated by their doctors. That needs to be corrected if proper care is to be given. I'll get off my soap box now.

 

[mcsammie]

I know I'm the newbie here, but Lyme is something that totally freaks me out...

My dad pulled a tick off of him earlier this spring and his doctor put him on antibiotics just as a precaution. I have a friend who lives on Isle Au Haut (an island near Deer Isle up here in Maine) and Lyme is so prevalent there (the deer population is out of control- the deer swim out and there are no predators) that people just call up their mainland doctor and he sends the antibiotics out.

I hate ticks. We have 2 guinea fowl and they free range around our property- we've had hardly any ticks at our house this season (so far... knock wood!). Last year when the keets were too small to let out, I was frontline-ing the whole crew- 5 cats 2 dogs, and I had to pull 9 ticks off my fluffy orange cat in one sitting even with the frontline on him only 2 weeks prior!!

yeah- I might call up your doc and check see if they'll give you something as a precaution. I'm definitely not in favor of using antibiotics all the time, but with Lyme, getting it soon is so important!!

 

[CritterHill]

Quote:
I'm really sorry to hear about your situation. I hope they find a medication that works. Do you think there could be other tick borne diseases at work in addition to lyme? Lyme is supposed to be pretty susceptible to antibiotics if you catch it that early.

The problem with putting my kids on antibiotics every time they get a tick bite is that I pull ticks off of them every two or three days from spring though the end of the fall. In fact I pulled another one off my youngest yesterday.

We live in the woods. We will get tick bites. We just have to be vigilant about seeing the symptoms. if we treated the bites, our whole family would be on antibiotics 9 months out of every twelve and I'm not even exaggerating!

 

[dacjohns]

Quote:
I'm really sorry to hear about your situation. I hope they find a medication that works. Do you think there could be other tick borne diseases at work in addition to lyme? Lyme is supposed to be pretty susceptible to antibiotics if you catch it that early.

The problem with putting my kids on antibiotics every time they get a tick bite is that I pull ticks off of them every two or three days from spring though the end of the fall. In fact I pulled another one off my youngest yesterday.

We live in the woods. We will get tick bites. We just have to be vigilant about seeing the symptoms. if we treated the bites, our whole family would be on antibiotics 9 months out of every twelve and I'm not even exaggerating!

Trying to remember now.

If I recall correctly, a tick has to be embedded for over 12 hours before there is a danger of infection.

Not all ticks are carriers.

Not all ticks will infect you even if they are carriers.

Different ticks carry different diseases.

Different ticks live in different parts of the country.

A lot of diseases have similar intial symptoms. Headache, fever, weakness.

It's the little ones that are the worse. You can have a localized reaction, itching and swelling and not be infected with a disease.

Immediate treatment with antibiotics just because you have a tick isn't neccessary..

The Center for Disease Control site is a good place to start for information on tick borne illnesses.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/list_tickborne.htm

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

the place where i suspect it sucked from is scabbing over and slightly hilled up, like a skeeter bite. i got whacked on the head by a falling 2x4 and bled lots, so i had a really bad day yesterday.

 

[CritterHill]

Quote:
Oh no! That's sounds bad! Hope you are recovering quickly.

 

[MoonbeamQueen]

Sending on good healing thoughts to all of you affected by tick bites. I work in skilled nursing with geriatric patients. I don't have personal experience with lyme disease but my advice to my patients and their families who don't care for their doctors or their diagnoses: fire them and get a new health care provider who listens to your concerns! I had to do it myself once and it was a life-changing decision.

 

[DuckyBoys]

Quote:
I went through a somewhat similiar situation. When we first moved to Colorado from CA my daughter, who was like 8 at the time, got one of those bulls eye rashes.

So I took her to the pediatrician and said I think she might have lyme disease.

He actually laughed at me, wanted to know where I got a funny idea like that?

I was like - uh you know all those commericals they run on TV about the BULLS-EYE rash?

He said - we don't have lyme disease in Colorado, you must not be from here.

Now I don't know if that is true or not - but he irritated the hell out of me.

She never did get lyme disease....so apparently was was right about one thing.