anyone here have Lyme disease? I may

[NICKG]

well i found a tick bite on my leg yesterday, so i went to the ER. the doctor (who could barely speak freekin english! ) said that i have a better than 80% chance of contracting Lyme disease from it here locally in nj. needless to say, i am extremely depressed. they took blood to test and they say that even if it shows negative, i may develop it in the future(like hepititis). does anyone here have lyme disease? i guess i need a boost here to find out what it really does to you as opposed to reading about it from the internet. then to add insult to injury, my company bungled my insurace up. so i am not on file with the insurance company..........now i guess that i will be getting the big bill for all this

 

[striker_29]

First off, I would raise hell at the insurance co, and escalate it as far as I have to and make them take care of you. They have either been receiving premiums from you or they havent. Then get a second opnion, at least call another Dr and ask about that "80 %" claim. If that is really true, that sounds like an epidemic and there should be a bounty on ticks in your area. Er doctors are usually noobs or quacks, I'd go to the Mea first. Find out a little more before you get too worried, good luck.

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Had it. Not really a big deal, especially if you get diagnosed and treated immediately. Go to your primary care physician this week. Hopefully he speaks english, and is not a senile bufoon like mine was. Antibiotics can be a wonderful thing, kind of a shame they can't prescribe percocet with it though.

 

[NICKG]

thanks

i am gonna raise hell about the insurance, i don't have any regular dr. i always was skeptical about them because they just all seemed like a bunch of money hungry crooks that did not care about me, just my $. it actually is like an epidemic in nw nj! i lived here my whole life and in the last few months, 5 of my frends were diagnosed with it! Zero Tolerance, how did you find out you had it? did you have any symptoms? the mark(bite) i have is like a circular bruise more than anything, even feels like a bruise(save the bite in middle that itchs) and the marks they show on the internet are distinctly bright red and defined circles . is it possible it could be be a spider bite?

 

[Maltman]

I don't think it is as easy as just walking into the office and leaving with a diagnosis of lyme dz.

Unfortunately, the dz takes some time to develop and requires both clinical AND lab tests for diagnosis. Your primary care physician has likely seen enough cases that he/she will be able to distinguish between a true tick bite or some other irrelevant bite/lesion.

The CDC has some good information on lyme dz and it would be good for you to get familiar with symptoms just in case. If you don't get flu-like symptoms in the next couple weeks...I'd favor something else....but make sure your physician documents it in case you end up coming down with it....stinkin' insurance!

Mark

 

[DKREDT]

Nick:

How do you know it was a tick bite to start with? Every time I have been gotten a tick bite in my life the little terd stays on me until I burn him off. Usually you have to get a match on them etc before they pull out of your skin.

Are you sure it was a tick? I never had a bruise from one either.

Thinking out loud...


Joel

 

[1970gsx]

My son had it when he was 5. We did not see the tick bite until after the symptoms started to show. He developed Bells (sp?) palsey which started to paralyze one side of his face. He had to stay in the hospital for 4 days and be on interveinous antiboitics (through a pic line in his arm that ran up his vein into his chest) for 3 months. So yes, it can get nasty if you don't keep on top of it. He is fine now, but he will always test positive for Lyme from now on.

 

[StagedGN]

ok,heres what I know.It takes 12-24 hrs for a tick to transmit the lyme disease.so if you get them out of you before that ur ok.Then if a "bulls eye" develops at the site of the bite or you develop flu like symptoms then you might have it.

 

[UNGN]

I'm going to the doctor for any tick bite I get. Those are dirty little mofo's. I had one bite me a few years ago and got a spirokete (sp) that made me sick for two weeks.

I guess its better than your thumb falling off....