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Do we have any tick and Lyme disease experts on here?
I found a tick 10 days ago whilst camping, I've no idea how long it had been there. Typically I'd left my tick remover at home but managed to remove it with my fingernails. Applied some savlon and the bite mark faded nicely. Just looked like a midge bite really.
Then a week later it formed a little puss filled pustule. This has now gone and a round bruise has been growing. Coincidentally I've also now got a stiff neck and shoulders and the leg with the bite is aching especially my knee. I'm probably just being a hypochondriac but am aware of Lyme disease and understandably concerned.
I hate bothering the doc if I don't have to. Anyone with knowledge of tick bites here?
Go see the doc. A ring-shaped bruise/mark is a bad sign. I'd have thought it unlikely that the stiff joints are related as it's too soon?
Photograph it, and make a GP appointment
Worth going to the doc if you are showing symptoms, I had suspected lyme disease last summer after developing bullseye-ish rash around a bite, it wasn't the perfect circle you often see but a bit of a melted circle. Course of antibios and no problems since. If you've removed it with your fingers you've likely squeezed his stomach contents into yourself, which is a Bad Thing.
Had a few more ticks this summer but no problems with them, just whipped out with a remover. Makes me chuckle when people post on here having found a tick thinking straight away they are going to get lyme disease, I must have had dozens and dozens over the years, little blighters.
Definitely docs with what you describe.
and yeah good call on the photos, the rash spread quite rapidly for me, I took some photos over a few days. The doctor measured the size of my ring (!) on my first visit and checked it again a week later.
Thanks for the advice. I'll take a picture and see what it does over the weekend and get checked out on Monday if necessary.
I'd get it checked out but the doc in any case. Both my daughter and my mum in law have had limes and its an awful illness, although incredibly easily treated once diagnosed.
Defo docs and you want a 3 week+ course of antibiotics.
TBH, I'm not sure I'd wait until Monday, especially if its causing you pain. NHS24
TBH, I'm not sure I'd wait until Monday, especially if its causing you pain. NHS24
I second this strongly, especially if you have stiff joints.
Where's that user who got flamed earlier this week for endlessly posting tick related threads when you need him/her?
Docs and don't let them brush you off
I have had strange symptoms for almost 10 years
Last year had blood tests that showed lyme
Been on antibiotics for almost 6 months now with no improvement
Earlier treated the better
Interesting [url= http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=398 ]article[/url] about Lyme disease and treatment that a mate sent me earlier this week:
A bit dated now, but why you should take it seriously...
bigjim's obviously been a bit lucky, "dozens" of deer tick bites could easily lead to Lymes. I found a few in me that had been there for over 2 days recently, so took a course of antibiotics, just in case.
I now have a proper tick remover and check for them after rides where I know they are common.
As above go to doc don't wait till Monday. Photo or draw round circumference of the bruise
Limes? Now all you need is a bit of string.
Oops, wrong forum
If you've removed it with your fingers you've likely squeezed his stomach contents into yourself, which is a Bad Thing.
*puts down custard filled doughnut*
a 3 week+ course of antibiotics.
I was given a 1 week course, which I understood to be the regular treatment at first detection.
bigjim's obviously been a bit lucky,
I don't know really, I think a lot of people who spend a lot of time tramping around heather or live in rural deery places get a lot of ticks with no problems. I get the impression lyme is becoming more widespread, but I don't know if this is because it is better understood, or it might also be the disease is becoming more widespread and common. Growing up in the sticks I used to have ticks on a weekly basis and still get them frequently biking, walking and camping. Looking at the symptoms of the disease I can identify comparisons with several issues I've had in the past, but I was also living a very unhealthy lifestyle and the symptoms cover such an umbrella of symptoms I can't separate them from the effects of too much partying and so on that I was doing at the same time. I certainly dont recall any of the initial symptoms like the rash and so on at any point, so don't feel I should pursue it any further. I think the huge range of symptoms are part of the problem in getting it diagnosed.
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/lyme-disease-pro
Treat with an oral antibiotic for two weeks.
Perhaps I was a bit ambitious with 3 weeks
Or maybe not
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/lymedisease/research/pages/antibiotic.aspx
Go to GP asap. I had 2 week course of antibiotics for this in May, utterly floored me 🙁 My bite had got infected (deep under the skin) which didn't help matters and some part of the tick/insect/sting was in my legs for a good 3 months before it worked its way out 😥
A tick latched on to my left nipple on Islay so I got it off with a plumbers blowtorch.
Ha! that taught the little b/stard a lesson!
Just read the op to my wife who's a doctor.
Aparently therse are typical symptoms so should get checked out, antibiotics should sort it though.
A
You think thats bad...went to South Africa and found one attached to my nether regions while in the shower and near passed out on honeymoon...thought it was a bit of fluff and pulled it off...which then exploded with blood...much screaming!
The f***er also left its head in me too! Felt ill for days afterward until i got some strong antibiotics.
If that wasnt bad enough got tick bite fever from another type of tick the second time we went to stay with our friends.
Oops, wrong forum
😆
Not that many folk gonna get that!
OP - definitely get yourself to a doctor, nowt else to add really!
Thanks for all the advice everyone. Didn't manage to see the GP on Friday and was then away for a couple of nights.
Went to the out of hours clinic at the hospital today. The nurse practitioner and doctor there seemed to know almost nothing about Lyme disease - my reading the information I'd found and had been provided here meant that I was well prepared.
The nurse who I saw was convinced the symptoms were just due to a more generalised infection despite them matching Lyme disease - headache, sore muscles in the leg that was bitten, joint pain especially in that leg but also both hips, neck and shoulders, fatigue, trouble sleeping, night sweats etc.
Took bloods for testing and been prescribed 2 weeks worth of Doxycyline so hopefully if it is Lyme that will knock it on the head given it's still early. If I hadn't been so well read on it I suspect I'd have been sent home with a suggestion to see my GP if it didn't clear up.
So, we get to see the photo? 😀
Have to say I've been bitten by god knows what a fair bit over the last year, more so than usual, and have on occasion had a bit of a rash but no idea if a tick is involved. Do seem to recall wiping off a black spec once and just assumed it was mud and then got a rash but hadn't really related it. Just reading up on the symptoms and think I've got all of them now 😀 (seems to be you can just about have everything possible though).