Gutted that I have to take an antibiotic due to tick bite

[HumphreyCobblers]

When I have been working so hard on my gut biome!

Woke up to a bullseye rash on the tick bite that I got a couple of weeks ago. Now facing a three week course of antibiotics , although of course I am grateful that I hopefully will not get Lyme disease.

But all that homemade sauerkraut, home made yoghurt, eating a MASSIVE variety of veg....all going to be wiped out

Anyone taken this course for Lyme? What was it like? Am picking them up in an hour.

[Shalligo]

Are you for real? This is Lyme Disease!!!

[MustardScreams]

Err do you know anything about Lyme disease? I’d be more worried about that than gut biome.

[HumphreyCobblers]

Did you not see that I am grateful not to be getting Lyme disease?

It is possible to have contradictory feelings over something.

[HumphreyCobblers]

I AM worried about lyme disease, hence the taking of the antibiotics.

But it will have side effects and I am sad about them. I really have changed my entire diet to help my overall health, with massive benefit and now I will have to start again.

[cathyj87]

I had a 2 week course following a tick bite last year. No bullseye but I live in deer land so made sure to get them just in case. The doc made them sound horrible, said they would give me horrendous stomach cramps etc but I was grand.
At least you know how to improve your gut biome once you're off them, much better than the possibility of Lyme's

[HumphreyCobblers]

Yes, I am well aware of all the dangers of Lyme disease, hence the immediate contacting of my doctor and getting of the relevant antibiotics.

[HumphreyCobblers]

thanks cathyj87, I hope that is my experience too.

[HumphreyCobblers]

am mostly annoyed also with the fact that I picked up a tick in the first place, I wasn't being careful enough given where I was.

[OtraCosaMariposa]

Antibiotics are a useful drug. Taking a course of them to treat a specific condition isn't going to ruin your health.

[ErrolTheDragon]

There's evidence that adults' gut biome generally recovers, and that changes in it aren't necessarily bad.

www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/well/live/does-the-gut-microbiome-ever-fully-recover-from-antibiotics.html

[HumphreyCobblers]

thanks ErrolTheDragon, that is extremely interesting and hopeful.

[BeckyWithTheSplitEnds]

Be thankful you knew what it was and your GP was happy to hand out Doxy - not all are.

I had Lyme earlier in the year - treated with Doxy - I took probiotics simultaneously.

All I can say is be prepared for a lot of pain and a loss of energy - I was very poorly for a couple of months and the pain from the "herxheimer" reaction was terrible. I suppose it must feel like arthritis - I don't know, I've never had it. But I had pains in my hands so severe I'd have amputated with a bread knife!

So yeh... less concerned about my gut biology.

[HumphreyCobblers]

gosh that sounds awful Becky. My GP said that she prescribes it for all tick bites, as better safe than sorry.

But I will be concerned about my gut biology as well as being glad that I have got an appropriate treatment for Lyme disease. Gut biome is very important and I have made extremely strenuous efforts to improve mine. Taking such a massive dose of antibiotic is inevitably going to impact it.

[NotWavingButMNing]

If it's doxycycline I'm taking it at the moment for pneumonia. I've had it before and didn't notice any lasting effects.
There is no point taking probiotics etc until you have finished the course of ABs as they will just be wiped out.
With Doxy you have to be careful of sunlight exposure, it may give you diarrhoea and you can't drink alcohol.

[HumphreyCobblers]

thanks, NotWaving. Hope you feel better soon.

[swingofthings]

You do have Lyme disease. Antibiotics is not to prevent it but to cure it. Thank God for antibiotics and thsthrybstill work on most people when a clear need is indicated.

[managedmis]

I though Lyme disease was a myth?

[LoafofSellotape]

Fwiw on the occasions I have taken antibiotics I have taken acidophilus alongside them. They definitely help as when I take them I don't get thrush.

[catsbeensickagain]

@managedmis - am I missing irony? Why would Lymes disease be a myth?

[catsbeensickagain]

@HumphreyCobblers Sorry you have to take them. I get it, my DH has terrible gastric problems and has done lots of work with probiotics, he too would be gutted by the need to wipe out all his "good" bacteria - while obviously being grateful for the medicine that can do so! Fingers crossed you will never notice any more Lyme's symptoms and your gut will recover quickly.

[MiggyInThePiddle]

“I though Lyme disease was a myth?”

What? It is a fast increasing serious neurological disease.

Have you got it mixed with something else?

[Lozz22]

Get some Acidophilus 14 days after you've finished the course of antibiotics. They replenish the good bacteria the antibiotics kill. Don't take them before the 2 weeks is up though and the antibiotics are out of your system otherwise you'll just erase the effects of it

[HumphreyCobblers]

Thanks everyone.

Lyme disease is not a myth! I am under no illusions how serious it is. I immediately sought appropriate medical treatment which I am grateful I can access (I put this in my op!), but I posted here about my gut biome - as catbeensickagain knows, it is hard work when you are seriously trying to improve it in order to help other health problems.

WIll definitely be taking probiotics and eating all the right food afterwards!

[HelloK]

I recently went to visit Latvia where ticks are quite prominent in summer and stayed with my partners family who own a farm over there (near a deer farm). I've been quite cautious of catching lyme disease over there and known about it for some time after being made aware of it from watching the real housewives of beverly hills. Yolanda Hadid has it and people were thinking she had a fake illness.

I found the bullseye ring on my ankle a few days after getting back to the UK, but never saw a tick on me (I was bitten by lot of different things out in Latvia). It didn't start off as a bullseye, it looked more like a bruise at first and slowly formed into the bullseye, luckily being clued up about lyme I suspected it was early lyme and went to the doctors, the day I went was the day that lyme was In the news, so they gave me antibiotics straight away but weren't sure it was lyme. I do believe the figure they're predicting now, could be higher as some people don't show any symptoms for ages after contracting it.

I'm still cautious that the antibiotics won't fix it because the blood tests,
I was told, aren't accurate on the NHS and can often come back as negative, even when you have lyme.

I've been on Doxy for just over a week and have another 2 weeks to go, so far the only other symptoms I've had have been my lack of energy, headaches a slight bad back, but that could be from laying down more.

I'm extremely grateful that there are antibiotics, I hate taking them, they make me feel sick, but if they get rid of the disease or help to keep it laying dormant in my body that's worth it. I had to educate most of my family and my partner about lyme as they are still in the mindset that it's a rare disease and that I don't have it.

You know you're own body most of the time and I think more education on this disease needs to be done in this country. I hope you're better soon and that the antibiotics aren't too taxing on your body.