In a blind panic about toddler Lyme's disease

[Magaloofah]

DS (2.5) developed bullseye rash just over a week ago (I think). I didn't think anything of it and then something switched on in my brain and I took him to dr on Monday.

Dr didn't seem too sure about it...TBH she didn't seem to know very much about Lymes. Said it might be ringworm. To keep an eye on it and come back if it didn't go down.

As I didn't know this dr. at all, I took DS back to see my normal dr. who I've known for years. This was yesterday. I showed him photos of the rash (since by this time it had faded quite a bit), and he examined what was left of the rash. He said it did look like a Lymes rash, that it definitely wasn't ringworm. And he prescribed 2 weeks of Zinnat (Cefuroxim).

I am trying to think of when DS might have been bitten. He was taken to Whipsnade zoo in early June this year and I know they have deer there. So it could well have been there. He rolled around in the grass.

I am now in total panic that I haven't caught this early enough. That maybe the rash didn't appear in the first stage of the illness and it's just now reappearing (Googling tells me rash can come and go).

I am beside myself with worry.

Are there instances of people who don't treat Lyme early and who don't go on to develop life-long debilitating symptoms?

Any recommendations on what steps I can or ought to take next? Thank you.

Yea defo get a test i reckon. Don't always get a rash...sometimes get one later.

Hetero I think the deer in Whipsnade are just allowed to ramble in the areas that you can drive through...and my friend who took him showed me videos of the kids frolicking about near the car

In my experience Penicillin V is the first treatment (for 10 days) and only if that does not work you get Doxycycline. I've had Lyme's several times at least three times (due to living in Scandinavia where tick bites are common) and in my experience you get penicillin for 10 days and that usually does the trick. One exception for me was a surprising tick bite in northern Spain, where I got treated twice first with the usual and then with Doxycyline.
For children the standard treatment is Cefuroxim or Amoxicillin. This information is on a web page written by a professor of infectious disease and I'm risking posting a link as reference to the sourcethough it's in my language and not English (but anyone can read through Google translate): www.internetmedicin.se/page.aspx?id=107 The article has some pictures in it showing big late-stage "bulls-eye" rash, but usually one does rush off to the doctor already when you spot an inkling of a rash no bigger than the size of a big coin.
As for blood tests I don't think it's possible to take them soon after the onset as antibodies do not form at once I believe.
There are maps where you can see where Lyme is common, like the coast of Scandinavia, actually the entire south now, and the entire Eastern Europe. I also checked a map over the UK, at www.bigtickproject.co.uk/, and obviously the high risk areas are the west country, Scotland and East Anglia. You shouldn't Google too much as it will only throw up the most unlikely (but scary) articles or stories of odd cases of Lyme, especially from the US, scary cases that are not so likely to happen in your case as you were pretty quick about seeing the doctors. I have my laptop filled with scary articles about Lyme from back when I Googled when I had gotten that Spanish tick bite some years ago, when I also made a pile of notes (on the laptop) with stuff like "Interleukin-1 IL-1 receptor blockade reduces endotoxin and Borrelia burgdorferi-stimulated IL-8 synthesis in human mononuclear cells. ... etc. etc. ". My advice: Don't Google, don't go that route... What you can do, however, is to buy a tweezer (a normal one) and keep it ready for when you spot a tick in the future; the disease doesn't transfer instantly when the tick bites, it takes some hours to transfer usually.

Living here in North New Jersey Lyme disease is a problem, so much so that they have had a few public awareness campaigns to educate everyone.

I'm friends with someone who has been signed off sick with Lyme disease for the past 9 months. She is really sick with it.

The length of dose sounds short. I too would call the Lyme disease people on Monday and ask them about treatment options and your specific treatment plan.

Bluebanana you're getting Weill's Disease and Lyme's mixed up. I know that card your DH has though - I have one too, with symptoms and treatment of each disease on each side. We must work for the same organisation!

The only safe way to remove a tick is with a tick remover. Other methods will stress the tick and make it regurgitate its stomach contents which increases the risk of infection.
This one is sold by vets but is also recommended by Lyme Disease organisations for use on humans.
Vets are much more clued up on diagnosing and treating LD in animals than 'human' doctors generally are.
www.viovet.co.uk/OTom_Tick_Remover/c419/