What on earth is this on my knee!!!?

[Mumma2Ro]

I just noticed it when I was shaving my legs.
it’s not painful or anything

I'm glad you got good advice and finally the ABs, OP. Out of curiosity, what part of the country are you in? I'm wondering whether tick bites aren't common there, and whether that's why the idiots at the hospital weren't aware of the issue and didn't prescribe the ABs. Scary.

Lymes disease

Glad you are ok OP.. can I ask what county you are in? Or part of the country? It's scary that you were not given antibiotics for a clear bullseye rash.
I live in North Scotland so drs really good about Lyme, but funnily enough the only time my dd has had a tick this year was in the South East, where the people had no clue about Lyme or ticks. Just strange that they appear everywhere in the UK but it's hit and miss that you get treated.

Sorry just seen @SaltyCrisps asked the same....

Yes you do need to take the doxycycline. I had a month's course a few years ago after a similar bullseye rash, and have been very lucky to have no comeback from either the Lyme (because that's very very likely to be what this is) or the doxy. Lyme is very nasty indeed and if untreated the effects are really dire. A friend of mine with long-standing untreated Lyme ended up having to have antibiotics fed directly into his heart through a catheter over a period of weeks.

The main problem with doxy as a patient is that it does a number on your stomach and some of the advice is contradictory. The doctor told me I had to take it on an empty stomach, and the pharmacist told me that I might find it impossible to tolerate on an empty stomach. His reasoning was that while taking it with food might reduce its effectiveness at least it would make sure I continued to take it. I took it without food for the first week and by the end of that was getting awful stomach cramps after taking it, so after that I took it with food and had no further problems.

Given they think only 10% of ticks are infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, I can see the reluctance to prescribe AB’s in the absence of any other symptoms and especially as the OP didn’t even see a tick. But as she now has a prescription, I guess she should take them.

It's the Lyme that causes the bullseye rash, not just the tick bite. Dog ticks don't carry Lyme but deer ticks sometimes do.

The bullseye rash is a definitive symptom of early Lyme Disease. You don't wait for other symptoms before starting antibiotics. The earlier they are started the better.

It’s a symptom, but as I said earlier, I get a response to mosquito bites that looks the same.

I used to take doxycycline for acne, im also allergic to penicillin to have taken it for other things. Make sure you wear plenty of suncream in Croatia as it can increase your sensitivity to sun. Also take it on a full stomach to avoid feeling queasy. Other than than no issues with it!

I get this exact reaction from mosquito bites.

I had a 4 week course of doxycycline for Lyme disease OP and the only side effects I had was being more tired than usual and getting heartburn and acid reflux. But its wasn't awful at all and better than Lyme.

That’s what I was going to say . My son took doxycycline as an anti malarial and he stupidly went snorkelling in Tobago and got very badly sunburnt.So be careful in Croatia.
He definitely did drink alcohol though ! He was ok .

Hey I’m in Hertfordshire! South x

Hello! Ah that is interesting. We live in south England- Hertfordshire

It doesn’t look like a bullseye rash to me. Especially as no tick noticed in situ. More likely to be an insect bite maybe horsefly
MIU nurse in an area with high levels of Lyme and have seen multiple tick bulls eye rashes

Really? Doesn't look anything like a horsefly bite and I have a husband who gets bitten multiple times a year and ends up in urgent care as they get infected pretty much immediately.

How does it not look like a bullseye rash? It perfectly matches all the images online.

as an aside, the rash can appear anywhere and weeks after the tick bite. It doesn't have to have a tick bite in the centre. The tick could actually be long gone.

@Wishiwasatailor - when I was diagnosed with Lyme I had the bullseye rash two or three days after the tick bite, and the tick was long gone. I'd felt a bit fluey the day before too, and the rash appeared the next morning.

I live in New England and back then in the country, so plenty of deer around to harbour ticks.

Take the antibiotics
One of my medications comes with a literal book and the side effects include anaphylaxis at any point and a black box warning in America, cancer, parasitic infection...

Reality of the side effects? I get a mild headache

I took the same tablets for the anti malarial properties, we drank like fish that holiday 🙈
glad you eventually got taken seriously op, I had no idea what it was but it looked savage!

Take the antibiotics! All 3 weeks of them.

Nc in case anyone recognises my elbow BUT:

Thanks to this thread for making me get this hot and itchy bullseye rash on my elbow some medical attention.

Guess who’s now on doxycycline for Lyme Disease 🙈

@LividRash That's the result of a tick bite , yes?