Lyme disease, anyone have any experience?

[Thechateau]

Can anyone reassure me or share their experience re Lyme disease?

I realised that a bite that I had had for a while had become a bulls eye shape on Friday evening, ie two days ago. Went to an urgent care centre very first thing on Saturday, and was given 21 days of 200mg of doxycycline. Later that day I developed lower back pain and I'm really fatigued. I think I got the bite about a month ago

I'm really anxious about this, life is quite stressful at the moment and I am worried that I have caught this too late if it is already affecting my back and that I won't get better.

Would love to hear any experience from others

You will get better. I also got first signs of Lymes last summer, about 3 weeks after the bite and then felt really exhausted and achey. I won’t lie - I felt awful for about 6 weeks. Slept so much. But I was able to carry on working apart from the first couple of days after starting antibiotics and I’m completely well now, a year on, in fact feeling better than I have in years thanks to a change of diet. Most people get better. You will be ok.

Thank you. I made the mistake of looking at reddit and have been freaking out, so I'm really grateful to you for replying. I do need to keep working as I had a long time off a couple of years ago. Luckily I work from home.

People who feel rubbish for a week and continue taking the antibiotics for another two weeks after that don’t spend time on bits of Reddit about Lymes disease. It’s mainly people who’ve had long term issues.

Rest up, take the tablets, be very, very mindful of the sun as they can make you hyper sensitive.

In a years time you’ll be in a position where you remember the sunburn more than being ill.

The biggest issue with Lymes is not getting a diagnosis. So the fact you have a diagnosis and getting the treatment is great. My brother had it and was picked up on pretty quickly and has made a complete recovery. The one thing he noticed was he had a bad knee prior to that and it really went for that area so seems to attack your weakest point. Take plenty of rest to help your body recover.

I think the doxy can make you dehydrate, so could that be related to the back pain? Make sure you're drinking enough and resting.

My daughter got it a few years ago, a bulls eye rash developed the same day she got the bite and she was treated at A&E immediately, so a very speedy reaction. She was still ill for the entire summer. It's a horrible illness that really lingers, but as @junebirthdaygirl says, it is not getting a diagnosis that leads to serious problems. Rest, finish the course of medication, take good care of yourself and give it time. And stay off Reddit!!

My boss was one of those who bragged he’d never had a day off sick in 20 years

he got Lyme disease and came back to work after a week. He got really ill and was off for months and months rather than a few weeks. Even he admits he shouldn’t have come back to work so quickly

please don’t rush back to work too soon

You should be fine, as it sounds as if it was caught well in time. It's people who don't take the antibiotics for whatever reason who are at risk. Make sure to finish the course!

Oh, and they're not joking about staying out of the sun. I'm very gung ho about potential side effects of medication ("it's so rare...I'm sure it won't happen to me!") but I recently had to take a course of doxy following a tick bite, and my hands got badly burnt from being on the beach (UK) at six pm.

Thanks for the sun warnings, I don't usually react to any medications so wouldnt have thought I'd need to be that careful. Tricky time of year to adhere to and I did have a couple more camping trips planned

I got a tick bite in May. I felt dreadful about a week later. I went to my GP and got three weeks of amoxicillin (double dose - I can’t take Doxycycline). I felt crap until I’d finished the antibiotics but I’m back to normal now. As long as you’re treated within three weeks of the bite you’ll be grand.

That's the thing I'm worried about. I don't actually know when I was bitten. I have a feeling it was when I was in Devon a month or so ago.

I noticed that I had a flat red bite on my stomach but I didn't see a tick there so didn't think anything of it. I'm not actually sure when it became a bullseye as I didn't really check. I noticed on Friday in a friend's bathroom where the light was different. Its now 10 cms wide, I think it grew even after I spotted it.

Handily sun avoidance and tick avoidance have a lot of overlap. Sun doesn’t care whether youre trousers are tucked into your socks, ticks do.

Long sleeve lightweight tops. Long trousers (decathlon summer walking ones you can go paddling in Theyre so light and quick dry). Then add a big floppy hat. Job done.

I felt awful for a few months. Every so often I feel so exhausted now and general aches and pains