Lyme's Disease

Hello! The experience I had was finding a tick in my ds's head when he was almost 2 years old. I knew if my husband or I tried to remove the tick it would not be pretty, so we took him to the local kids emergency room. They removed the tick and tested it. But in the mean time, he was put on antibiotics. The test for the tick came back positive for the bacterica that causes the Lyme disease. So I was happy to have had him on the antibiotics.

Good luck! The rash is usually an early symptom, so all should be fine!

Hello J.,

I was just recently treated for Lyme's disease. I am very familiar with it. I work in the field a lot (walking large parcels of land) and while I was being treated for Lymes three other people in my office were also being treated. Two didn't have the bulls eye rash and two did (I was one that did have the rash). I was tested and the tests came back negative but my doctor suggested I stay on the three week long dose of doxycyclene. My symtoms were headaches, extreme fatigue, and body aches. After 2 weeks on the medicine was was feeling 10x better and once finished I was back to my old self.

Because of my work I get tested yearly. However, you are right, the tests or not accurate. A lot of times they come back with a false negative.

I hope this helps. And I hope that your daughter starts to feel better!

Make sure she eats some yogurt daily to prevent yeast infections

Hi J.,

My son has had Lyme disease. I have done alot of research on Lyme and years ago prepared a paper on Lyme in college. The Bull's eye rash is a classic sign. There is no need for the blood test. The blood test will only cause further distress in your little one. Doctors are not usually quick to diagnose Lyme and your little girl was diagnosed by 2 separate physicians, I would trust the diagnosis. As far as the abx, A month long course is standard treatment.

I highly recommend that you give your daughter a daily serving of yogurt. Yogurt contains probiotics which will help prevent her from developing diarhea from the antibiotics.

Please google the CDC (center for disease control) website on Lyme disease for more reliable information. Be careful there is alot of false information regarding Lyme on the internet.

Sarah

I had the same experience with my daughter - fever and tired, we saw the bulls-eye, and she was never tested. Apparently, the only test that is really reliable requires you to freeze your urine and send it to a lab somewhere in the midwest - and is almost never done. The blood test is a constant source of false negatives.

My then 2 year old son also was diagnosed w/out the testing. I was told that there are false negatives and he did have all the other common symptoms. They put him on antibiotics for a few weeks and everything turned out well!
I know it is hard not to worry but do try. She will be fine!

Hi J.,

Unfortunately I have been through this twice already with my daughter. Once when she was 2.5, and just a few months ago at age 8.

Our doctor followed the exact same protocol and in the end our daughter was fine. No testing necessary b/c of the rash.

In fact, this last time I found the tick on her. We watched and waited. She developed a fever and a headache about a week later. That went away after 4 days, and he gave me the paperwork for the bloodwork, but told me I could wait another week to see if she developed a rash. Sure enough she ended up with the rash two weeks after I found the tick so we skipped the b/w and just medicated her.

I was treated for Lymes disease. We originally thought it was mono, but the blood test showed Lymes. I never had a bullseye. I was a fine after the month course of antibiotics. Probiotic supplements and yogurt are a good idea, since it's such a lengthy course.

My son had a tick in his neck. His doctor tested him and put him on the course of antobiotics.
The test was negative but the doctor told me I should have kept the tick and brought it in because they can test the tick for lyme disease and always know for sure if it's even carrying it.
Not all ticks do. The nymphs always have lyme but not every adult tick does. I'm not sure why, you would think it would be the other way around.
My understanding of the test is it's not reliable because they only test one vial of blood one time. The bacteria may not be in the sample of blood they tested. They have to take the blood multiple times throughout the course of many weeks. I just watched a show about this on Mysterious diagnosis.

The bull's eye rash only appears in about 50% of of the cases of Lyme's disease (making it fairly difficult to diagnose if you don't get the rash). However, when you get that rash, it is definitive. So you're right that the rash identification dosen't always work, but if you have the rash, Lyme's can be accurately diagnosed.

Also, 1 month of abx is standard (my father and brother both had Lyme this year and both were on abx for a month). Please do make sure she finishes the full course -- it's so important to completely wipe out the disease ... especially with Lyme, since it's not harmful long-term if identified and cured early!

I'm sorry your little one has to go through this! But I'm glad they found it early and I'm sure she'll be fine!

Hi J.,
Because she got the rash, she definitely has Lyme's, and it was far more important to get her on the antibiotics quickly than to do a Lymes test. It is very good that her Dr extended the dose for a full month, make sure she takes all her medication.

When this is complete, you may want to talk to her dr about having a lyme test to establish a baseline, then if she has the symptoms of head or body aches and fever in the future, without the bulls eye, they can give her another test to see if there is an increase indicating a new Lymes infection.

In my opinion the correct course of action was taken. The appearance of the rash coupled with the other symptoms are in fact quite reliable. If she had no rash it might make sense to test further, but the blood tests can actually be less reliable than the appearance of a rash. She was lucky to be spared the blood drawing process.

To counteract the possible side effects of the long term antibiotic use (stomach pain, diarrhea), make sure she eats extra yogurt with live cultures or takes acidophilus (it replaces the 'good' bacteria in the digestive tract that the antibiotics will attack along with the Lyme bacteria). Hopefully your ped suggested it already.

Best wishes as your daughter recovers.

Chris

Hi, Was wondering how your baby was. My 16 month old is being treated for lyme disease. He got multiple EM rashes and has been put on 3 weeks of amoxicillin. I am wondering if he should be put on longer treatment. Has your baby been fine since ? Thank you.

Hi J.,
I did not read the other responses so this may be redundant. My son had lyme disease when he was 2. He too had the bull eye rash. Thank God he did, and your daughter too, becauise some people infected with Lyme do not get the rash & the longer you wait to be treated the worse it is overall.

My son took amox. for 3 weeks and has been just fine sice. His dr. said that with this course of treatment he is 99.9% cured.

There really is no reason for any other type of test. The bull's eye is distinctive enough. The dr. was actually very excited when he saw it, actually happy, because he had an intern training with him that day and he was happy to be able to share my son's rash!

Do not let mommy-guilt get the best of you! You did the right thing!

Also, our pharmicist recommended chewable acidophilus daily while taking the amox to help keep the good bacteria there. Taking antibiotics for this long really can cause havoc on the digestive tract; diarhea, yeast infections. The chewable acidophilus tastes good. In fact, my kids are STILL taking it daily and it has been 4 years! It's good for immunity too!

My daughter had the rash and was put on four different rounds of antibiotics because she had swollen knees, muscle aches and fatigue. After her symptoms went away she still tested positive so we put her on one final round of antibiotics. The problem with the test is that it can produce false positives. There is a pediatric Lyme specialist in new haven, ct if your interested. Let me know if you want his info. There's a waiting list to see him.

Really no need to test because of the bulls eye rash.
If it came back negative, would it change your mind
about treating? She should be fine after a month long
course of antibiotics. Been there. Good luck.