Lyme Disease

[GrnBay007]

Anyone familiar with this or been treated for it?

[MJZiggy]

Yes.

[oregonpackfan]

Yes.

Well...give us some details, MJ! :)

[MJZiggy]

I might have had it so they treated me for it. What exactly do you want to know? Avoid tall grass on overnight campouts and check for ticks when you've been in the grass.

[retailguy]

Yes.

I think she was probably hoping for a bit more info, but that's just me.... :wink:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease


Best I can do for you, other than to say, that I know it's way better for the patient if it is diagnosed early. The longer it goes on, the worse the nerve damage.

[GrnBay007]

So from what I read ...There is no test that can determine if a patient is infected with the LD bacterium and then demonstrate that the patient has become bacterium-free. AND..no test can "rule-out" Lyme disease. How crazy is this???

[Deputy Nutz]

If your dog gets it, it will most likely die a pretty terrible death. It will take a while. It will have good days, and horrible days.

[GBRulz]

My sisters dog had Lyme's Disease. It was treated with antibotics and was fine. I guess the key is catching it in time, but it is so hard to detect and plus the tests often don't come up positive until months later.

[MJZiggy]

So from what I read ...There is no test that can determine if a patient is infected with the LD bacterium and then demonstrate that the patient has become bacterium-free. AND..no test can "rule-out" Lyme disease. How crazy is this???

I don't know about the dogs (though there is a vaccine for them) but for the people, there is a test to see if you've had it, but it won't show if you're "cured." (They wanted me to take the test, but I never bothered). If they think you might have it, they just treat you for it.

[GrnBay007]

Well, I'll keep all that in mind but it's NOT my dog. The doc wants to treat my son for it. :x He came home from camping with his dad and showed me this red mark....said it just appeared on Sat. Looks like a bite with a red circle around it. Doesn't hurt or itch. Lymes never even crossed my mind, I was just more concerned it looked infected. So I call the doctor this a.m. and could get him right in. Dad doesn't call me at work till about 3 today :x to tell me they are treating him for Lymes......but NOT taking blood tests or anything. That just seems so crazy to me. Of course I called the doc's office right away but could only talk to a nurse at that time. The Doc is supposed to be calling first thing in the morning. The nurse told me it looks like Lymes......but could be a spider bite......but they are treating it as Lymes. Is that F'd up? Shouldn't there be some kind of conclusive test they can run????

[MJZiggy]

I think the test that they offered me was one they offered concurrent with the treatment because it takes awhile to come back and as others have said, with Lyme you want to start treatment immediately. My neighbor had it too and didn't realize until she was completely miserable. So if he has symptoms, like a bullseye mark, they will want to treat first and ask questions later.

[GrnBay007]

So if he has symptoms, like a bullseye mark, they will want to treat first and ask questions later.

Yes, and I appreciate that and am all for it. BUT damn, they can put a frickin pigs heart in a human but they can't come up with some test to give a yes or no for this disease?? I'm just really upset right now. Maybe talking to the doctor will help. But to hear a nurse say it's either a spider bite OR Lymes is very discouraging.

[Deputy Nutz]

Well, I'll keep all that in mind but it's NOT my dog. The doc wants to treat my son for it. :x He came home from camping with his dad and showed me this red mark....said it just appeared on Sat. Looks like a bite with a red circle around it. Doesn't hurt or itch. Lymes never even crossed my mind, I was just more concerned it looked infected. So I call the doctor this a.m. and could get him right in. Dad doesn't call me at work till about 3 today :x to tell me they are treating him for Lymes......but NOT taking blood tests or anything. That just seems so crazy to me. Of course I called the doc's office right away but could only talk to a nurse at that time. The Doc is supposed to be calling first thing in the morning. The nurse told me it looks like Lymes......but could be a spider bite......but they are treating it as Lymes. Is that F'd up? Shouldn't there be some kind of conclusive test they can run????

Shit, I think they want to start treatment as soon as possible while they wait for the test results. That is my best guess.

Did they find a tick? usually there is a culprit with his head buried in your arm.

A lot of outdoors men and hunters get lyme, and as long as they catch and treat it right away then your all good.

The thing is, I didn't know lyme showed up that quick.

[GrnBay007]

Shit, I think they want to start treatment as soon as possible while they wait for the test results. That is my best guess.

Did they find a tick? usually there is a culprit with his head buried in your arm.

A lot of outdoors men and hunters get lyme, and as long as they catch and treat it right away then your all good.

The thing is, I didn't know lyme showed up that quick.

No tick was found. He's outside ALL the time....sports, camping, farm....all perfect places for those frickin nasty disease infected ticks. I was told it looks like stage I...which is good and that this can show up anywhere from 2 days to 3 weeks after the tick did their thing.

[Iron Mike]

Shouldn't there be some kind of conclusive test they can run????

Apparently so:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/ld_humandisease_diagnosis.htm

[GrnBay007]

Thank you Mike. That will be helpful when I talk to the doctor tomorrow. He doesn't seem to have any other symptom other then the bullseye rash. We started the treatment tonight.

[Partial]

Does Iowa have any poisonous spiders? In Wisconsin they are very, very rare. I would not rule that out yet either. You can get some nasty looking bites that start out looking like a small infection.

[packinpatland]

Lyme disease is nothing to be taken lightly. Here in CT (started in Lyme, CT) we do taking it VERY seriously. A very close friend went into cardiac arrest due to undiagnosed LD.
The problem right now, is you can test neg and still have it. There are few cases that are identical, the bullseye rash doesn't appear in every case. And those that have had severe cases, have had it come back years later.
It manifests in the form of joint pain, breathing difficulties, heart problems, even depression.
For the longest time doctors were not taking patients seriously if they didn't show the 'classic' symptoms......now they find there is nothing classic about the discease.
Read this article it's very interesting.
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/issues/2007-07/features/lymecountry

[GrnBay007]

They are doing a two-part blood test. Took the first sample today. The doc didn't want to wait to start treatment though so he's on an antibiotic ....which is good. He says IF it is Lyme it is the first stage...as the bullseye rash was in a noticable area....thank goodness, and we found it and had him seen in two days.

BTW, while at the Lab today I was told they have tested A LOT for Lyme this year....more than this guy had ever seen. Wonder what the heck is going on.

I just learned a guy I work with was diagnosed with Lyme Disease a few years ago. He had no clue and it settled in his joints. He hurt his knee, at the time seemed to be a minor injury but within 3 days his knee was swollen the size of a football. Went to the doctor and they drained a bunch of fluid from it....he said was a strange color....did that three times plus an exploratory surgery before a consult mentioned testing him for Lyme Disease. He came back positive, they treated him and he never had problems with his knee again. Weird! And he's not a guy that spends a lot of time outdoors.

[packinpatland]

Even if you don't spend time outdoors, if you have pets.............

[Deputy Nutz]

Pets that fuck deer, thats how lyme started in the late seventies.

[packinpatland]

Yea, I think I read that in the NEJM. :roll:

[Patler]

From my experiences with Lyme disease (others I know, not me personally), it is not to be taken lightly, but also is not something to panic over. In early stages it is very effectively treatable with antibiotics. For most people, even more advanced stages can be treated effectively. However, for a not insignificant number of individuals who are not treated in early stages the effects can be long-term and quite debilitating.

Unfortunately, the available tests are not as reliable as tests for many other things. The deer tick that transmits the disease can be quite small and unnoticeable or mistaken for another small insect.

The best recommendation that I have seen is to always have the possibility of Lyme disease in the back of your mind if you have any flu-like symptoms that linger, prolonged lethargy, a bull's-eye rash, etc. and suggest it to your doctor if these symptoms persist. Since the treatment is relatively routine in early stages, if in doubt be treated. The treatment also can be effective for other conditions exhibiting the same symptoms, the only difference being that the other conditions may have been effectively treated with less aggressive medication. However, if started less aggressively the treatment may not effectively slow the progression of Lyme disease, so treating for Lyme is the safer approach. To me, that makes sense.

[GrnBay007]

Got the results back today from the 1st blood tests...negative! :D Now he has to be tested again the week of 9/11. If that test is also negative then they are pretty sure it was not lyme disease.