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....

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. 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 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. 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 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