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Now there are four deaths attributed to Lyme Carditis.Inflamation of the heart because of the bacteria. Maybe now my surgeon ,who put in my pacemaker, will believe me that my problem was due to the Lyme !!  Too close , like a buffalo charge ! It gets more complex like four bacteria not just one .Each person seems to have different symtoms.Doctors whom still don t 'get it'. These cases have been reported in many news sources.Take it seriously and search for a rare Doc who understands it. Mete | ||
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So are you saying that other Doctors have diagnosed you with Lyme disease or are you making a self diagnosis? It doesn't just come and go and once you get it I believe it takes a lengthy treatment regimen to take care of it. | |||
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A number of things were happening to me but I had no thought or knowledge about Lyme. Flat lined was a term I heard about later [cape buffalo] about my heart. But they did do tests for Lyme and both were positive perhaps standard because SE NY State is a high risk area for Lyme. My treatment was two weeks on drugs for the bacteria.Some say that's far too short .One friend had 6 months .In any case I know now to watch out for . | |||
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When I had lymes many years ago I had an irregular heart beat by doc said no way it could be caused by the lymes. Funny after treating the lymes it went a way. | |||
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LOL  My first hospital stay and operation [at 71] was not wasted. I learned big words like Lyme -carditis, flat lining and a few latin words for the bacteria . I guess for ticks you'd use #12 shot but I don't think I'd cheat and use the bullseye target you sometimes get ! | |||
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Only 2 weeks for treatment sure does sound awful short. Anyway, I'm glad you're still around to tell the story!  | |||
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Once you see a bull's eye the standard of care is a minimum 21 day course of antibiotics. If you miss the prodromal symptoms (fever, headache,joint pain, etc.) then the course is MUCH longer since the bacteria has found its way into nerves where it will remain latent until a flare up. Being a doc and a hunter in the northeast, I tell people that Lyme (or erlichiosis or babesiosis) should be diagnosis 1,2 and 3 until proven otherwise when you have strange symptoms. It's epidemic here and long past being worthy of deserving some funding for a vaccine. | |||
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The bulls eye s not a for sure sign of Lymes. I had a Bullseye on my arm last year from a common tick bite.I had it checked out and it was negative.Maybe 20 years ago I found a deer tick imbedded in my side.I figured he was in there 3 days because thats when I had skinned a deer out.The Dr.did a test and started me out on anti biotics for 2 weeks.The test was positive.I had no reaction to that bite and never felt ill.My advice is if you get a bite despite a reaction or not.Get the test done. | |||
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Not only should a course of antibiotics be much longer if there is any significant time lapse (A week may well be too long) between exposure and treatment, but at that point treatment with specific antibiotics becomes necessary. Just about any antibiotic that is effective against gram negative bacteria will be effective if begun within the first 48 hours after exposure. Waiting until you become symptomatic restricts the options of which antibiotics are effective across the blood-brain barrier. That is a VERY important consideration in today's world because of the amount of antibiotics in our food. Doxycycline is the antibiotic of choice for Lyme (Borrelia Burgdorferi) and is effective across the blood-brain barrier. Unfortunately many people have an allergic reaction to Doxycycline, and some reactions include anaphylaxis. If you are one of the people for whom this is true and you are a hunter, you should have a pre-exposure discussion with your physician and make sure you are both on the same page should you get bit by a deer tick. In my opinion if you can remove the tick and all it's mouth parts, the tick has not made it past the dead outer layer of skin and treatment probably is not necessary. If removal of the tick leaves mouth parts embedded a prophylactic course of an antibiotic is indicated, but if begun immediately, something like Cephalexin will work well should you have already shown an allergic reaction to Doxycycline. Do not wait to become symptomatic, not even to see if a bullseye rash shows up to begin treatment. The consequences of waiting can be severe, much more severe than the consequences of using the antibiotics. If you're a hunter who's allergic to Doxycycline and/or quinolones like Ciprofloxacin and live/hunt in deer tick territory would not wait to have the discussion with the physician, I would schedule the appointment for that purpose.
This! We all need to lobby for the development of a human vaccine at every opportunity. Every year we see more organisms resistant to more antibiotics. Every year we see more people allergic to more antibiotics. An immune system competent against an organism is far better than any treatment regimens we now have available. | |||
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Miles, do you know Rick Roberts in Brainerd? He's one of my former parishoners. Back in 2007 my son, who was 4 at the time, contracted Lymes...very scary! Diagnosis didn't take long, as we remembered a tick bite from a month earlier (he manifested none of the classic signs...first noticible problem was pain in his right knee). Once on the antibiotics, his symptoms quikly cleared. Thanks be to God we haven't had any problem since! Thanks for your good work in drawing attention to these tick-borne diseases. My grandfather was one of the earliest cases known in NW Wisconsin, and it was pretty difficult to treat for him. friar
Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain. | |||
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One thing I usually preach on and will take the time to do now is prevention. The best insecticide for ticks I know of is a straight pyrethrin spray. It has a very low toxicity to mammals but provides instant kill for ticks and most other insects. I spray me and the dogs before I go in the woods, and the dogs usually get a second dose before we load up for the trip home. I do not want any live ticks coming off the dogs and deciding I am fair game. Permethrin will work, but it is a lot more toxic to mammals, people included, but it is in my experience no more toxic to insects. I have seen it make dogs sick, something I have never seen with pyrethrin sprays. | |||
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This map is interesting, each dot representing a case of Lyme disease:  (source: http://www.aldf.com/usmap.shtml) The data is from 2008 but it's still relevant. I was in Kansas City earlier this year and picked up three deer ticks while I was there. I only spotted them after I was home and was surprised to see them, since I had only spent a bit of time outside in a mowed backyard. I called the doctor first thing the next day and they ended up not doing anything, just recommending I keep an eye on the bite areas in case the rash shows up. Apparently the risk of lyme infection outside of MN/WI and the Northeast is low enough not to warrant preventative action, combined with me removing them within 24 hours of the bite. I was surprised but trusted the doc and he was right, which the map also validates. A couple years ago I got a deer tick after camping here in Minnesota and they had me take one little pill, which worked fine. I haven't heard of pyrethrin but have used permethrin and of course DEET too, and vigilantly checking myself after being outdoors. I've heard infection cases are rising and I hate those little bastards. "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." | |||
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Permethrin is a synthetic pyrethrin. It is much more toxic to mammals and much more persistent. | |||
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I never had "typical " symptoms -NO bullseye, ,headache,fever etc ! May have had it ,looking back, for one year !  The next problem is to find a lyme doc ,a rare thing for sure. | |||
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You may well have had symptoms and just blew them off. The symptoms don''t need to be severe. The bacteria often enough do collect in fluid filled spaces in your body. In your case n the sack the contains your heart. The bacteria itself did not damage your heart. Your immune system did that attacking the bacteria. The pericarditis may well have been the cause for you to need a pacemaker. Your joints (knees) OK? How long you were infected is anyone's guess. If you live in NY and spend a significant amount of time outdoors it could well have been years or maybe even decades. Bacterial immunization is not so easy as Viral immunization. Nor is it as effective. Some viral immunity is life long either by vaccination, or by contracting the disease. Most immunity is temporary but may last more than one or two decades. Bacterial immunity tends to be much shorter and more often requires annual boosters. We have a good, well proven vaccine for Lyme disease for dogs. I would sure think it would be well worth the cost of the testing to get approval for human use. This is something that anyone living in close proximity to deer and mice would be very well advised to have and keep up to date. | |||
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From what I've heard the Lymerix vaccine ( no longer produced) was apparently effective but got kaboshed via some lawsuits that may or may not have had merit...One issue was the longevity ( effectiveness over time) of the vaccine. I got the lymerix vaccine in the 1990's ( inoculations given over several months span) but I did indeed contract Lyme a few years ago. Still dealing with it, right now with cognitive issues...Ugghhh. | |||
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