Bitten in middle/early spring... how likely is it?

Yes. They are absolutely out in April. I am much farther north and I had an attached tick this year in February.

Definitely try to find a LLMD if you can. You can check the www.lymediseaseassociation.org for their physician referral service.

I let mine go too long. I knew I had it for years because of mild joint pain and fatigue after MANY tick bites, but I didn't think it was a big deal at the time. When I got reinfected it became very severe. The earlier you can get help the better. Even if it's already in a chronic stage.

Most likely a regular doctor will not give appropriate doses and combos of antibiotics without a positive test. Even with a positive test it is unlikely to get curative treatment (unless you have only had Lyme for a few days) if the doctor is following IDSA guidelines.

The problem is that regular doctors tend to only give doxy in a low dose. This dose can turn the lyme spirochetes into the cystic form at a rate of 200%. That will make you temporarily feel better, until you go off antibiotics and then the cysts will transform and you will most likely relapse. At that point, a regular doctor will be likely to tell you that you have post-lyme, a psychological illness, or start looking into MS, chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia.

Even though it's only been since April, that is still long enough for it to have fully developed in your body. There are 3 forms of Lyme: cystic, cell-wall deficient and spirochete. Doxy only goes after the spirochete and does virtually nothing in a low dose (like 200mg the standard dose). For pure Lyme, most people will have to take zithromax or biaxin, doxy, and flagyl or tindamax. If you have co-infections which are very common to contract with Lyme, different meds are needed.

Most regular doctors will not test for co-infections. They also generally do not use specialty labs like Igenex or use other tests like CD57's to diagnose. This makes it VERY difficult to get a positive test. Most will only do an ELISA. The ELISA test is VERY inaccurate and even the CDC admits that. The standard Lyme western blot is only done if the ELISA is positive. The western blot is generally done through a basic lab that doesn't take into account all of the Lyme-specific bands.

I think with a regular doctor you will be lucky to get a few weeks of low dose doxy. That is what I got initially from a regular MD. You may want to look into integrative MD's and naturopathic doctors. I find they are more open to diagnosing and treating Lyme or make an appointment with a LLMD just in case as most will have VERY long wait lists of many months.

Good luck with your treatment, I hope you start to feel better soon :)

Well done, Hoosierlyme!

Happy healing.