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Where do you "think" you got Lyme?

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Lyme Disease
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Posted 9/3/2013 5:03 PM (GMT -5)
I sit here almost every single day since Aug 6th this past month wondering how the heck, I didn't notice a tick feeding on my body for a day or so (that is how long they say it had to been). I recently bought a home and it is a total fixer upper if you know what I am saying. The lady I got the place from was unable to keep up. So, the majority of the spring and summer I was outside mulching leaves or clearing the stone wall.
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Then my thoughts turn to WHERE WAS IT ON MY BODY? I know we have "spots" that things can hide (wink). But, I was quite certain I took showers and was cautious. Then I think about my hair on my head. I never checked my own scalp, not even once. I have long hair and think. Maybe that was it. I know its after the fact. But, curiosity on it haunts me, not to mention grosses me out too. skull

Get well
Kathy :)
Posted 9/3/2013 5:38 PM (GMT -5)
They can be pretty tiny at some stage of their life, about the size of a pencil tip.

I have no idea when or where I got infected or how long it has been. My symptoms haven't been too bad until the stress of the last few years.
Posted 9/3/2013 6:16 PM (GMT -5)
In agreement with several LLMD's & LLND's, it is thought that I got Lyme when I was 4 yrs. old, from the bite of a red fire ant in the desert in California. Apparently, red fire ants eat ticks...
Posted 9/3/2013 8:09 PM (GMT -5)
My husband, Toby, may have gotten bitten when he was in the navy in New London, Connecticut, not too far from Lyme, Connecticut and Plum Island. He doesn't remember ever seeing a tick and never got a rash. Another possibility is Yosemite National Park. He spent a couple of years there as a child. I think there is always a chance it could have happened when were camping or when he worked out on our property though. The general public doesn't realize that this critter is so prolific!
Posted 9/3/2013 8:42 PM (GMT -5)
I got a tick bite from lying down on a tennis court outside. I was just tired and lying down while waiting for the opponent to show up. I didn't notice the tick until another day or two -- it was on my stomach right below the wasteline. I remember feeling like crap and then finally seeing a huge black thing on my stomach. I was like, what the HECK??? Do I have cancer???


Of course, when I realized what it was, I tried to burn it off... because that's what I was told to do by completely uninformed people. As you all know (or should know), that is NOT what you are supposed to do. You need to take it off carefully, pulling straight up with tweezers... anything else and there is a much higher risk of getting infected.
I killed the tick while it was still attached and it dumped all its nasty diseases into my bloodstream.
Posted 9/4/2013 1:50 AM (GMT -5)

I think I must have been bitten between the age of 11 and 15 - we lived in the country, had some sheep that had ticks on them in spring. They were always treated for the ticks, but there was always that time when there were living ticks on their fleece just before treatment after winter. It came to my mind just a few weeks ago that at a certain time I had some kind of rash that I thougt to be a ringworm rash (never showed my parents, I was a very independant child rolleyes ), but it was not quite the same,it was smoother... might have been a bull's eye... I was very close with the sheep, they knew me very well, so I was close with the ticks too...

Also: always have been a mosquito and flea magnet, all my life... 15 mosquito bites on 1 legg was not exceptional during summer.

Oh, I forgot the 'where' - lol: I'm in Belgium...

Posted 9/4/2013 8:23 AM (GMT -5)
I actually found the tick in my head. I don't know how long it had been there, with daily shampooing, etc, I am amazed it could have gotten by me. We used to let our dog sleep in our bed... my best guess is that it was "on" him and did not burrow due to his tick treatment... and went off in search of a better place to feed.

We lived in a very woodsy, tick-infested area at the time. I'd often find ticks crawling on the floor of our home, probably brought in on our shoes, clothes, or the dog.

If only I had known what I know now... that I could have had the tick tested, and that the "preventative" one-dose of doxy doesn't work!
Posted 9/4/2013 8:27 AM (GMT -5)
P.S. Kathy: about finding the tick in my head. It was simply a chance thing... having a frustrating moment at work, I plunked my head into my hands, elbows on desk, and "massaged" my scalp. I had washed my hair that morning, and brushed and dried it, as I do every morning. They're elusive things.
Posted 9/4/2013 3:59 PM (GMT -5)
I suspect it was more than 3.5 years ago.

No memory of a tick attaching, bite or bullseye rash.

But we lived for 7 years on the edge of a canyon next to the wilderness. The dogs would run the area, through the grasses and bushes then come into the house and lie on our bed. I suspect I must have gotten bitten and some time when we lived in that house.
Posted 9/4/2013 6:32 PM (GMT -5)
deer tick bite with EM rash, one of the 'lucky' ones on that I suppose.
Posted 9/5/2013 6:10 AM (GMT -5)
I found the deer tic on the back of my knee with the EM

It was July 19, 2007 didn't have insurance went to urgent care got my 10 days of doxy at 200 mg a day  and as they say the rest is history..

It was in Norwalk, Ct. in the backyard of a small house - everyone was having tics removed. I don't know how the others are doing?

Anna

Posted 9/5/2013 9:06 AM (GMT -5)
My husband and I both broke out in a "poison Ivy" like bubbly rash in May 2001. Mine was on my lower calf and had little black tips to it and I remember asking my brother-in-law (who is a landscaper) what plant's rash presents with black tips. Apparently it was probably tick larvae. We always garden together in the spring so I know we got it in my garden in central coastal NJ. Ten years later my son presented with a bullseye rash in early June 2011.
Posted 9/5/2013 9:09 AM (GMT -5)
Hi Kathy and everyone--

I became very very ill (as Opugirl said, rocked my world) October of last year. I live in a beach town in Southern California and really don't go into high grass or brushy areas. 2 possibilities-- one there was a dead mouse in my yoga studio (which since has closed because I was too sick to keep it open). I took the mouse home (in my car rapped in tissue) to bury it... Nice right?! Not so much. Other than that possibility my cat was bitten by something that died in our back yard. I don't remember what it was and asked my boyfriend to get rid of it. The vet wasn't able to pop the absess on my Cats chin. I tried at home-- who knows if somehow I was infected.

The good news is the anxiety from the Bart is dissipating after 5 months of antibiotic and herbal treatment...

Im still emotionally traumatized and my life has been turned upside down for almost a year. But things are improving slowly...

Sending you all healing energy and positive vibes today and always--
Sarah
Posted 9/5/2013 10:46 AM (GMT -5)
I'm not sure when the first bite happened but it was years ago while training for a marathon and I had a weird bite on my ankle (the right one to be exact). I should have listened to my mother...she said go to the doctor and I told her I was fine.

Last bite was on Sept 20th, 2012 with coworkers! We were on the Theodore Roosevelt Island in DC and instead of the nice paved trail they wanted to do the nature walk. Something bit on the right arm and it was hard to take off. 2 weeks later I started to crash and burn and haven't been the same since :-(

But if I never took that walk and never got bitten the second time I would not have known all that was happening with my brain which was probably over the course of years from the first bite.

Here's to healing and soon for all of us!
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