I was sure I had Lyme Disease.

[murielm99]

The other night, I went out to see the aurora borealis. They said it might be visible because of the solar flares. I didn't see anything, but the bugs were pretty bad.

I developed this huge, red circular patch on my thigh. It is very itchy, and almost four inches across. I googled it, and I was sure it was Lyme Disease. Anyway, I get every illness that comes along, due to my compromised immune system.

I went to the emergency room. It is not Lyme Disease. It is just a bad bug bite. Now I feel like a hypochondriac.

[Warpy]

1. The Lyme disease rash appears a couple of days after the bite

and looks like a bulls eye target, a red ring surrounded by a paler ring and the red bite mark in the center. It can be as much as 6 inches across and the edges can be irregular, not perfectly circular. It's really quite distinctive and it doesn't itch. You rarely see the tick, itself, since it's tiny and drops off long before the rash appears.

I was "lucky" when I got it because I got really sick, really quickly, temp over 103, so I got appropriate treatment: killer doses of antibiotics for a whole month.

The good news is that it's treatable if you catch it fast. It's better to be safe than sorry, since chronic Lyme can wreck your life pretty efficiently.

Don't feel stupid for checking something out, especially if you live in Lyme country.

Here's a good info page: http://www.morristown.com/LymesDiseaseNJ/SignsandSymptoms.html The gifs don't do it justice, although the second one is a little more typical of the rash.

[murielm99]

2. Thanks.

The nurse and the doctor both told me that it did not look like Lyme Disease. I had been sick on and off all day.

They told me to see my regular doctor during the week. I have to go in for a routine blood test on Tuesday for coumadin, so I will have someone look at it again at that time.

We do get plenty of Lyme here. Quite a few children in the community seem to get it every year. My dog had it last year. I jumped all over my husband for not putting Advantage on her often enough. I pulled a tick out of my scalp last year. We both go to the hiking trail quite a bit. Our property is wooded, too. Last August we had one West Nile death in town also. I guess it is best to play it safe.

I didn't think about putting on bug repellent before I went out to see the aurora borealis. I should have.

[hedgehog]

3. I took a kid in to the doc for what I thought was a bull's eye rash.

It turned out to be something that to a layman looks like a bull's eye, but not a doc. He showed me the difference between the two in a book he had. He was fine with checking her out. It's up to us to get to a doctor when something isn't right.

[murielm99]

4. I never used to go to the doctor. I would put it off until I was

very ill.

I found out, by living with an autoimmune disease, and surviving e. coli that that is not always wise.

I felt stupid at first, but now I am glad I went to the doctor.