bad advice
A note of serious warning: it is VERY easy to have Lyme disease for a long time (years) and not know it, and furthermore, it can be VERY difficult to get your doctor to acknowledge that you may have it, to test you for it, and to treat you if the test comes up negative. My sister had the disease for 7 years before she was diagnosed, and her diagnosis was not on the basis of a test (both tests came up negative) but rather on the basis of symptoms. Her sister-in-law had it for 9 years before being diagnosed. At that point, for both of them, there were serious consequences - the sister-in-law had to quit work and has been struggling with neurological problems ever since, and my sister had serious back and joint problems, was frequently sick, and literally couldn't think clearly (she walked into a closed door, unplugged the telephone while she was talking on it, and that sort of thing).
If you think you have potentially contracted Lyme disease, with or without a rash, fever, or other symptoms, PUSH for your doctor to test and treat you. Ask for the Western Blot test, not the ELISA, because the Western Blot is more accurate (although can still have a failure rate of 20%). If your doctor will treat you, be sure to get 6 weeks of antibiotics, not the standard 3 - 3 weeks is not long enough to cover the complete life cycle of the bacterium.
Again, very few doctors will treat Lyme disease without a positive test, and they can be reluctant to test you without symptoms, so you have to be your own advocate. This may mean getting second or third opinions. It's a pain but it beats having all the problems that can result from not getting treated.
i am hearing a suprising large amount of fear and distrust towards the medical profession and misinformation about lyme. the bottom line is the western blot is standard procedure these days and it is not necessary to PUSH for it. and 6 weeks is NOT the recommended treatment based on ANY medical literature out there. the current recommendation for acute lyme disease is 21-28 days, and tertiary lyme, which the author is referring to is treated entirely differently (usually requires iv antibiotics) dependent upon the specific symptoms present. the incidence of lyme is so high it is routinely tested at the drop of a hat and often at the request of an asymptomatic and anxious patient merely for reassurance purposes. if your level of mistrust of your primary care practitioner is that high there are ample infectious disease specialists available and i personally would not undergo long term treatment for "lyme disease" without consulting with one given the complexity of tertiary lyme. there are good medical people out there. i seem to be hearing so much mistrust and hostility toward the medical profession on this and the other lyme post. lyme is still a fairly "new" disease and there are cases that were misdiagnosed at a time when it was less prevalent; however, given the sheer quantity of ticks and the numbers of cases of lyme, it is now considered a pretty straightforward diagnosis. if you dont believe me, a random poster, please ask your doctor. help quiet the fear and misinformation!!
