61–70 of 146 posts
Just go to your PCP and get your one time course of 2 doxycycline pills as soon as you get bitten. I also spray my hiking/yardwork pants and boots with permethrin. DEET is pretty useless, I’ve seen them walk right over DEET sprayed boots onto my pants. They make it about 5 steps through permethrin. I’m surprised advise from Harvard is getting this wrong. If you want even more protection, you can buy stocking like sla…
I got Lyme when I was 26 (in an area with it, after handling an animal famous for ticks). GP refused to believe Lyme could be a possibility. Eventually got a test (probably an inferior one, knowing our health service), which came back negative. But I had a bullseye rash, flu-like symptoms etc. I'm convinced I had it. I wasn't prescribed antibiotics because the test was negative The 2 years following I had bad muscles…
I live in Texas and I was lucky/smart enough to tell my PCP to piss off and walk into an urgent care where a nurse who was born in Maryland immediately diagnosed me and gave me antibiotics. If you get a tick bite do not ignore this. It will fuck up your life if you do. It’s insane your doctor didn’t just proactively prescribe antibiotics. The long term effects of Lyme disease are bad enough that it is absolutely something that is worth giving antibiotics for even if you aren’t 100% sure.
The incident has made me have a pretty strong skepticism of whatever doctors say. I now know that you, and only you, are responsible for your own medical care unfortunately. It is insufficient to trust someone simply because they have the letters MD after their name
I got Lyme when I was 26 (in an area with it, after handling an animal famous for ticks). GP refused to believe Lyme could be a possibility. Eventually got a test (probably an inferior one, knowing our health service), which came back negative. But I had a bullseye rash, flu-like symptoms etc. I'm convinced I had it. I wasn't prescribed antibiotics because the test was negative The 2 years following I had bad muscles…
This is fairly common, even with provider ordered tests.
I know a few doctors that will actually send samples to two different facilities, or perfer one facility or test type over another due to fairly common false negatives.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conversely, a doctor told my dad he couldn't have Lyme because he didn't have a bullseye rash. That resulted in a significant delay in treatment, and probably in permanent damage. I'm still mad about that.
That's a typical experience of the US medical system, where you're lucky if you get ten minutes before they start looking around for a broom stick to shoo you out the door. One should have some idea of what levers one expects a doctor to pull. If a doctor isn't really engaging with your problem, then push towards those. Obviously you can't directly ask for them but rather focus on the right symptoms to nudge them the…
Only if you have a shit doctor. I've had to be an advocate for medical care of family members, and I've had a few doctors actually compliment me on being an engaged advocate for their treatment. You still want to be respectful and open minded, but some basic study of the condition/treatment/lingo can go a long way to them seeing you as an informed patient they are willing to work with.
It says to use DEET? No. Use permethrin (on clothes) and picaridin (on self).
A Lyme disease vaccine from Pfizer and Valneva is in a Phase 3 trial right now. We’re hopeful that the vaccine will be ready in 2025. The UMass Chan Medical School is also studying another potential therapy to prevent Lyme disease that is in clinical trials. This prevention is not a vaccine but a monoclonal antibody that kills the Lyme bacteria in the tick’s gut. This is good news. I like the idea of the monoclonal a…
Side effects? What are you a conspiracy theorist? /s
I'm incredibly fortunate to have never had a tick bite, but my wife has and got Lyme. Don't fuck around, go get the antibiotics immediately. If your doctor doesn't believe you, write a formal complaint to their board after finding another doctor.
I did get a tick bite that I only noticed after three days. I didn't screw around and immediately went to the urgent care to get that thing removed by a professional. They also didn't wait for any kind of rash before giving me antibiotics given how long the tick was there. Lyme disease is no joke.
There's a lot of advice in the Internet why these must be removed in a special way, with a special compound, or whatever. This advice has no scientific standing. Just remove it, with your nails or a pair of tweezers, and really make sure you remove all of it.
In an area where tick borne diseases exist, be on the lookout for symptoms. Do not try to self medicate or take prophylactic antibiotics unless specifically requested by a physician or you get a rash a few days after. After all, not many ticks carry them. You are likely to be absolutely fine. Living in an area where Lyme disease is common, I've had it a few times and it is treatable with antibiotics.
There are however other diseases that aren't as easy to treat. Encephalitis for example. If you think Lyme can be nasty, that one is downright bad. Take the vaccine where it exists.
Just go to your PCP and get your one time course of 2 doxycycline pills as soon as you get bitten. I also spray my hiking/yardwork pants and boots with permethrin. DEET is pretty useless, I’ve seen them walk right over DEET sprayed boots onto my pants. They make it about 5 steps through permethrin. I’m surprised advise from Harvard is getting this wrong. If you want even more protection, you can buy stocking like sla…
Please be a responsible human being and consult a doctor. Common symptoms for a bacterial infections are flu like symptoms and a bullseye-like rash a few days after the bite. Be on the lookout for those and you will be fine.
There is a new way to treat your property: https://lymeshield.com/ It uses the original Lyme vaccine (which worked but which was withdrawn because nobody was buying it) to treat mice. You put out a bait station and the mice eat the vaccine laden bait and it kills Lyme in the mice. Ticks overwinter on mice, so if the mice are immune the ticks also get immunized. It's not perfect but they claim a 75% reduction in Lyme…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taking antibiotics after every random bite is overkill. Antibiotics overuse is a serious issue for your body and for the general antibiotics resistance as well. When the tick is attached less than 24 hours it won't transmit Lyme disease according to the CDC. I check myself every evening after outdoor activities, remove 10-20 ticks every year and knock-knock never had Lyme disease yet. I wasn't aware of the permethrin…
10-20 ticks every year??? I can’t imagine that and I often run in grassy fields (not tall grass) and at most I found 1-2 ticks on me or my kids. How do you get that kind of numbers in the first place?
If you have animals such as dogs and cats it's much more than that.