Jon and Jen wrote:That's why I'm asking about the tests, so much conflicting info. I considered buying antibiotics myself at one point.
The point I'm making is that the tests alone don't seem to provide a definitive answer in a lot of people. You may have to to treat on symptoms alone. Its great if you have a GP or specialist who is on board but unfortunately its rather hit or miss whether you get one. If you still have symptoms personally I'd start treatment with Doxycycline for a couple of months before the spirochetes embed too deeply and longer term complications arise.
Scottk wrote: 3 weeks of antibiotics did the trick.
I think the worst thing for me was seeing the infectious disease specialist afterwards and when he saw the rash which my wife took a picture of, he turned to the trainee doctor and told them that as soon as you see that, start treatment and get a test. If my surgery had done that, I would have not had to go 3 months feeling rotten.
Push them for another test.
You are lucky that three weeks did it! The max of two weeks the NHS would give me made a serious improvement but did not completely knock it out. That when I took matters into my own hands and continued the script myself.
Your description of the IE specialist sounds very positive. After three weeks or so of feeling ill and treating severe joint pain with voltarol I was on holiday when I noticed the classic "bulls eye" rash. I photographed it for evidence in case it faded before I returned. My GP was 50/50 on it and willing to prescribe for 2 weeks. The IE specialist at a major teaching/research hospital was dismissive saying "it could be a number of things" and "lyme didn't exist in that area". She then turned to interrogating me on where I had purchased antibiotics from.
Please everyone if you get symptoms take this very seriously and dont be fobbed off! Easily treatable in the early stages, not so later on.
Two positives though:
1. Not all ticks carry lyme and there are problem geographic clusters. Some areas are and others not.
2. From what I read the ticks have to be embedded for quite a few hours before bacteria is released so showering/getting them out immediately on return should protect you.
Despite all the above i will not let this spoil my enjoyment of the outdoors!Although my consumption of strong insect repellent has dramatically increased