A Friend has it, wasn’t diagnosed correctly for 8 or 9 years…..
They said it was ME

She is not in a good way

Fingers crossed for you.

Related question. Are some people more prone to picking up ticks than others?

Touch wood I have never had a tick despite most of my riding buddies regularly picking them up one guy in particualr has some most summer rides Put me near midges though and I will look like I have the measles in no time at all.

OP – Hope it is unrelated and not Lymes

I had it a few years ago, no target rash but really saw joints and incredibly uncomfortable when trying to sleep. Doc originally tested me only 2 weeks after the tick bite and Lymes didn’t show up as there was not enough in my system. My symptoms got worse so went back to Doc’s who did another blood test this time it was positive. a week of antibiotics and I was right as rain. Apparently Southampton General hospital is well regarded in identifying Lymes.

Great. That’s where I’m staying next week :(. Any tips to keep the ba5tards at bay?

the Scottish ticks are quite well repelled by Smidge. I had suspected Lyme’s a few yrs ago – classic rash, fever about 3 days after getting the tick (which I removed with a tick twister within 12hrs of it landing on me). My GP is well up on the disease and got me straight onto 4 weeks of the horse dose antibiotics, whch did the job. The blood test is only 50% accurate.

I’ve lived near and ridden in the NF for 13 years without picking up a single tick (that I’ve noticed) – I do have a bloody good rub-down in the shower to remove any new arrivals but have never seen one on me

(got one in the lakes years ago; didn’t notice it til about 4 days later when I caught my nail on it while showering and tore it in half, leaving the front end embedded in my lower back 😯 cut out at A&E)

Diagnosis is still controversial – the Lyme unit at Southampton tested all forestry workers quite a few years ago. All were test-positive but none had ever had any symptoms of acute or chronic infection (except the boss, who’d obviously never set foot in the forest and tested -ve 😉 ). Wouldn’t surprise me if I tested +ve but I’m not symptomatic.

Most GPs know what to do for recent tick bite, esp if there’s a bullseye rash – and major neurological symptoms might well be picked up relatively consistently.
Not quite so easy to diagnose clinically when it’s later (fairly vague) symptoms, diagnosis is not straightformward and then treatment is again controversial for chronic Lyme (even its existence is hotly debated)

just ordered a set of tick twisters

lived in the NF 23 years and no tick, but no doubt i’ll walk to my car and get covered now.

So what are the long term symptoms of Lyme Disease – apart from the rash of course? Can it be cured?

This is a bit old now…

Lyme Disease – everything you wanted to know (and stuff you wish you didn’t)

LD testing in the UK is moving from Soton to Porton Down, you know, the germ warfare place. In the US the CDC* has said recently that there’s ten times more LD about than detected, and the excrement is hitting the expelair about one of their top people making unfounded criticism of independent LD testing. In the UK there’s a row brewing about something the new head of LD testing minuted to the HSE, which has gone public under FOI or somesuch. My take would be – not going there,: not objective, only collecting data, victims risk an all in your head label.

Which is more than most of you want to know, except that the testing for Lyme Disease is currently getting considerable attention by those who feel let down by it, particularly in the US. Which could be you in a few months. And there may be a lot of it about.

I was planning to post on the subject once the first answers to some of the questions above were published.

*Centre for Disease Control, the US Gov’s agency for infection identification, information, treatment…

I’ve got one day left of a course of Doxycycline to treat suspected LD. Got a tick on the north Yorks moors and a week later my joints were clicking and sore, the bitten leg all the muscles were incredibly painful, stiff neck, night sweats etc.

After a week of treatment I felt much better and now feel pretty much normal. The hospital I visited knew almost nothing about Lyme and actually referred to Wikipedia for info which was a little disconcerting.

If you suspect you may have it then be prepared to inform and educate the doctor about it. I think in areas where it is less common there is a lack of awareness.

Pull a tick or two off the family a week here in East Devon. I caught Lymes about 5 years ago, I was caught by a pack of them! Reckon around 12 tiny ones latched on to me and I did not find them all until one or two had infected me. Did not know it at the time but we were watching out and within a few weeks I had a heavy ‘flu’ like illness. Two weeks of a massive anti-biotic dose (which my me ill in a different way) seemed to kill it off. I was warned at the time that its always in one’s system and it can come back, not sure if this is true and I have not had anything similar since.
Advice is gain as much knowledge as you can and encourage your Doc to take it seriously.

My wife was diagnosed with Lymes, she has been ill for a about 5 years now.

Symptoms vary and it seems to be treated by the NHS as a ‘it’s not all these other things so must be this but we don’t really recognise this’ illness.

We went private and that has had a massive implication on our finances.

However, this year we have turned a corner and she is improving. So much so she managed a half day gardening last week with me and the FIL and she moved a number of barrows full of bricks that I didn’t think she could even if she wasn’t well.

We nearly never flew on our honeymoon as the wedding itself took everything she could muster in herself. I am constantly in awe of her drive to smash the shit out of this.

Anyway, she recently managed to persuade the NHS to refer her to the right people and unit. The private stuff we have done has resulted in a historical base of blood analysis that is staggering in what it shows, except the NHS doesn’t know what to do with it… we are now seeing an immunology consultant we hope…

Also, she has been having treatments for high levels of metals in her blood, her systems stopped processing properly and has caused discolouration to her skin and she has been in chronic pain for the last 4 years.

At the current time, her doctor has re-submitted her for more celiac testing after a suspected false result 2 years ago. She has developed symptoms that point towards this being an affliction now too.

It has been a bloody hard journey that we don’t know where will end, but she smashes on every day and sometimes it gets too much but that’s why i married her. She is nails and I wish i was the same. I had to change my job as i couldn’t handle the stress of her being ill and working the hours i was (there are other reasons too for that, not just that) and she still gets up every day and works in a secure hospital treating offenders with mental illnesses.

Anyway, i am drifting. Back to the OP. The NHS does shit all for Lymes, if you feel you are not being dealt with properly, fight hard. Real hard.

Best of luck.

Aren’t the symptoms pretty much the same. Maybe she has been celiac all along?

True.

Best of luck.