Black-legged tick on me for 3 days (seeing a doctor tomorrow)

[REP]

Feel dumb as hell that I didn't notice it right away - I felt something odd; thought it might be a rash and forgot about it. I have FUBAR shoulders and the tick was in a place that requires shoulder movements that aren't easy for me to finally see and remove it.

Anyway, it is a black-legged tick. I'm from the Midwest, where we have different ticks that cause much smaller wounds - this one left something that looks more like a brown recluse bite than a tick bite (and I have the entire tick in a specimen baggie - it's a tick). Besides washing the bite and looking for a bull's eye rash, anything else to watch for before tomorrow when I see my doc?

[OccupyManny]

1. Be careful

I had Lyme's disease I caught while hunting dear 10 years ago. I still have problems from the damage.

[peacebird]

2. Bullseye may or may not appear, and can take 10 days to present. I had lymes twice in last two years

Early treatment is key. Please know the blood test is innacurate, can give false negatives. I would proactively request the nasty antibiotic if I were you. Dexa something...

[sunwyn]

3. I have had Lyme since '95

Before good tests. It took two years before they found it in spinal fluid from a spinal tap. By that time I was paralyzed. Get early treatment. Watch for sudden fevers, rashes, achy joints, flu like symptoms. Good luck!

[handmade34]

4. you will be ok

I found a tick on my hip last year (working in Mass... Lyme country) ... realized it had been there a few days (allowing for the time I had been out in the woods) My husband couldn't get it out and I headed to the ER (it was Sunday)... I was rather frantic but all was well... the doc dug the bugger out and gave me a dose of medicine ...stupid ticks!!!

[Rider3]

5. feeling like you have the flu

I got Lyme in October 2005. It sucked! I felt like I had the flu; my hair hurt. Fever (100-101). Just felt like I didn't want to move. Got treated when the symptoms came and was put on Doxycycline (I think) 3x/day for 3 weeks. Did the trick! Now, however, when I get bitten by a tick, I take a dose of Doxy and hope I don't get the symptoms. It's been working. I hope you stay well!

[Warpy]

6. If it left anything behind, it's suspicious for Lyme

although it can be just an allergic reaction to the tick's enzymes. A lot of people who get sick and are positive for Lyme never saw the tick or the bite.

The doc is going to want to make sure part of the tick's mouth isn't still buried in there.

The bull's eye rash isn't 100% certain to appear. Infection can make you feel rotten (my temperature was 103 and change) or it can just feel like mild flu, just a few vague aches and pains that go away quickly, then come back with a vengeance weeks or months later.

Lyme is a fantastically old disease, the man found buried in the ice in the Alps suffered from it some 5300 years ago, the earliest confirmed case.

[REP]

7. Update: doxycycline for 10 days and Cormax ointment

It's a bit hard to tell with me if the increased joint pain is just increased joint pain (I have very bad arthritis in my arms/shoulders) but my neck is stiff, so ... antibiotics

Thanks all!

[2theleft]

8. Better safe than sorry...

My boss's wife got bit and had not immediate reaction, so did nothing. She then got sick later, misdiagnosed. Sick again, same thing. This went one for over a year until she was finally checked for lyme. It has been a really hard several years for her.

My ex-boyfriend does mountain bike races. He did a race, we did the tick check, neither of us found something. About a week or so later we are driving to the beach. Stop at the rest area. He come to the car, "there is a weird rash on my hip". I said, what does it look like? He says a bulls eye. I make him drop his pants in the parking line. We drove to the next urgent care/emergency room we could find. The best part of that story was that we get to the hospital at the Outer Banks. Walk up, the receptionist says, "why are you here". I said, "he has lyme's disease." She looks at me like I'm crazy. Nurse comes to get us, same thing. Doctor finally comes into the room, "so, why do you think you have lyme's disease? Most people are scared of it, but I've never actually seen anyone who had it." I looked at my boyfriend, he dropped his pants. The doctor said, "holy shit". I said, "are we right?" He said, yes, you're rigth. Was so funny.

Anyway, again, glad you got the meds. He had no trouble with them and the peace of mind was wonderful. I'm not a person to take antbiotics for any old thing, but this is something you need to do.

[Jenoch]

9. Last summer my 80 year old

father left a wood tick (not a deer tick) on his leg for several days. He got an infection at the site of the tick and was also put on a regime of Doxycycline. He has petechiae (spots) on his legs from chronic low platelets but it is still not an excuse for him not to check himself for ticks after we have been in the woods. (Had I known he was bei g lax about it I would have checked him out. I do now).

Edit: He is fine. The antibiotics cleared up the infection). Good luck.