Anyone know anything about Lyme Disease in kids-doc thinks dd has it

[HappyGrace]

I'm just in shock-wasn't expecting this! Dd has had a sore knee off and on for more than a few wks-gets very bad at times. She didn't injure it, there's no swelling at all, and sometimes it's totally fine, so I thought it would just resolve itself. Well, she pulled a few muscles at ballet Mon trying to compensate for the bad knee, so I took her to dr. today just to check the knee out. Dr. thinks it may be Lyme Disease!

 

I was like-- it's a sore knee! But from her examination and the questions she asked her, she said that's what she thinks. Then I remembered back in early Oct, dd was horseback riding with an adult friend of ours, and the friend flicked a tick off dd's arm. (Or who knows, maybe it was a different tick, we have a field behind our house.)

 

Plus dd had h1n1 last wk, and had it MUCH worse than ds-she is over it but still getting exhausted easily-now we're wondering if that was because her system was already compromised from the Lyme's.

 

Anyway, she put her on 4 weeks amoxycillan and we went for the blood test. Dd hates needles so the doc also had them test for co-infections that can go with Lyme's (I remember one was Bartonillas but there are others) so we don't have to do that later. We should get results in a week. The doc said kids can usually be treated with the one course (4-6 wks) of antibiotics and be fine with no aftereffects-is that right?

 

Ticks are very prevalent here, and our doc said that it's not necessarily true that it has to be on you for 24 hours. Our doc actually HAS Lyme's disease-was just diagnosed in August, and now has read extensively on it. So she is very knowledgeable about it.

 

Can anyone give me whatever they know or have experienced with Lyme's in kids? Will amoxycillan be strong enough? How soon do symptoms show up in Lyme's? Could it maybe be arthritis or something? I do trust their doctor very much-I just would appreciate insight that others have that have dealt with this or know anything about it. THANKS!

Edited November 12, 2009 by HappyGrace

[LibraryLover]

that's exactly how they discovered a little friend of ours had it. His knee was hurting. They thought he bumped it somewhere as children do, or even that it was growing pains. They ran a couple of Lyme blood tests, and was Lyme. He did a course of antbx and he's OK, with no other issues and his knee pain is gone. They were worried about juvenile arthritis, I remember.

 

My dog was limping and I thought she sprained it somehow. Nope, Lyme. She's OK too, also after a course of antbx.

 

Joint pain is a main symptom of Lyme. :( I would, however, have them run a blood test.

Edited November 12, 2009 by LibraryLover

[Pippen]

I have a good friend who has a case of Lyme that wasn't caught early. She's never had the joint pain--primarily it's presented with neurological symptoms.

 

If this were me, I'd be grateful that the doctor had included a Lyme test and treatment if she suspected it, but since it was a knee I'd want to see an orthopedic specialist to check it out, especially since she's in ballet.

[HappyGrace]

I'm so sorry-I did not in any way mean to sound ungrateful-I am so very grateful that she was so careful. She is a great doctor. I think I'm just in shock and so surprised and that probably was making me sound more questioning of her judgment in my post than I should have.

 

I plan to put a call in to her to ask her the most obvious question that I forgot-if she should stay out of ballet til this resolves!

[periwinkle]

in southcentral Pennsylvania. My oldest ds had it a few years ago, although there was no rash and the docs had a difficult time diagnosing it. He presented mainly with a fever and neck pain which resolved, but a few weeks later he had Bell's Palsy. Thankfully our primary doc recognized it as Lyme-yes, the confirmatory test was positive.

 

He was on doxycycline for several weeks and got better. I thought that was *the preferred* drug for lyme disease; I don't know about amoxicillin. Did she have any symptoms around the time of the tick incident?

[justamouse]

Get her retested every six weeks until you see a drop off of #s. And my Drs prescribe stronger antibiotics, too.

 

I have too many friends that have lifelong ill effects from it, one even commit suicide after having it undiagnosed 20 years-they found it on her autopsy and were shocked.

 

 

This is why I have chickens. They eat the ticks, BONUS, I get eggs. I was picking them off my kids every week and I cannot have them on the pink stuff all their childhood, that's bad, too.

[HappyGrace]

bump

[Rebecca VA]

I was diagnosed with active Lyme Disease a month ago and am now on a 12-week course of antibiotics. I'm so extremely thankful to my doctor for detecting and testing for this!

 

I never actually saw a tick, but I had a red mark on my lower abdomen that got larger and stayed around for months before fading away. I thought it was a spider bite. I didn't feel well all summer, but I assumed that it was just part of getting older. Wow, wrong assumption -- now that the Lyme is being treated I feel better than I've felt for a very long time.

 

It's wonderful that your doctor is aggressive in looking out for Lyme and treating it.

[Remudamom]

Stay on it. Keep checking her. And I'm not a doc, but amoxy. isn't the drug of choice for lyme. Doxyclycline, or minacycline (sp?).

 

Lots of people tested for Lyme show up negative but don't start getting better until they're treated anyway.

[HappyGrace]

I did a little reading on it, and I guess they do amoxy before age 9 or 10 due to doxy staining permanent teeth before they erupt.

 

I talked to a df too who is a nurse and she agreed with my doc that children have very good results if treated early. I'm so grateful my doc was up on this!

[Ginevra]

Two of my children have contracted Lyme Disease. My dd was treated last year and my ds was treated this year. Both were treated with 6 weeks of Doxycycline. With dd, I had a pediatrician that I did not like and it took a long time to get the correct dx. She had severe headaches and an infected lymph node.

 

With my son, I was much quicker to have him tested for Lyme, and I had switched to a much better pediatrician. He started having sore knees and then had a headache a few days in a row.

 

The only thing I would caution about is that doxycycline. A side-effect is that is makes you sun-sensitive. My dd did get severely sunburned on her face and hands. Her fingernail beds even burned! Her nails turned yellow and lifted off the beds.

 

I was extremely careful about the sunlight warning the second time around.

[gfam]

Did you get test results yet?

[Chris in VA]

Dd was diag'd with it last summer. We get lots of ticks here. She did not take doxy, but I don't remember what she did take. We did not do the blood test b/c it was too early (not reliable right away--takes maybe 5-6 weeks to show up reliably, so it's often treated anyway if suspected). She still gets fatigued from time to time, so I may have her blood tested to see if it all went away. She was only on antibiotics 10 days, I think.