Mommy to monkeys Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 My 7 year old has felt miserably tired all day. I had just figured he'd played too hard outside yesterday. At bedtime I noticed he was feverish, so I started doing the crazy panic tick check and found and rash on his left side. It is red, circular and slightly more red in the center. We have a crazy amount of ticks around here. This spring I was pulling ticks off my kids daily. It seemed to slow down though as we got into the summer. I do remember pulling a tick off him a few weeks ago but it was on his right side and not embedded just attached. Still, the stupid things are so small that it would be easy to mistake one for a tiny scab or just miss it entirely. Double ugh. Obviously we'll be walking in to our doctor's office tomorrow morning. What should I expect? Are they going to just give him antibiotics or run tests first? I hate living in the woods. I hate living in the woods. I hate living in the woods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 If it's that clear, they may not run tests. That is the most classic presentation you can have. Ds also had that classic presentation. The children's hospital did not run tests. In fact, they called in gaggles of nurses from the ER to view his rash. They gave us the antibiotics without testing. He felt better in about a day. He did throw up as well the day after starting the antibiotics. And his fever took all that day to go away. In case they are dummies and try to tell you it's anything else, scream bloody murder at them and throw a fit. I can't imagine with those symptoms they would do anything but confirm that diagnosis, but you hear these horror stories when it comes to Lyme. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 DP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 A bullseye is diagnostic. They should give a minimum thirty days of abx. I'd want 6 weeks. I'm so sorry! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 A bullseye is diagnostic. They should give a minimum thirty days of abx. I'd want 6 weeks. I'm so sorry! :iagree: At this point, his blood would probably still test negative for Lyme anyway, as it takes a while to show up in labwork. I agree with everyone else -- insist on an immediate prescription and get a blood test in about a month to make sure the medication worked. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 A bullseye is diagnostic. They should give a minimum thirty days of abx. I'd want 6 weeks. I'm so sorry! :iagree: I had it a couple years ago, with the rash and the flu symptoms and the whole deal. They only did a couple weeks of abx, and sure enough, a couple months later I started having some of the stage two symptoms and had to do another round of abx. That seemed to take care of it, but I wish they would have just given me a long enough course in the first place. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Agreeding with other posters. Demand an absolute miniumum of 6 weeks of whichever antibiotics they give for that age, starting immediately. You caught it early; it took a year for us to diagnose my DS. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 One more thing: take a picture. Put a ruler beside the rash, write your child's name and the date on his/her skin or a piece of paper that will be in the pic. Print it, and keep it with your kiddo's medical records. You will be watching for Lyme symptoms, and want a record that he had a bullseye, even without a positive test. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 yup, just get antibiotics. The test is negative for quite some time, the organism hides out in the tissue a long time before going into the blood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy to monkeys Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 Blah! It is NOT as conspicuously a bull's eye as many pictures of rashes I've seen but there is definitely a small area in the middle that is darker that the rest of it. I hate going to the doctor's office. I'm so hopeful they'll just give him the full course of antibiotics without me needing to pitch a tantrum. :( I will definitely get some pictures once he eats his breakfast. And I'm going to be paranoid now that every ache and pain is from lyme. His jaw hurts this morning. . .so of course I'm being paranoid and freaking out about that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 It made ds feel very achy. But you've caught this so early. You really don't have to worry! Lyme is scary, but what you're seeing is exactly what you want - early presentation so classic that there's no doubt. As long as he starts the abx soon and gets a proper course, he will almost certainly be 100% fine. He's very unlikely to have lingering symptoms. The families who are dealing with that have kids who didn't exhibit that classic presentation so they didn't get those early abx. In a way, you're very lucky. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy to monkeys Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 We're home and they are treating him for lyme. I didn't even have to pitch a fit. There's no way I would have caught this without the rash. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Thank goodness. Did they give you a long enough time period? If not already, give him probiotics and florastor, two hours apart from the abx. Lots of fluids. Glad you caught it early! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy to monkeys Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 Thank goodness. Did they give you a long enough time period? If not already, give him probiotics and florastor, two hours apart from the abx. Lots of fluids. Glad you caught it early! The doctor wrote a script for only 3 weeks. They did blood work (that I assume will show nothing at this point). We go back in a week. I'll discuss extending the antibiotics then. We had SO many people looking at ds, today. I'm guessing their isn't a lot of experience with lyme because the first few people who looked at him gave us the, "Oh, no. It's DEFINITELY not lyme. . .but we don't know what it is. Let me consult with Doctor A(B)©" Until Doctor C finally says to treat ds for lyme and that all lyme rashes don't look exactly the same. DS DOES have a bullseye but the rings are not as strongly defined as the typical internet picture. I don't know what florastor is but I'll ask about it when we go back out for probiotics. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Three weeks was fine for ds. I didn't know to ask for longer. He definitely doesn't have long term symptoms. That said, push back if you feel you need to. Fever in summer or early fall is a huge red flag for Lyme for me now. We had out of town cousins out in the woods and I told them to do a tick check when we got in and then I was like, also, if you get sick, consider Lyme. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy to monkeys Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 Three weeks was fine for ds. I didn't know to ask for longer. He definitely doesn't have long term symptoms. That said, push back if you feel you need to. This is so good to hear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 21 days isn't terrible. I tend to err on the side of caution. If you want more, tell them you want to cover the entire lifecycle of the spirochete. They will understand that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 This is so good to hear. And it's now about two years later, so it's definitely the case that he hasn't had lingering issues. :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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