How exactly bad is Lyme Disease? I never want to get this shit,

Borrelia burgdorferi is a bacterial species of the spirochete class of the genus Borrelia. B. burgdorferi exists in North America and Europe and is the predominant causative agent of Lyme disease in the United States. Borrelia species are considered diderm (double-membrane) bacteria rather than Gram-positive or negative.[1]

Lyme disease is a zoonotic, vector-borne disease transmitted by the Ixodes tick (also the vector for Babesia). The infected nymphal tick transmits B. burgdorferi via its saliva to the human during its blood meal.[9] In order for a successful infection, the vertebrate host reservoir must cultivate enough bacteria that can be circulated throughout the blood, so that B. burgodorferi can be transmitted through Ixodes blood feeding.[7] Additionally, the bacteria itself must withstand the molting and life cycle of the Ixodes tick and successfully transinfect a host for B. Burgdorferi to spread to humans.[7]

Clinical presentation of Lyme disease may include the characteristic bull's-eye rash and erythema chronicum migrans (a rash which spreads peripherally and spares the central part), as well as myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, arrythmia, arthritis, arthralgia, meningitis, neuropathies, and facial nerve palsy.[10]


Characteristic "bull's-eye" rash of Lyme disease
B. burgdorferi infections have been found in possible association with primary cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (PCBCLs),[11][12] where a review of the primary literature has, as of 2010, noted that most of the PCBLCs examined have been 'unresponsive' to antibiotics;[12]:846 hence, as in case of Chlamydophila psittaci association with ocular adnexal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma, the working conclusion was that "if B. burgdorferi is truly associated with PCBCL, then there is wide geographic variability and other factors are probably involved".[12]:846

Progression of the disease follows from 3 stages.

>>865214
My sister and my friend both got it a couple years ago. Their experiences happen to be very similar, but in no way represent "everyones" experience.

Neither of them were exactly sure when they got the infecting tick. My friend had gotten a couple ticks on him that he caught very early, my sister never knew she had a tick. The greatest risk in contracting Lyme is with the little nymph ticks - they're smaller than a freckle. Even if you scratch the spot, and look at the spot, you won't really notice them there. But of course ticks take purchase in dark crevices where you won't see them anyway - especially dangerous with the little nymphs aka seedlings (behind the knee, the armpit, your back, buried in your hair on your scalp, behind your ear, etc).

They both had lyme for months and didn't know it. They started feeling tired, sore joints in the morning, sudden wobbliness and loss of motor skills, etc. They're both the kind of peopel who visit the doc when things aren't right. My friend visited the doc 2 or three times before they did a full test and found the Lyme. They assumed he had a virus, stress at work, etc. He got it taken care of.

My sister, on the other hand, visited the doctor several times, and even went to the ER fucking TWICE. The doctor ran her symptoms down every time and assumed she had a virus for awhile, and eventually he was positive she had clinical depression. The back pain, the lethargy, the irritability, the lack of sleep, etc. She was legit seeing a psychiatrist on her doctor's referral because she had no idea why she was becoming so vague and useless.

One day at work she collapsed, she was unconscious for 7 hours. The ambulance took her to the hospital and they got her on fluids and ran every single test possible - and blaring obvious found she had Lyme. Two weeks later after the antibiotics she was fine, but it went for so long that she has light nerve damage now. She's lucky in that she doesn't have chronic pain.

I got bit by hundreds of ticks as a youth in the Northeast. I have no idea why I don't have Lyme

>>865234
Did you see a lot of lizards?
There are some species of fence lizard that inoculate ticks.
Most research has been on western fence lizards, but its possible the eastern fence lizard, or even another species, does the same thing.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1998/0429/lizard.html

>>865214
ITs pretty bad, for future reference for EVERYONE here, if you see a tick on you and either don't know how long its been there, or know for sure its been more then 2 days, go to ur GP. or ER [GP is cheaper imo, but might not carry the shot] just say you found a tick on you and assume its been there for a couple of days, and you assume you got lyme. and MOST of the time they will just give you the shit to treat it.

>>865243
Fuck forgot to mention, SAVE the tick or ticks, for your GP/ER put them in a jar, you can store them in pure acetone, that's what they use in the lab anyway for storing stool samples [I know that smell anywhere, the acetone not the stool.. lmao] but they can test the ticks for lyme.

>>865243
This is actually good advice, but from what I've seen it just doesn't fly. GPs and ER docs are very cagey about the Lyme antibiotics (maybe this is justified, maybe thousands of people cry wolf, i really don't know) but to get a Lyme shot or antibiotic regimen is quite difficult. To compound matters further, the Lyme spot blood test gives false negatives like 50% of the time. It can be an uphill battle to get Lyme meds, because the majority of the time Lyme alarmists are just crying wolf and it's not usually Lyme. And docs are quite justified in not wanting to just dole it out and make the Lyme bacterium more resilient.

Are these satanic specimens in Arizona at all?

>>865262
whelp from what i'm seeing it's rare, and unlikely, but as you fukkos have graciously sent your lone star ticks and spotted fever to us un new england, we have sent our durr ticks and lyme disease to you.

https://www.lymedisease.org/arizona-lyme-2/

>>865214
Got in when i lived in NY. A bull eye the size of a big egg. Just got some peniniclin (14 days) and it went away

>>865243
>>865244
ehhh. unless you get the bullseye rash, stop bothering professionals because of a bug bite. srsly. you peple are worse than 'celiacs'

>>865312
and this is why it's so hard to get antibiotics for Lyme. what anon says is true. every hairy dick and tom has self-diagnosed for Lyme and it presents an ethical conundrum for the docs.

my nephew has it for over 4 years, he cant work, cant concentrate, has to sleep a lot during the day.

get antibiotics after bites, this disease is really fucked up..

>>865301
a circle is a good sign but in half the lyme cases they didnt see a circle..

>>865265
we dont have lone star ticks ya dingus. enjoy you're lyme disease and red meat allergies baka.

>>865239
Interesting, I had no idea this was a thing.

Thanks anon

>>865217
>hmm well you appear to be sick or stressed!
>does more harm than good
>that'll be 500 dollars
sounds like the typical shit doctors in this country

>>865780
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/04/04/lone-star-ticks-mspca-lyme-disease-pets/

>>865628
Sounds like me save for the not working part.

My rickety joints make my job hell tho.

Any "natural" treatments for lyme disease? Hippy faggot here I fucking hate doctors

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>>865214
Picture if you will the symptoms of Mono

> high fever
> the chills
> joint aches
> sore throat
> swollen lymph nodes
> muscle weakness
> fatigue

Just getting up to go to the bathroom was physically exhausting I was totally bed ridden. I had zero appetite, and I lost 10 pounds in just under a week.

Lymes Disease is no fucking joke. You literally waste away to death unless treated.

>>866321
Fuck man, awful. How long do you think you had it for it to get that far?

>>865801
Ten honey bee sting immediately after seeing the ring around the site. There's a little science behind stings but Lyme's can fuck you up so better be safe.

get some lightwight pants, and tuck them into your socks. Then spray pants, shoes, and socks with ddt.

You can also treat your clothing with permethrin, an insecticide.

change out of your clothes before going in your house.

also don't have a pet, pets bring in ticks that will bite you.

>>866337
>ddt
you mean DEET friend. DDT has been outbanlawed for decades. DEET is the thingy to use. And Permethrin too of course, as it works great and doesn't erode synthetics like acrylic, nylon, and some rubbers, the way DEET does.

>>865787
no shit. this is why i hate going to the doctor. they'll either tell you everything is fine and to keep an eye on things, or blame it on stress/misdiagnose just so they can move onto the next patient.

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Im a Canadian treeplanter. Ive removed hundreds of ticks from my body and seen hundreds being removed by my co-workers. Ive never gotten sick, never seen anyone get sick.

laughing at the townies telling townies to "tuck in your socks"

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>>866361
>Canadian treeplanter
kek.
why don't you come down here to Lyme CT and plant your hemlocks and not tuck your pants in and see what happens.

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my sisters friend got it when she was in thailand , now she stays inbed all day and was taken out of school. our shitty au gov doesn't recognize it so no treatment

>>866409
chronic lyme is not a thing

>>866467
technically, no, but chronic Lyme symptoms are a thing

>>866480
No it does not. Sure some of these people are having symptoms of something I can 100% guarantee it's not from Lyme

>>866484
you're right, it's not Lyme. it's complications from Lyme. thanks for your pedantry webster.

>>866487
>complications from Lyme

No, whatever symptoms they are feeling has nothing to do with Lyme.

>>865214
Well, it comes from Connecticut... so...

>>866491
i think that's neat. i think you're neat.

>>866484
>>866491
well shit as long as you're guaranteeing it 100%


>Ebola virus disease isn't dangerous guys, the complications have nothing to do with it so the virus is totally safe

Not sure if it's because of lymes but it's almost 10 years since I've had it but my joints hurt frequently. There was a stint, oh about 5 years ago where my right knee hurt for two months straight and I couldn't move it without excruciating pain. The doctors couldn't figure out, their only guess was it was my Lymes.

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>>866361
>I live outside the range of Lyme's disease. All you people who do live in the range are pussies!

My brother had Lyme's and has constant pain in his legs now, fuck you.

>>866491
Lyme can trigger an auto-immune disease that causes persistent inflammatory symptoms.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27636905

>>865801
>Any "natural" treatments for lyme disease?

Actually, yes. In short Stephen Buhner's work is pretty legit. I've seen some impressive results from these herbs. It's actually cool how the antibiotic herbals feel very similar to pharmaceutics (I've been around the block in terms of lyme treatment). The key difference is that eventually the prescriptions tried to kill me while the herbs have 0 side effects.

It's not bad if you take care of it quickly. The important thing is knowing the symtoms, checking for ticks, and heading to a doctor as soon as you notice symptoms that you think might be Lyme. If you don't let it get chronic, you can get rid of it completely with a round of antibiotics. The tests they use for it are also notoriously useless, and I've been told multiple times that many clinics in the northeast don't even use them.

Here's my story, in case it's helpful: A few years ago, I did some archaeological work in eastern Connecticut. Every archaeologist who works out there has had Lyme at least once or twice, so everyone knows what to do when it happens, and the crew I was working with were all warned heavily. A few us us got it, so I knew the symptoms pretty well. After the season was over, I went back home, which is a state where Lyme doesn't happen (IIRC, Lyme only exists in the northeast, other tick related illnesses do and are usually called Lyme by people because it's most famous, but they're not actually Lyme; this is a big reason why there's so much debate about how "real" and widespread it is). A week later, symtoms started and by the end of the day I was barely functional. The next day I went to the doctor, who refused to believe me because of where we were, but I made him give me antibiotics anyway. After a few days, the symptoms were totally gone, and I haven't had any aftereffects since.

The main takeaway is that it doesn't need to be a problem. Know the symptoms and take care of that shit as soon as you can.

>>866638
There's no way anti-biotic prescriptions "tried to kill" you. Maybe you were taking to high of a dosage or otherwise not following the instructions of your GP. This whole "natural herbs>medicine/pharmaceuticals" is bullshit hippy retardation. The chemicals and medicines you are in much greater concentrations when you take them in pill form (after being refined in pharmaceutical factories). You get everything you need, and nothing you don't. Contrast this with eating some stupid root and hoping that you can somehow reach the threshold where it actually does something for you.

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>>866321
>I lost 10 pounds in just under a week

>>867635
Maybe he's talking about how taking the antibiotics made him feel. They give you some pretty strong shit for Lyme, and it makes you feel like crap for about an hour or two after taking a dose. It's definitely not the best feeling in the world, especially after your symptoms have gone away after a couple days and you feel fine except after you take the antibiotics.

I can see why some people wouldn't like that and would assume it meant something bad, but yeah, they're not trying to kill you. It means they're working and making sure you're actually cured.

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>>866646
I had a tick on me, few days after I get tired as fuck for no reason. I get better a few days, then worse a few days, then better a week, then tired as fuck a week, back and forth. Sometimes I'd get light-headed and tingling in fingers. Last month I've been feelin better. Visited the doctor, he thinks its nothing.

How fucked am I, if at all?

I have an interesting story about Lyme disease. My gf's mom got it a few years ago (they have some badass rural land in central TX). It worsened over time, as it does, and she was getting to the point that she was having a hard time walking even with a stick. They went back to the land for 4th of July, and stayed in the old family house which comes with a risk of scorpions. Well, she got stung by a scorpion. Within a day her symptoms were gone

So if you have Lyme, try scorpions.

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What really ticks me off about lyme disease (pun intended) is that there is a functioning vaccine for it but it got lobbied by anti-vaxers and now we have to live with this shitty disease fucking our lives because apparently >muh mild correlation with temporary arthritis.

I had Lymes Disease when I was a kid and went to the doctors but my mom is constantly telling me that she doesn't think it was treated properly. Anytime I show fatigue. muscle pains, low blood sugar, she will bring up the disease. I've also heard about it having links to heart problems.

Kind of starting to worry me. Are you supposed to see a specialist for this sort of thing?

>>868436
I thought it just profitable because it was something people only needed once, and only worked in a certain geographical region.

But yeah, it's stupid that a vaccine exists and isn't available.

>>865214
I had Lyme disease. They suspect I had it for maybe 10 years before it was diagnosed. I did not get any rash or bullseye, which is actually not a prevalent symptom in Lyme.

I was lethargic, very sleepy (slept 12 hours a day, could easily sleep 16), aches and pains, always cold. But what got me into the doctor's office was that I'd suddenly, without warning, go blind in my left eye, and I'd eventually regain vision.

They tested my circulatory system, checked my eye sight (literal torture;a device kept my eyes open while I had to stare at a bright white screen and look for light yellow dots without blinking). They tested my blood for all sorts of things, including Lyme disease, but it came up negative. So then I got an MRI, CT scan, and a psych evaluation. My diagnosis went from being crazy, to having an incredibly rare head clotting thing that had only been documented 7 other times, to finally MS. I was given 4 more years to live.

A doctor wanted to see me, a Lyme and tick borne illness speciality doctor. She wanted to do a more detailed test for Lyme. Apparently there are thousands of strands of Lyme. They took 16 vials of blood out of me, which I passed out from (funny part was I was in the hospital, but because of protocol they had to put me in an ambulance and drive me to the ER part of the same hospital). It came up with multiple strands of Lyme and Bartonella, all which I probably contracted from a single tick bite.

It took me 2 years to recover. Had to eat as sugar free as possible and gluten free. Gluten free bagels taste like poison. The meds make you feel even worse than the disease. Mineocyline will make you feel like you are going to die if you don't eat before hand. Almost called 911 before when I took it on a very empty stomach. Most doctors won't do extensive tests for Lyme as it's seen as a waste. My insurance only covered the first two weeks of my 2 year long meds. People don't accept Lyme disease as a real disease.

NY here if relevant

>>865217
>and eventually he was positive she had clinical depression.
The one time I ever got close to killing anyone was a doctor that tried to pull this bullshit on me.

Turns out I had gallstones as a 20 year old male with a bmi of 24.

The average doctor is no different from any other lazy, detached office worker just trying to get through their day. They don't give a shit. If it's not one of the five things they diagnose every single day in the ER you may as well spin a roulette wheel.

>>868485
what a gigantic cluster fuck of a story
that sucks mang

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I won it.

Shit sucked.

>>866361
>laughing at the townies telling townies to "tuck in your socks"

I know dozen of people who have gotten lyme disease. I haven't. I'll continue to tuck in my socks!

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>>868947
don't forget to tuck in your giney lips while you're at it BOOM

>>866330
About a week or two. The doctors were all convinced it actually was mono until I insisted they test for Lyme as well.

They gave me antibiotics in pill form. After just 3 days I felt back to normal.

>outside the range for Lyme disease
>instead have to deal with tickbite fever
fuck ticks, seriously

>>868485
Jesus christ

>>867867
better safe than sorry. That said if you're better I wouldn't sweat it, looks like your body won the battle. Most people do win.

>>868436
>temporary arthritis
Some cases ended up FAR worse than that anon. I'm not familiar with the vaccine, but perhaps they were afraid of being sued to hell by these unlucky individuals?

>>868485
sorry man. Our medical system has failed spectacularly when it comes to this illness. It'll take a generational shift to rectify, which means hundreds of thousands of ruined lives.

>>868491
I'm not sure if doctors still do this, but "depression" used to be a catch-all. "I don't know what's wrong with you. DEPRESSED". Jackasses.

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>>868491
>If it's not one of the five things they diagnose every single day in the ER you may as well spin a roulette wheel.

I went to the same "family doctor" for 4 separate things on 4 separate occasions over the course of a few years. Each time he diagnosed me with a bone spur and ordered tests to confirm. Not even once was it a bone spur. I'm waiting for Dr. Watson to get out of the testing phase, quit playing Jeopardy, and put all these hacks out of business.

>>865787
Fucking hell this reminds me of a neighbor I had in Tennessee. Teenage girl. Her mom took her to the doc for some very disturbing symptoms. Doc's diagnosis? She's afraid because it's Halloween! I shit you not. The state medial board approved this fucker to practice medicine.

Girl goes home. She has a goddamn stroke soon after. From then on out the left side of her body is messed up. Not sure if it got better or not.

Scared because it's Halloween. That piece of fucking shit. I've met some fantastic doctors, but my GOD some of them make me question our entire medical system. What the fuck are they being taught? And then there was the time that one of "top-rated" Duke's doctors wanted to perform a test in such a way that it would have killed my little brother. Fuck Duke. Too many horrible experiences to count.

[spoiler]Shit. Sorry bout the rant. This just really gets my blood boiling.[/spoiler]

>>868485
lol you got done by a crank. There is no legitimate test for Lyme disease that requires sixteen vials of blood, and long term antibiotic therapy is a well known scam. There is a reason your insurance company wouldn't pay for it.

>>869727
not to say, I should add, that there is no such thing as chronic lyme disease. However, nobody has been able to demonstrate persistence of the organism after clearance with ~2-3 weeks of antibiotics.
People attribute just about every symptom imaginable to 'chronic lyme disease', and there are plenty of cranks happy to sell them a treatment that doesn't work and tests which are not validated.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1505425#t=article

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LYME disease is THE WORST I've ever felt, physically. And I've had life-threatening pneumonia where I had to stay in the hospital for a week. I've had bubbles of crispy skin from 3rd degree sunburns when kayaking without proper hats and sunscreen. I've been bitten by snakes.

I basically had arthritis where moving any of the joints of the body caused intense pain. Even the joints of the fingers to pick up a spoon or something.

I felt freezing cold sometimes and burning hot other times and would sweat through my clothes.

I felt as weak as a kitten, unable to even stand upright sometimes. I couldn't open doors sometimes. I was tired all the time - some of you might have depression (it's 4chan after all) but this is EVEN WORSE than depression lethargy where you can't move from bed. It's WORSE than even that, yeah.

At first my Dad wouldn't believe I was really sick so he wouldn't bring me to the ER. (I'm disabled without a driver's license.) Eventually after a few weeks of being bedridden we went in and the doctor said it was the "most textbook case of Lyme Disease he had ever seen".

A month of antibiotics got me back on my feet but I still have intense pain in my left foot I suspect was caused by lingering damage from the Lyme (my podiatrist has used X-Rays and MRIs and injections of joint drugs to no good effect to see what is happening).

I wouldn't wish Lyme Disease on my worst enemy.

Pic is my leg with the tell-tale "red ring" of lyme disease.

>>869727
So what you're saying is, I should have died 4 years ago from MS? Because my eye doesn't go out anymore. And that test wasn't just for Lyme, it was for a host of different bacteria including shit like cat scratch and tick fever.

I should be getting awards and shit for surviving MS for so long

>>865216
coulda just posted the link and saved us both some time

>>869729
>However, nobody has been able to demonstrate persistence of the organism after clearance with ~2-3 weeks of antibiotics.

http://aac.asm.org/content/52/5/1728.full.pdf
> In contrast to saline solution-treated mice, mice treated with antibiotic were consistently culture negative, but tissues from some of the mice remained PCR positive, and spirochetes could be visualized in collagen-rich tissues.
>Results indicated that following antibiotic treatment, mice remained infected with nondividing but infectious spirochetes, particularly when antibiotic treatment was commenced during the chronic stage of infection.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0029914
>Small numbers of intact spirochetes were recovered by xenodiagnosis from treated monkeys. These results demonstrate that B. burgdorferi can withstand antibiotic treatment, administered post-dissemination, in a primate host.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8240439
>Despite antibiotic therapy, there was progression to a chronic stage, with multisystem manifestations. The initially significant immune system activation was followed by a loss of the specific humoral immune response and a decrease in the cellular immune response to B burgdorferi over the course of the disease. "Trigger finger" developed, and a portion of the flexor retinaculum obtained at surgery was cultured. Viable spirochetes were identified. Ultramorphologically, the spirochetes were situated between collagen fibers and along fibroblasts, some of which were deeply invaginated by these organisms

There are a good number more, but I'm nearly out of room. It appears to be very plausible that Bb can survive typical antibiotic treatment. Where is the "2-3 weeks or bust" stance coming from?

>>869741
is that your penis in the corner

>>866321
This.
A dear friend of mine died from Lyme complications.
If you can find the tick there is a private lab that will run the spectrum of tests for Lyme etc. for $25.00.
Ticknology is the company; results in 3 days after they receive the tick.