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Will Lyme Disease Go Away

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Headache Triggers: Your Migraines And Lyme Disease

Do you know the signs of Lyme disease?

If your headaches are accompanied by other symptoms, like fevers, dizziness, muscle pain, mood swings, and fatigue, its time to look under the surface and get to the root of what is making you feel unwell. Lyme disease is more common than many people realize. The most recent CDC estimates that about 476,000 people get diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease each year.

However, many people who get this tick-borne disease dont receive prompt treatment or realize they ever got infected in the first place. This is because Lyme disease is a complicated condition that can be difficult to diagnose, and many doctors are untrained in how to detect and treat the disease in its later stages.

Stage : Early Disseminated Lyme Disease

If stage 1 Lyme disease remains undiagnosed and untreated, it can progress to stage 2, or early disseminated, Lyme disease. This stage occurs 312 weeks after the initial tick bite.

The term disseminated indicates that the bacteria have spread throughout the body. At this stage, the infection may affect the following tissues:

  • the skin
  • nervous system
  • heart

A person who has progressed to stage 2 Lyme disease may develop new symptoms alongside those from stage 1. These new symptoms may include:

  • new rashes across the body
  • conjunctivitis or vision problems
  • poor memory and concentration

What If A Tick Bites My Dog

The more ticks in your region, the likelier it is that your furry pal will bring them home.

Your dog is much more likely to be bitten by a tick than you are. And where Lyme disease is common, up to 25% of dogs have had it at some point.

About 10% of dogs with Lyme disease will get sick. 7-21 days after a tick bite, your dog might seem like theyâre walking on eggshells. They also might have a fever and enlarged lymph nodes. Plus, they might seem tired. Dogs also get antibiotics for Lyme.

What if my dog brings ticks into my home?

Use a tick control product on your pet to prevent Lyme disease. Also, have your dog vaccinated against Lyme.

Check your dogâs whole body each day for bumps. If you notice a swollen area, see if thereâs a tick there. If you find a tick, wear gloves while you use tweezers to separate it from your dog. Then, put it in soapy water or alcohol, or flush it down the toilet.

Use alcohol to clean the spot on your dog where the tick was attached. Keep an eye on that spot, and also on your dog to make sure theyâre behaving normally. If you notice any changes, check with your vet.

Show Sources

John Aucott, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine director, Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center.

CDC.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: âVital Signs: Trends in Reported Vectorborne Disease Cases — United States and Territories, 2004-2016.â

American College of Rheumatology.

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How Can Lyme Disease Last For Years

Category: Health Published: October 9, 2015

If treated, Lyme disease does not last for years. However, for some people, the after-effects of the disease can linger for months and sometimes even years. Alternative medicine providers call this condition “Chronic Lyme disease,” but this title is simply wrong. For a person who has been infected with Lyme disease and then treated, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is measurably no longer present in his body, even though he may still feel some symptoms. The correct title for this condition is therefore “Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.”

Lyme disease is an infection caused by a bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi. This bacteria is delivered to humans through tick bites. From the bite site, the bacteria can enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body. Usually, but not always, an infectious tick bite causes a characteristic red rash at the site of the bite. Other symptoms include fever, muscle soreness, headache, fatigue, and dizziness. In a few cases, symptoms can also include mood swings, memory loss, and sleep disturbance. If left untreated for too long, Lyme disease can lead to nerve damage, thereby causing shooting pain, numbness, and even paralysis.

The CDC states,

Risk Factors For Post

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Youre at a greater risk for post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome if youre infected by the bite of a diseased tick. If the infection progresses to the chronic stage, your symptoms might continue for weeks, months, or even years after the initial tick bite.

You may also be at a higher risk for these long-term symptoms if youre not treated with the recommended antibiotics. However, even people who receive antibiotic therapy are at risk. Because the cause of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome is unknown, theres no way to determine whether it will progress to the chronic stage.

Typically, the symptoms of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome resemble those that occur in earlier stages. People with persistent symptoms often experience lingering episodes of:

  • fatigue

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Testing For Kidney Disease

Tests to diagnose kidney disease include complete blood count, serum biochemistry, and urinalysis. These blood tests will determine if your pet is anemic, determine white blood cell counts, measure blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and electrolytes. A urinalysis is essential for the proper interpretation of the urea and creatinine values in the serum biochemistry profile and may also provide important clues to the possible underlying cause of kidney disease. A urinalysis will also determine the specific gravity, pH, presence of blood in the urine, and the amount of protein in the urine. An evaluation of the urine sediment will determine the presence of red blood cells, white blood cells, bacteria, crystalline material, and cellular casts all of which provide information to determine the underlying cause of kidney disease in your pet. Further diagnostic tests may be recommended based on the results of these initial screening tests.

Symptoms Of Untreated Lyme Disease

Most patients experience flu-like symptoms of untreated Lyme disease. Other common symptoms of Lyme disease include:

  • Bullseye pattern rash that slowly expands

  • Fever

  • Memory or concentration problems

  • Sleeping issues

  • Most of the time, your symptoms occur a few days or weeks after being bitten by an infected tick. Dr. Kotsanis uses the western blot test and other specialty tests to detect the presence of Lyme disease. However, this can take several weeks to detect after your initial bite in Grapevine, TX.

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    What Happens If Chronic Lyme Disease Is Left Untreated

    When you think you have been bitten by a tick, its important to schedule an appointment at Kotsanis Institute of Functional Medicine with Dr. Constantine Kotsanis. When left untreated, chronic Lyme disease can cause memory loss, inflammation around your heart and throughout your body, nerve damage, autoimmune disease, and other long-term heart problems. The good news is that Lyme disease is treatable, especially when we catch symptoms early in Grapevine, TX. We have successfully administered medication with Lyme disease treatment to our patients to rid their bodies of this infection.

    Can Lyme Disease Completely Be Cured

    Think the Lyme Disease Rash is Always a Bull’s-eye? Think Again! | Johns Hopkins Rheumatology

    If treatment with appropriate antibiotics is started in the early stage of Lyme disease, then the patients symptoms should subside within a few days or weeks and lead to a full recovery .

    There are cases of chronic Lyme disease with recurrence of symptoms for several months or years. If left untreated, late Lyme disease may no longer be curable and can persist throughout a persons life in its chronic form.

    • Lyme carditis

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    Pregnancy And Lyme Disease

    If you are pregnant and suspect you have contracted Lyme disease, contact your doctor immediately. Untreated Lyme disease during pregnancy can lead to infection of the placenta. Although spread from mother to fetus is rare, it is possible. Fortunately, with appropriate antibiotic treatment, there is no increased risk of adverse birth outcomes.

    Hoping To Recreate The Success Of Others

    I pursued every single treatment I read about, hoping to recreate others success in my own life. I even ended up across the world in India for an experimental stem cell transplant, thinking if the elusive cure wasnt in my country, it had to be in someone elses.

    I never experienced the full recovery I was after.

    It was about a year after my epic treatment in India, when I relapsed, that I finally stopped the searching. I just stopped. I stopped pointing to symptoms and syndromes, and the perceived external causes of those.

    I quickly came to an epiphany: What if running all over trying to find the cure is actually steering me away from what I really need? What if each persons cure is a perfectly orchestrated succession of following their own intuition and no one elses path at all?

    These questions were not easy to look at, but they were necessary. I began to gently analyze all the ways in my life that I had always been driven by fear that I wasnt good enough and that I wasnt doing enough.

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    Does Lyme Disease Ever Really Go Away

    I first thought about this topic awhile back, as I have had a few people tell me that they HAD Lyme disease, had their treatment and were wondering if they still had it as they still didnt feel well after treatment. But the doctors said that they were all better! Or they felt better for awhile, and are starting to have reoccurring symptoms. OR, those who say they were reinfected with Lyme. So.. not eradicated to begin with or reinfection? Once you do feel better, is Lyme disease all gone?

    I have done a TON of research on this topic and hit a brick wall. So many different beliefs on the matter. Most online sites only present the CDC aka The Devils belief that Lyme is cured in 30 days or less and thats that. End of case. A lot of pages I have looked at go by this notion. Well, we know this isnt true. Millions of people are suffering right now. I have discussed this topic with my LLND and know my DC docs thoughts on the matter. Googled away. Read some books, well, what I could of them. I am going to go with a big fat NO on this one, and I will explain why.

    This opens another topic that they refer to this as Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, but another day, another blog.

    So, their stance is that Lyme does go away, and with a quick treatment protocol at that. Kind of makes you want to throw them the middle finger, eh?

    And then I lastly stumbled upon Lyme Info, which states that there is no established cure for Lyme disease.

    What Happens At Your Appointment

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    The GP will ask about your symptoms and consider any rash or recent tick bites you know about.

    Lyme disease can be difficult to diagnose. It has similar symptoms to other conditions and there’s not always an obvious rash.

    2 types of blood test are available to help confirm or rule out Lyme disease. But these tests are not always accurate in the early stages of the disease.

    You may need to be retested if you still have Lyme disease symptoms after a negative result.

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    Treatment For Lyme Arthritis

    An initial episode of Lyme arthritis should be treated with a 4-week course of oral antibiotics. Patients with persistent joint inflammation and pain after a course of antibiotics may require a second course . In some cases, joint swelling and pain can persist or recur after two courses of antibiotics. The cause of persistent arthritis is unknown but is thought to be driven by immunologic factors. Additional antibiotics have not been shown to improve these symptoms, and patient referral to a rheumatologist is recommended.

    The following regimens may need to be adjusted depending on a patients age, medical history, underlying health conditions, pregnancy status, or allergies. Consult an infectious disease specialist regarding individual patient treatment decisions.

    Table 1. Oral antibiotic regimens for Lyme arthritis.*

    Age Category
    14 28 2,3

    Intravenous ceftriaxone is the preferred regimen for the second course of antibiotics for patients without any response after the initial course of antibiotics.

    What Is Post Treatment Lyme Disease

    Post Treatment Lyme Disease represents a research subset of patients who remain significantly ill 6 months or more following standard antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease. PTLD is characterized by a constellation of symptoms that includes severe fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, sleep disturbance, depression, and cognitive problems such as difficulty with short-term memory, speed of thinking, or multi-tasking. In the absence of a direct diagnostic biomarker blood test, PTLD has been difficult to define by physicians, and its existence has been controversial. However, our clinical research shows that meticulous patient evaluation when used alongside appropriate diagnostic testing can reliably identify patients with a history of previously treated Lyme disease who display the typical symptom patterns of PTLD.

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    When Should You See A Doctor If You Think You Have Lyme

    The rash is a pretty good indication that you may have been bitten. Take a photo of the rash and see your doctor. At this stage, treatment with antibiotics will probably work.

    If you don’t have the rash but have symptoms like fatigue, fever, and headache but no respiratory symptoms like a cough, you may want to talk to your doctor.

    How To Remove A Tick

    What Itâs Like to Live with LYME DISEASE | Bustle

    A tick must remain attached to the skin for at least 36 hours to spread Lyme disease. The best way of preventing Lyme disease is to remove a tick as soon as possible.

    The blacklegged tick that spreads disease-causing bacteria resembles a tiny spider. Young ticks are around the size of a poppy seed, while adult ticks are around the size of a sesame seed. Ticks of all ages are reddish-brown.

    Below are some steps for tick removal.

    • Step 1: Use fine-tipped tweezers to gently grasp the tick near its head or mouth. Avoid squeezing the tick.
    • Step 2: Using the tweezers, pull the tick carefully and steadily away from the skin. Avoid yanking or twisting the tick, as this could cause its mouthparts to remain in the skin.
    • Step 3: After removing the tick, dispose of it by putting it in some alcohol or flushing it down the toilet.
    • Step 4: Apply antiseptic to the tick bite.

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    What Are The Clinical Signs Of Lyme Disease

    Some people with Lyme disease develop a characteristic bull’s-eye rash at the site of the bite within three to thirty days. If this occurs, the disease can be easily diagnosed at an early stage.

    However, signs of Lyme disease are more difficult to detect in animals than in people. The characteristic rash does not develop in dogs or cats. In fact, Lyme disease is practically unheard of in cats.

    “Affected dogs have been described as if they were walking on eggshells.”

    Many dogs affected with Lyme disease are taken to a veterinarian because they seem to be experiencing generalized pain and have stopped eating. Affected dogs have been described as if they were walking on eggshells. Often these pets have high fevers. Dogs may also begin limping. This painful lameness often appears suddenly and may shift from one leg to another. If untreated, it may eventually disappear, only to recur weeks or months later.

    Some pets are infected with the Lyme disease organism for over a year before they finally show symptoms. By this time, the disease may be widespread throughout the body. Non-specific signs which may indicate that Lyme disease is affecting the kidneys include vomiting, lethargy, anorexia , and weight loss. The kidney form of the disease is less common, but often fatal.

    How Do I Remove A Tick

    You should know how to remove a tick just in case one lands on you or a friend. To be safe, remove the tick as soon as possible.

    If you find a tick:

    • Use tweezers to grasp the tick firmly at its head or mouth, next to your skin.
    • Pull firmly and steadily on the tick until it lets go of the skin. If part of the tick stays in your skin, don’t worry. It will eventually come out. But call your doctor if you notice any irritation in the area or symptoms of Lyme disease.
    • Swab the bite site with alcohol.

    Note: Don’t use petroleum jelly or a lit match to kill a tick. They won’t get the tick off your skin quickly enough, and may just cause it to burrow deeper into your skin.

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    History Of Lyme Disease

    The history of the disease can be traced back to 1975 in United States, where the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis started being seen in large number of cases in Lyme, Connecticut area. This gave it the name for which it is well known today. Owing to the uncurbed deer population, the number of deer ticks in the region started to increase. More and more cases of tick bites became prevalent in these parts. The lone star or deer tick causing the disease came closer to human residences where people were apparently bitten while mowing their lawns, hiking in wooded, grassy regions or through their family pets.

    What Are The Symptoms Of Lyme Disease

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    Symptoms can start anywhere from 3 to 30 days after the bite. They may look different depending on the stage of your infection. In some cases, you wonât notice any symptoms until months after the bite.

    Early symptoms include:

    All of those symptoms are also common in the flu. In most Lyme infections, one of the first symptoms youâll notice is a rash.

    Without treatment, symptoms can get worse. They might include:

    • Severe headache or neck stiffness
    • Rashes on other areas of your body
    • Arthritis with joint pain and swelling, particularly in your knees
    • âDroopingâ on one or both sides of your face
    • Inflammation in your brain and spinal cord
    • Shooting pains, numbness, or tingling in your hands or feet

    What does the rash look like?

    Some Lyme rashes look like a bull’s-eye with circles around the middle. But most are round, red, and at least 2 inches across.

    The rash slowly gets bigger over several days. It can grow to about 12 inches across. It may feel warm to the touch, but itâs usually not itchy or painful. It can show up on any part of your body.

    How small are ticks?

    Ticks come in three sizes, depending on their life stage. They can be the size of a grain of sand, a poppy seed, or an apple seed.

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