The first symptom of Lyme disease (also called Lyme’s disease) for about 50% of people is a small, red bull’s-eye rash, called erythema migrans, at the site of an infected tick bite. The rash usually appears a week or two after a painless bite, but can appear within 3 to 30 days. It typically spreads or may show up in other areas. It can also not look like a bull’s eye. And if the tick rash is very small and in a hairy place, it may never be noticed.
Other early, acute Lyme symptoms are flu-like – fatigue, achy muscles or joints, fever, chills, stiff neck, swollen glands, and a headache. Most doctors base their diagnosis of early Lyme primarily on the rash and accompanying symptoms. There are blood tests for Lyme, many of which return erroneous results. We’ll have more to say about testing soon.
If Lyme is identified in this early stage and treated with an appropriate course of antibiotics, it usually goes away. Treatment, however, doesn’t provide immunity; you can get Lyme again if another infected tick bites you. There is no Lyme vaccine.
It would be great if Lyme got caught early and treated in everyone who has it. But Lyme is a very tricky disease.
Some people with classic early Lyme symptoms never get treated because they either don’t go to their doctor or their doctor doesn’t suspect Lyme. Some doctors do diagnose Lyme but don’t treat it long enough. And some people infected with Lyme never get any early symptoms.
Lyme is often hard to diagnose because many symptoms are non-specific (stiff neck, fever, tingling and numbness, headache, lack of energy, weakness, moodiness, or achiness). Also, many doctors don’t know much about Lyme or don’t believe that it’s a prevalent illness, especially in areas that aren’t known to be habitats for the Ixodes ticks that carry Lyme.
Without treatment, the Lyme eventually becomes more debilitating.
Untreated, the bacteria can lie dormant and appear months or even years later. Chronic Lyme mimics the symptoms of over 350 diseases, including multiple sclerosis, lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Parkinson’s. Sadly, many people with chronic, late-stage Lyme spend years and substantial sums of money being treated for other diseases before finally learning that they have Lyme.
Chronic Lyme Symptoms
Most people chronically ill with Lymes have a combination of symptoms, compounded by the symptoms of other co-infections they may have. No two Lyme patients have exactly the same complaints.
Lyme spirochetes travel from the site of the bite to anywhere in the body via the skin, lymph system, and blood. They can ultimately cause problems in all body systems.
Credit: Michael Abbey/ Photo Researchers, Inc. - Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium in a blood smear
Here’s a plain-English list of common symptoms:
Brain and Central Nervous System: migraines, dizziness, brain fog, poor memory, poor sleep, lack of verbal fluency, confusion or disorientation, decreased ability to concentrate, facial nerve tics or paralysis, sore jaw, sinusitis, mood swings, difficulty chewing or swallowing, sore throat, hoarseness, muscle twitches, numbness and tingling, shooting pains, and lower back or neck pain. Lyme has also been found to mimic all the psychiatric disorders.
Muscles, joints, and bones: pains that come and go (with or without swelling), cramps, stiffness.
Circulation: too fast or two slow heart rate, irregular heartbeat (palpitations), inflammation of the heart muscle or arteries, and chest pain.
Breathing: sinusitis, difficulty breathing, and pneumonias.
Skin: rashes, itching, crawling sensations, benign cysts and nodules, and skin discoloration.
Eyes: pain, inflammation, blurred or double vision, retinal damage, floaters, flashing lights, light sensitivity, dry eye, and blindness.
Ears: itching, earache, buzzing, ringing, and sound sensitivity.
Digestive tract: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, loss of appetite, mild liver function abnormalities, and spleen tenderness and enlargement.
Genitourinary tract: inflammation of the urethra and bladder, pelvic pain, testicular pain, and loss of sexual desire.
General: tiredness, lack of stamina, fever, vague discomfort, irritability, nervousness or anxiety, and weight loss or gain.
Borrelia is a brilliant bacterium that can avoid detection by the body’s immune system by changing shape, becoming cell-wall deficient (living inside red blood cells) or encysting over with albumin, which antibiotics can’t reach, and hiding out in a dormant state in hard to reach places like the spaces between ligaments and bones.
If you suspect your or someone you know has Lyme, you should find a doctor who knows about the disease and how to treat it correctly. The earlier you get treatment, the better.
Lyme is not just another little infection that goes away in a week or two; people have died from it.
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2. February 2012 at 2:28 pm
Hi there…
I was wondering if you could give me a list of doctors in the Baltimore and surrounding areas. I feel like I live in the doctor’s office lately with a variety of symptoms. They have done a Lyme test along with every other possible reumatological test and everything shows that I am fine. I feel awful and my symptoms at times are debilitating. My PCM says I cant have Lyme because the test was neg, but my husband works with a bunch of epidemiologists and they are all telling him to get me to a doctor that knows about Lyme. Thank you for your help.
Shawnee
3. February 2012 at 4:59 am
Smart husband, Shawnee. The Lyme tests regular doctors use are very unreliable, reporting many false negatives. You need a doctor who knows how to diagnose Lyme correctly and treat it adequately if you have it. I’m sending Maryland Lyme info so you can find a Lyme specialist. Thanks for asking.
2. February 2012 at 10:30 am
Hi, do you have any info for Idaho. Boise area? Thanks!
3. February 2012 at 4:56 am
ID Lyme info coming up, Hall. Thanks for asking.
2. February 2012 at 10:17 am
Hello, we have a suspicion that my mom has got Lime disease. She has been bitten by ticks a few times in the last years. Since last time (been a few months already) she has had a number of strange symptoms. She did not have a rash but her joints started hurting. Her immune system has gotten weaker, she has some periods of irregular heart beat, dizziness, fatigue, some slight fevers every now and then, muscle twitching and other things that I cannot recall right now. She doesn’t have insurance and I would like to find a good Lime literate doctor that will not waste their money but will know to do all the right tests. She took doxicycline for 10 days but is saying all the time that she still doesn’t feel so well and the symptoms continue. Could you please send me contact info for such a doctor in Chicago area, Northern suburbs. They live in Des Plaines, IL 60016.
Thank you so much for your help!
3. February 2012 at 4:52 am
IL Lyme info is on its way, Iva. Thanks for asking and for being such a caring daughter.
2. February 2012 at 7:02 am
Hi, I live in Orange Co. New York and we have a known tick and lyme disease problem here, I’ve found ticks on myself since I was little but none that I noticed had bitten and lodge themselves in me. But I have a lot of really bothersome physical symptoms and I was wondering, if I ask my doctor to test me (I never mentioned this to her before, that I wanted to get tested) and it comes back negative, could I really still have lyme disease? And if so do I need to get tested until it comes back positive to convince her to treat me? I’m constantly tired (exhausted really) and have been for years and years. I wake up tired, I’m tired all day, I just don’t feel like I have any strength. I just want to sleep. But I also battle insomnia and it’s a painful cycle. I have a lot of other physical and neurological symptoms but I’m not a doctor and I’m scared if I bring these concerns up with my doctor she’ll think I’m crazy and a hypochondriac. I just don’t feel well and my neck is always stiff and sore, I get restless leg and sometimes my leg or another part of me jerks or twitches. My eye twitches a lot, I have floaters but I got an eye exam last year and the doctor after telling her about floaters found nothing wrong with my eyes. I see flashes of light at times and my eyes are always soo dry my lids have literally stuck to my eyes at times. My throat hurts a lot, I always have to clear my throat (literally every day no matter what). I have problems with feeling either constipated or having diarrhea. I was looking up low body temperature and came across a link about lyme disease and it feels like me. My temp is in the 97s or 96s and I’m either always freezing cold when it’s not that cool out, or all of a sudden I’m sweating and hot. Or I feel feverish and then my temp is like 96.9. I lost hair and thought I had female pattern baldness but then was diagnosed after a scalp biopsy with alopecia areata. But I wonder if Lyme could have triggered it in me. I have no clue, maybe I’m crazy and maybe it’s not lyme but I don’t know what to do and I’m scared if I get tested and it comes back negative I might actually help it. I have a ton of other symptoms too. I used to be able to focus now I can’t. I can’t watch an entire tv show or movie. I have a hard time reading a book. I forget things all the time and sometimes say the wrong word then realize after a bit my mistake and correct it, and I keep mixing up letters in certain words. I constantly write hte and that’s just one example. I never was dyslexic growing up. It’s more common for me now to mix up letters. Can you offer any advice or info? I don’t know what to do. I’m tired of being so exhausted all the time and wanting to spend all day in bed. And I’m tired of my family just thinking I’m lazy when I really want to go do things I’m just so tired.
2. February 2012 at 7:55 pm
Chrissy, you’ve got something going on with your health that needs attention. That’s what doctors are for. If a doctor tells you it’s all in your head or you’re a hypochondriac, you need to find another doctor. It probably isn’t worth trying to get your current doctor to test you if they know little or nothing about Lyme. If they do agree to test, they’ll most likely use the CDC Lyme test, which is very unreliable and reports a lot of false negatives (meaning it says you don’t have Lyme when you do). Most Lyme-literate doctors treat mainly on clinical symptoms, with tests like the IGeneX test as a backup.
I’m sending you NY Lyme info so you can find a Lyme specialist. Please see someone who knows how to diagnose Lyme correctly and treat it adequately if you have it. Lyme is usually more than one infection. You need to find out what you have.
Thanks for asking.
2. February 2012 at 12:46 am
I had 3-4 tick bites more than 2 years ago (catched them along the californian coast near davenport, santa cruz county) one tick bite was red and itching almost 1 year long, since this time I feel not like myself anymore everything began with constipation (bloody stool) I had colonoscopy and endoscopy and several ct scans and blood tests but everything came back negative further symptoms are:sudden knee pain, numbness and later pain in my ellbows/arms to the extend that I could barely bend/move my arms anymore, rashes allover my body (this occured maybe 2 months long), rashes on anus (this is allready happening since maybe 1 year), crawling sensation underneath my skin, heatburn, gassing, blurred vision, testicular pain, sexual dysfunction, extreme fatigue, constant abdominal and back pain, sleeping disorders, mood swings and short breath. now after I’ve seen all kind of different specialists (GI and urologists) my urologist brought up lyme disease I looked it up online and I’m stunned how many symptoms I have had over the last 2 1/2 years which are listed under lyme disease, he gave me referral to rheumatologist in berkeley I wonder if this doctor can finally help after what appears like a neverending struggle, I had several antibiotic treatments for what was believed prostatitis including doxycyclone which I took 4 weeks long but this didn’t help but rather made me feel more sick to the stomach (each of the 3 antibiotics I took for 4-6 weeks).
2. February 2012 at 12:48 pm
Michael, you should see someone who knows how to diagnose Lyme and associated tick-borne illnesses correctly and treat them adequately if you have any. Sad to say, most rheumatologists, neurologists, and infectious disease specialists know little or nothing about Lyme. I’m sending you CA Lyme info so you can find a Lyme doctor if you want one. Thanks for asking.