A few weeks ago up with a tick attached to my earlobe, which became mildly inflamed and healed up after a week. A week later I found two small ticks on my abdomen, even after extra precautions, one which left a bite that took almost two weeks to heal. I’ve been taking andrographis, echinacea, and colloidal silver (I know you aren’t a fan of that one), applied andrographis, silver, and tea tree oil topically. For a couple of days I had low back stiffness, which may or may not have been due to the ticks, and I took homeopathic Rhus tox for that and the itching, which cleared it up quickly. Since early tests are often negative, do you think it’s worthwhile to be tested anyway? I had Lyme back in the 80s, which started like a mosquito bite, became very large and inflamed a month later, developed severe headaches, fever, all the classic symptoms of acute Lyme. The doctor gave me an antibiotic injection and 10 days of oral (I assume Doxycycline, but I have no records). The test was negative. The bulls eye didn’t appear until near the end. On the 10th day I broke out in hives from the antibiotic, so my current doctor said I’m allergic to Doxy, however the treatment was successful. I hate to take an antibiotic if not necessary, since I don’t have any symptoms, but do you think it’s advisable? It would have to be a different antibiotic.

Was there any other commonly used antibiotic for Lyme besides Doxycycline in the ‘80s since I can’t confirm that as the one that caused an allergic reaction?

I thought that the bite on my abdomen was healed, but it’s still a little pink with a red scab, and was itching last night. If you think Amoxicillin would work, I’m pretty sure I’ve had that for dental work with no problem. Sorry to hear about your tenth bout of Lyme! I think they are very hungry this year because they didn’t bother me for a long time.

David said: Tetracycline was sometimes used for Lymes in the 80’s as well as amoxicillin, I had a very bad reaction to tetracycline back then, the first time I got Lyme disease (very early 80’s or late 70’s. The bullseye rash is actually not that common, less than 40% of people with lyme develop it. In the future if you get bitten by a tick have the tick tested (in PA they test for a bunch of common things for free and more uncommon ones if you want to pay for it). If the Tick does not have Borrelia , then you don’t either. As for you getting tested, the most common symptoms of Lyme disease are a chronic low grade headache, a stiff neck and intense fatigue. The rash, fever, enlarged lymph nodes nodes, or joint pain are much less common. Joint pain usually comes later. My doctor does not test until at least 3-4 weeks have gone by and some degree of symptoms. If yi can afford it the Igenx Borrelia test is themes effective test (insurance may not cover it and it can cost $1500.00, if that is not an option than the CDC version of the western blot is ok, but not entirely accurate). BTW I doubt the ANdrographis, Echinacea or colloidal silver will have any preventive effects.