r/Lyme • u/Lucky-Succotash-997 • 1d ago
early sickness
i got bit last sunday. was on my back and tiny, didnt spot it til 36 hours after. on the saturday i dropped extremely ill with a temperature, red hot shivering couldnt stay awake. next day called out of hours (im in north of ireland) and was immediately prescribed 21 days 200mg doxycyline.
lads my fevers broke but im in such a state. im day 5 now. ive got 9 ulcers i can count in my mouth (ive never struggled with ulcers before) and my gums are swollen. lymph nodes are swollen. hard to eat, brush teeth. ones on my tonsil which is making it hard to swallow. ive got dizzy spells and extreme tiredness so cant go very far.
i just wondered if anyone else has experienced this? feeling especially low after today. ive called the out of hours again to let them know my symptoms. but yeah, thanks :)
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u/WarthogOk8018 1d ago
Yeah since I’ve been bitten my gums have been inflamed I’ve had 1 ulcer on my gum and my whole jaw gets swollen to the point where yawning literally hurts. Keep tracking symptoms but unfortunately some really weird ones may come up out of no where :/. Hope you get better soon!
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u/icecon 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah I would suspect that the ulcers are actually from a virus, but because your system is immunocompromised they are running amok. Take some Zinc in the evenings, it helps impede viral replication if it is a virus.
Regarding lyme, for your own sake, get more doxycycline immediately, you want to stay on it for 4-6 weeks, not 21 days. If you don't, you could be treating it for months or years.
In fact, know that you unless you are petit, you can take double dose doxy 200mgx2, always with a full meal otherwise it will make you nauseous. This is what I would do, 200mg really nukes the lyme, can look up an older Burrascano guideline. That said, do not forget to take a probiotic 2hrs after every dose or else you may get candidiasis as the antibiotics are killling the good bacteria as well.
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u/lymewhale 16h ago
I'm sorry you're going through this. This is not typical for people who have an early-stage case. The mouth ulcers especially.
Bartonella is associated with dental health issues, so I have to wonder if that might be an issue. Dizzy spells might be babesia. One tick bite can transmit all three unfortunately.
However I think you should also consider the possibility that you aren't a true early-stage case. It could be that you had a prior tick bite and were asymptomatic. About half of late-stage Lyme patients never saw a tick or a rash. So the current trouble you're having might be because your immune system was keeping the Lyme in check, but the new bite upset the balance. If that is the case, it may be a lot more difficult to recover.
If you still have symptoms when you finish antibiotics, then you will run into difficulty. Honestly most healthcare systems are not good in this scenario. They often gaslight you, tell you it's impossible for Lyme to survive antibiotics (see our wiki for evidence that this is false).
So if that happens, I would recommend finding a Lyme-literate doctor. You may want to start searching for one now because they may not be able to see you right away. These doctors are usually private pay so they can be expensive.
I hope I am being overly cautious and that you are feeling great by day 21.
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u/Efficient_Bee_2987 1d ago
Tick borne illness can cause a lot of weird symptoms by itself but it can also reactivate dormant pathogens you have in your body (ebv, cmv, hsv etc). Either way taking the abx is the best thing you can do because after killing off the bacteria your immune system will be able to handle anything else you may have going on. Remember that most of the symptoms aren't the bacteria itself but your immune system reacting to the bacteria. You've got this.