Lyme disease- How serious/dangerous is it?

Silver Member Joined: Oct 21 2009 Posts: 856

My toddler had a tick 2 weeks ago and I took it to my pediatrician to send away for testing. Today, a nurse from the doctors office called me that the results came back and the tick tested positive for carrying lyme disease. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for 30 days.

Does this mean that she definitely has lyme disease? She has no symptoms.
How serious/dangerous is lyme disease?

Diamond Member Joined: Nov 29 2010 Posts: 2922

while lyme disease is serious if you took the tic out right away and she is put on antibiotics then her risk of lyme disease or complications thereof are very small. The worst part of lyme disease is when it is untreated and then can affect all different parts of the body like the heart etc. But with treatment I don't think your daughter is in that predicament. I am not a doctor and that's the information I know. Here is some general info. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002296/

most likely you don't have to worry. Refuah Shleima!!

Silver Member Joined: Oct 21 2009 Posts: 856

Thanks.

How can I know how long the tick was there before I noticed it? I was still able to see most of it. Does that mean I noticed it early enough?

Diamond Member Joined: May 10 2010 Posts: 3099

It grows in the body so if it was still relatively small, it wasn't in for too long. I don't think that means that your daughter did or didn't get lyme disease, length of time is not indicative. Lyme disease is a serious illness and it is crucial that she gets the antibiotics.

clowny, I think you should call the pediatrician and let him/her know that you are worried, and would like to know how serious this is, what to expect, if there is anything else you can do for your daughter, etc.

May all your worries be for naught!
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Really Awesome Mom!

Gold Member Joined: May 09 2007 Posts: 1360

How big was the tick when you found it? Were the legs clustered toward the head or spread around the body? If clustered toward the head, then the tick was engorged and probably had been feeding for enough time to transmit Lyme Disease. Similarly, when you removed it, was it still alive and crawling around, or did it die during the removal? If the removal was rough enough to kill the tick, it could well have transmitted Lyme Disease during removal even if it hadn't otherwise been latched long enough.

Ticks do not burrow into the skin. Only their mouthparts do -- the rest remains outside and grows until the tick is done feeding and then the tick detaches and crawls away.

We find deer ticks all the time. In fact, I found two yesterday -- one on my 3 year old and one on myself. I used to send every tick away for testing, but I have come to the realization that I just don't want my kids on antibiotics for every Lyme infected tick -- there are just way too many of them and most would never have had the chance to transmit Lyme anyway. Now I only send away ticks that are either engorged when I find them (rare, because I check nearly every night during the summer and definitely every night after they've been outside a lot) or where I had a bad removal. Luckily, both the ticks I found yesterday were still completely flat and both were fully intact and quite active after removal.

If found in the early stage you have nothing to worry about. In most cases its treated with antibiotics for x amount of time and your ok. If lyme goes untreated -Lyme is VERY seriousl! They just came out with a documentry on lyme- called "under our skin" Over there you can see the political side of it( some doctors dont recognize the disease) and the dangers of what it can lead to. People dont realize what a serious disease it is. Even my family took it lightly at first and now realize were in a serious pickle.