HELP! I’ve Been Bitten By a Tick. Now What?

May 25, 2019

https://www.lymedisease.org/bitten-by-tick/

LYME SCI: Help! I’ve been bitten by a tick. Now what?

Please go to link for full article written by Lonnie Marcum.  I’ve summarized necessary steps below:

  1. Take a picture of the tick while it’s still attached.  
  2. Remove the tick properly and promptly.  
  3. Place tick on clear tape and take a picture of the front and back.
  4. Put tick in plastic bag with a damp cotton ball, label with name, date, site of bite, and length of tick attachment.
  5. Wash bite area with soap and water, disinfect with rubbing alcohol and apply triple antibiotics ointment or antiseptic.
  6. Identify the tick:  tickencounter.org where you submit the picture and they will identify it for FREE.
  7. Mail tick in to see what pathogens are involved.  If your state doesn’t offer free testing, you can contact IGeneX, Tick Report, or Ticknology.
  8. See your doctor but understand testing at this point is futile as antibodies aren’t picked up in the first 4-6 weeks. Lyme has been and will always be a clinical diagnosis.
  9. ILADS recommends you discuss prophylaxis treatment (20 days of doxycycline – never the 1 dose as the research recommending this is flawed) if you’ve been bitten by a blacklegged tick. Everyone admits early diagnosis and treatment makes all the difference.  The “wait and see approach” has not worked.
  10. Understand that while this particular treatment can prevent Lyme, doxy will not touch many coinfections, so you can still develop symptoms if coinfections are involved.
  11. Write any symptoms that are not normal for you down in a calendar. Take pictures of any visual changes on the body.  Contact doctor asap if any signs appear.
  12. If tick results come back positive, ILADS recommends staying on treatment of 4-6 weeks for early Lyme.  Other confections will necessitate other medications.
How to remove a tick

While this video states it takes 24 hours to transmit, please know, it’s happened within a few hours:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/14/transmission-time-for-lymemsids-infection/

What effective Lyme treatment looks like:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

Tick prevention:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/12/tick-prevention-2019/

While ticks are certainly a concern, there are many potential ways this is getting transmitted:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/24/microbiology-professor-im-convinced-lyme-disease-is-transmittable-from-person-to-person/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Ticks, Treatment

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