I'm not in health care, honey, but thought this might at least answer some of your questions (from WebMD.com). Try to relax. Even if you do have it, my Aunt did, and she was treated and she is fine.
Lyme Disease: The Facts, the Challenge
A good review of Lyme Disease, but unfortunately, it doesn't discuss the new preventive vaccine.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Introduction
In the early 1970s, a mysterious clustering of arthritis cases occurred among children in Lyme, Connecticut, and surrounding towns. Medical researchers soon recognized the illness as a distinct disease, which they called Lyme disease. They subsequently described the clinical features of Lyme disease, established the usefulness of antibiotic therapy in its treatment, identified the deer tick as the key to its spread, and isolated the bacterium that caused it.
Lyme disease is still mistaken for other ailments, and it continues to pose many other challenges: it can be difficult to diagnose because of the inadequacies of today's laboratory tests, and it can be troublesome to treat in its later phases. Development of a vaccine to prevent Lyme disease is underway.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Public Health Service, conducts and supports biomedical research aimed at meeting the challenges of Lyme disease. This brochure presents the most recently available information on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Lyme disease.
How Lyme Disease Became Known
Lyme disease was first recognized in 1975 after researchers investigated why unusually large numbers of children were being diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in Lyme, Connecticut, and two neighboring towns. The investigators discovered that most of the affected children lived near wooded areas that harbored ticks. They also found that the children's first symptoms typically started in the summer months coinciding with the height of the tick season. Several of the patients interviewed reported having a skin rash just before developing their arthritis, and many also recalled being bitten by a tick at the rash site.
Further investigations resulted in the discovery that tiny deer ticks infected with a spiral-shaped bacterium or spirochete (which was later named Borrelia burgdorferi) were responsible for the outbreak of arthritis in Lyme.
Ticks That Most Commonly Transmit B. burgdorferi in the U.S.
(These ticks are all quite similar in appearance.)
Ixodes scapularis -- most common in the northeast and midwest. Also found in the south and southeast.
Ixodes pacificus -- found on west coast.
In Europe, a skin rash similar to that of Lyme disease had been described in medical literature dating back to the turn of the century. Lyme disease may have spread from Europe to the United States in the early 1900s but only recently was recognized as a distinct illness.
The ticks most commonly infected with B. burgdorferi usually feed and mate on deer during the adult part of their life cycle. The recent resurgence of the deer population in the northeast and the influx of suburban developments into rural areas where deer ticks are commonly found have probably contributed to the disease's rising prevalence.
The number of reported cases of Lyme disease, as well as the number of geographic areas in which it is found, has been increasing. Lyme disease has been reported in nearly all states in this country, although most cases are concentrated in the coastal northeast, mid-Atlantic states, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and northern California. Lyme disease is endemic in large areas of Asia and Europe.
Symptoms of Lyme Disease
Erythema Migrans. In most people, the first symptom of Lyme disease is a red rash known as erythema migrans (EM). The telltale rash starts as a small red spot at the site of the tick bite. The spot expands over a period of days or weeks, forming a circular or ovalshaped rash. Sometimes the rash resembles a bull's eye, appearing as a red ring surrounding a clear area with a red center. The rash, which can range in size from that of a dime to the entire width of a person's back, appears within a few weeks of a tick bite and usually occurs at the site of a bite. As infection spreads, rashes can appear at different sites on the body.
Erythema migrans is often accompanied by symptoms such as fever, headache, stiff neck, body aches, and fatigue. Although these flu-like symptoms may resemble those of common viral infections, Lyme disease symptoms tend to persist or may occur intermittently.
Arthritis. After several months of being infected by B. burgdorferi, slightly more than half of those people not treated with antibiotics develop recurrent attacks of painful and swollen joints that last a few days to a few months. The arthritis can shift from one joint to another; the knee is most commonly affected. About 10 to 20 percent of untreated patients will go on to develop chronic arthritis.
Neurological Symptoms. Lyme disease can also affect the nervous system, causing symptoms such as stiff neck and severe headache (meningitis), temporary paralysis of facial muscles (Bell's palsy), numbness, pain or weakness in the limbs, or poor motor coordination. More subtle changes such as memory loss, difficulty with concentration, and a change in mood or sleeping habits have also been associated with Lyme disease.
Nervous system abnormalities usually develop several weeks, months, or even years following an untreated infection. These symptoms often last for weeks or months and may recur.
Heart Problems. Fewer than one out of ten Lyme disease patients develops heart problems, such as an irregular heartbeat, which can be signalled by dizziness or shortness of breath. These symptoms rarely last more than a few days or weeks. Such heart abnormalities generally surface several weeks after infection.
Other Symptoms. Less commonly, Lyme disease can result in eye inflammation, hepatitis, and severe fatigue, although none of these problems is likely to appear without other Lyme disease symptoms being present.
Most Common Symptoms of Lyme Disease
Early Infection
EM Rash (erythema migrans)
Muscle and joint aches
Headache
Fever
Fatigue
Early Disseminated Infection
Multiple EM lesions
Facial paralysis (Bell's palsy)
Meningitis
Radiculitis (numbness, tingling, burning)
Brief episodes of joint pain and swelling
Late Infection
Arthritis, intermittent or chronic
Encephalopathy (mild to moderate confusion)
Less common symptoms of lyme disease
Heart abnormalities
Eye problems such as conjunctivitis
Chronic skin disorders
Encephalomyelitis (limb weakness, motor coordination)
How Lyme Disease Is Diagnosed
Lyme disease may be difficult to diagnose because many of its symptoms mimic those of other disorders. In addition, the only distinctive hallmark unique to Lyme disease --the erythema migrans rash -- is absent in at least one-fourth of the people who become infected. The results of recent studies indicate that an infected tick must be attached to a person's skin for at least 2 days to transmit the Lyme bacteria. Although a tick bite is an important clue for diagnosis, many patients cannot recall having been bitten recently by a tick. This is not surprising because the tick is tiny, and a tick bite is usually painless.
When a patient with possible Lyme disease symptoms does not develop the distinctive rash, a physician will rely on a detailed medical history and a careful physical examination for essential clues to diagnosis, with laboratory tests playing a supportive role.
Blood Tests. Unfortunately, the Lyme disease microbe itself is difficult to isolate or culture from body tissues or fluids. Most physicians look for evidence of antibodies against B. burgdorferi in the blood to confirm the bacterium's role as the cause of a patient's symptoms. Antibodies are molecules or small substances tailor-made by the immune system to lock onto and destroy specific microbial invaders.
Some patients experiencing nervous system symptoms may also undergo a spinal tap. Using this procedure, doctors can detect brain and spinal cord inflammation and can look for antibodies or genetic material of B. burgdorferi in the spinal fluid.
The inadequacies of the currently available diagnostic tests may prevent physicians from firmly establishing whether the Lyme disease bacterium is causing a patient's symptoms. In the first few weeks following infection, antibody tests are not reliable because a patient's immune system has not produced enough antibodies to be detected. Antibiotics given to a patient early during infection may also prevent antibodies from reaching detectable levels, even though the Lyme disease bacterium is the cause of the patient's symptoms.
The antibody test used most often is called an ELISA test. When an ELISA is positive, it should be confirmed with a second, more specific test, called a Western blot.
Physicians must rely on their clinical judgment in diagnosing someone with Lyme disease even though the patient does not have the distinctive erythema migrans rash. Such a diagnosis would be based on the time of year, history of a tick bite, the patient's symptoms, and a thorough ruling out of other diseases that might cause those symptoms. Doctors may consider such factors as an initial appearance of symptoms during the summer months when tick bites are most likely to occur, and outdoor exposure in an area where Lyme disease is common.
New Tests Under Development. To improve the accuracy of Lyme disease diagnosis, NIH-supported researchers are developing a number of new tests that promise to be more reliable than currently available procedures.
NIH scientists are developing tests that use the highly sensitive genetic engineering technique, known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), to detect extremely small quantities of the genetic material of the Lyme disease bacterium in body tissues and fluids.
A bacterial protein, outer surface protein (Osp) C, is proving useful for the early detection of specific antibodies in people with Lyme disease.
How Lyme Disease Is Treated
Nearly all Lyme disease patients can be effectively treated with an appropriate course of antibiotic therapy. In general, the sooner such therapy is begun following infection, the quicker and more complete the recovery.
Antibiotics, such as doxycycline, cefuroxime axetil, or amoxicillin taken orally for a few weeks, can speed the healing of the erythema migrans rash and usually prevent subsequent symptoms such as arthritis or neurological problems. Doxycycline will also effectively treat most other tick-borne diseases.
Patients younger than 9 years or pregnant or lactating women with Lyme disease are treated with amoxicillin, cefuroxime axetil, or penicillin because doxycycline can stain the permanent teeth developing in young children or unborn babies. Patients allergic to penicillin are given erythromycin.
Lyme disease patients with neurological symptoms are usually treated with the antibiotic ceftriaxone given intravenously once a day for a month or less. Most patients experience full recovery.
Lyme arthritis may be treated with oral antibiotics. Patients with severe arthritis may be treated with ceftriaxone or penicillin given intravenously. To ease these patients' discomfort and further their healing, the physician might also give anti-inflammatory drugs, draw fluid from affected joints, or surgically remove the inflamed lining of the joints.
Lyme arthritis resolves in most patients within a few weeks or months following antibiotic therapy, although it can take years to disappear completely in some people. Some Lyme disease patients who are untreated for several years may be cured of their arthritis with the proper antibiotic regimen. If the disease has persisted long enough, however, it may irreversibly damage the structure of the joints.
Physicians prefer to treat Lyme disease patients experiencing heart symptoms with antibiotics such as ceftriaxone or penicillin given intravenously for about 2 weeks. If these symptoms persist or are severe enough, patients may also be treated with corticosteroids or given a temporary internal cardiac pacemaker. People with Lyme disease rarely experience long-term heart damage.
Following treatment for Lyme disease, some people still have muscle achiness, neurologic symptoms such as problems with memory and concentration, and persistent fatigue. NIH-sponsored researchers are conducting studies to determine the cause of these symptoms and how to best treat them.
Researchers are also currently conducting studies to assess the optimal duration of antibiotic therapy for the various manifestations of Lyme disease. Investigators are also testing newly developed antibiotics for their effectiveness in countering the Lyme disease bacterium.
Unfortunately, a bout with Lyme disease is no guarantee that the illness will be prevented in the future. The disease can strike more than once in the same individual if he or she is reinfected with the Lyme disease bacterium.
