Seems like when doctors are confounded, then a course of strong antibiotics might be a good Hail Mary, targeting various types of bacteria. If there’s any signs of improvement then that’s a good piece of evidence to move forward in that direction.
For anyone interested in a deeper dive into the history and impacts of Lyme Disease I highly recommend the podcast miniseries Patient Zero: https://www.patientzeropodcast.com/
Bacteriophages might be an interesting approach to treating Lyme disease in future. Pretty speculative at this stage though and how do you even know the bacteria are there (as this article points out). Once detected how do you avoid the bacteriophage causing an immune reaction, etc.
Wouldn't a simple bacterial blood culture test have caught it? If not, why not? In any event, the article doesn't share which antibiotics and herbals were used.
The writer is clearly a good, loving parent, but this stuck out to me:
> It took weeks of careful discussion before she would try a combination of antibiotics. We didn’t yet tell her these antibiotics make some patients feel sicker.
Shouldn’t she be told the possible risks of her medication? If she was 7 i would understand, but I think she’s like 14 at this point? I guess it may be hard to determine when people can own their health decisions. But I’m upset when kids aren’t treated as “real people”, i remember being ignored because I was just a kid. I suspect that by high school almost everyone should be informed about their health decisions.
This is good example of how disastrous NHS can be (and it's not even that serious compared to horror stories that involve cancer) and makes me look at the flawed but also clearly superior US health system with renewed appreciation.
citation needed? I'm a brit and will give you that the NHS has its failings but I hear bad things about the US system too. Probably the systems in France and Germany work better than either.
I'm amazed to see kids and adult wearing shorts going out for forest walks. We are in an area of dense woods filled with deer, and even the fields are full of sheep that also carry ticks... There is zero awareness in the general population of the dangers of tick bites!
I got Lyme about 2 months ago. Initially just woke up and had a small bite on back of thigh, thought it was just a fly bite or something and no tick was attached. That night I was feverish and for the next couple nights with muscle soreness like when you sleep on ground or something, mind you I was sleeping in a very rustic cabin so I presumed that actually was the cause. I watched the bite tho and it never showed a bullseye. Instead it had pustules and eventually grew to be a giant red inflamed bite the size of a, well at its peak basically the size of a basketball which is of course wild and alarming. The wound itself got infected which is why the bite grew to that size. At the time I actually thought I had like rolled over on a spider or something and it bit me multiple times cause I had no idea a tick bite could cause this sort of reaction, but I guess my body very violently reacted to the Lyme. I went and got antibiotics for my bite tho the initial GP I saw didn’t test for Lyme even tho I had a mystery bite from being in the woods. Regardless I went on antibiotics just for the infected bite but not for Lyme. It was only 2 weeks later when I was doing yoga and ended up “overstretching” my liver area (the start of my weird Lyme symptoms) such that my right flank was spasming and my whole back chain had seized up leading to a week of intense pain and inability to sleep due to the pain. Ultimately I went to the ER, because well I’m Canadian and the ER is the only place you can get timely healthcare. Thankfully the ER doc there heard about the bite and tested me for Lyme, which ultimately came back positive. I likely would’ve foolishly missed it were it not for her. So I’m very grateful I got bit in 2025 when docs are atleast starting to be more Lyme aware. I went on doxycycline and symptoms resolved. I’m still throwing the kitchen sink at it tho with auxiliary treatments too like ozone IV’s and traditional Chinese medicine herbs from a doc who did their PhD on Lyme. Very much front loading an aggressive approach as early as possible.
What I’ve learned is a couple things: 1. A bullseye doesn’t always appear even if it’s certainly Lyme disease, 2. The bite reaction can be very significant and not what you would think from a normal tic bite, 3. Doxycycline is an incredible drug but also the peer reviewed literature shows the Lyme bacteria and coinfections can remain after even extensive courses of doxy so while it’s very effective it’s not completely effective and shouldn’t be the only tool used. 4. Test early. I’m so thankful the ER doc caught it early for me and I got treated. I actually feel even better than before as ironically the doxy also fixed me decade long digestive issues which is a great plus. But Lyme in its early phase is such a different thing than Lyme that’s been around for a year +. I highly recommend testing asap if anyone ever has any concerns or worries
My dad got bit by a tick, came down with a high fever, but tested negative for Lyme so the doctor wouldn't prescribe antibiotics after two appointments with worsening symptoms.
He was hospitalized when he was too sick to walk and then an infectious disease specialist put him on antibiotics, and he got better in a few days, minus some permanent nerve damage in his face.
It's amazing how confident some doctors can be when they haven't got a fucking clue. The more I read about high false positive rates and non-lyme tick-borne bacteria the more mad I get about what happened.
If you're somewhat terrified of Lyme's disease, as I am, one thing you can do to protect yourself and relatives is wear Permethrin treated clothing, especially pants and socks[0].
After hiking, take a very close look at all of your body parts and remove any ticks. You can bag them and send them off to a lab for testing as well.
I've known multiple Lyme's sufferers. You do not want this.
18 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 42.7 ms ] threadBacteriophages might be an interesting approach to treating Lyme disease in future. Pretty speculative at this stage though and how do you even know the bacteria are there (as this article points out). Once detected how do you avoid the bacteriophage causing an immune reaction, etc.
> It took weeks of careful discussion before she would try a combination of antibiotics. We didn’t yet tell her these antibiotics make some patients feel sicker.
Shouldn’t she be told the possible risks of her medication? If she was 7 i would understand, but I think she’s like 14 at this point? I guess it may be hard to determine when people can own their health decisions. But I’m upset when kids aren’t treated as “real people”, i remember being ignored because I was just a kid. I suspect that by high school almost everyone should be informed about their health decisions.
citation needed? I'm a brit and will give you that the NHS has its failings but I hear bad things about the US system too. Probably the systems in France and Germany work better than either.
What I’ve learned is a couple things: 1. A bullseye doesn’t always appear even if it’s certainly Lyme disease, 2. The bite reaction can be very significant and not what you would think from a normal tic bite, 3. Doxycycline is an incredible drug but also the peer reviewed literature shows the Lyme bacteria and coinfections can remain after even extensive courses of doxy so while it’s very effective it’s not completely effective and shouldn’t be the only tool used. 4. Test early. I’m so thankful the ER doc caught it early for me and I got treated. I actually feel even better than before as ironically the doxy also fixed me decade long digestive issues which is a great plus. But Lyme in its early phase is such a different thing than Lyme that’s been around for a year +. I highly recommend testing asap if anyone ever has any concerns or worries
He was hospitalized when he was too sick to walk and then an infectious disease specialist put him on antibiotics, and he got better in a few days, minus some permanent nerve damage in his face.
It's amazing how confident some doctors can be when they haven't got a fucking clue. The more I read about high false positive rates and non-lyme tick-borne bacteria the more mad I get about what happened.
Having dealt with it myself, I can only hope that humanity starts taking lyme and other tick-borne diseases more seriously.
After hiking, take a very close look at all of your body parts and remove any ticks. You can bag them and send them off to a lab for testing as well.
I've known multiple Lyme's sufferers. You do not want this.
[0]: https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/prevention/index.html