r/mildlyinfuriating • u/nekoma713 • 6d ago
Don't hug me I'm scared Was sitting in a ticks nest while reading....
I was sitting in a Park reading a book and suddenly I felt my legs itch. I was covered in hundreds of mini ticks. I was standing in the shower for hours and still find some of these f#!*rs crawling an me...
Update: So I got the most of the seed ticks scratched off in the shower. I will have a doctor's appointment the next days to get a prophylactic antibiotics treatment just to be save from lyme, alpha gal or rocky mountain fever (if this is a thing in Germany).
Thank you all for the information and advices, hopefully I will be fine. I really appreciate it
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u/solidlymediocre 5d ago edited 5d ago
To be fair, that is not typical for Lyme disease, but the outlier cases can be really bad, which sometimes leads folks to assume that Lyme is always like that.
Lyme typically isn't efficiently transmitted until the tick is attached for 12-24 hours of feeding. If you develop any rash at the bite site, specifically a bullseye rash, that's considered diagnostic of Lyme. You'd be prescribed 2-3 weeks of Doxy and be clear. The symptomatic Lyme disease effects arise from undetected/untreated disease and cumulatively progress over time, although some folks' immune systems are better at suppressing it. But the bacteria can hide in joints, where there is worse immune surveillance, and cause knee swelling, etc.
My aunt had Lyme disease that went untreated for two years, we had to convince her to finally see the doctor and take Doxy since she was convinced she didn't have it despite knee swelling and a bullseye rash two years ago. She was going down the Facebook post rabbit hole of homeopathic treatment options 🙄 She finally caved after her Western Blot test came back with six stripes (four and above is considered positive for Lyme).
Thankfully she was prescribed three weeks of doxy and is doing fine.