Thursday morning, my nine year old son, came crying into my room frustrated that he could hardly get down from the top of his bunk. He came to me all tuckered out and whined, "I just can't pick up the baby today. I can't stand straight, my back has sharp pains up and down the center. My shoulder is throbbing." I was concerned while listening to him rattle his symptoms off, that naturally he needed a hug - Thank God he had no shirt on! There it was, the red EM rash, the size of a baseball. It was a little surprising at first to see, because this was our first ever EM rash. Then came the dozens of questions only a mother knows how to drill, "Did you fall and hit your back? Did a ball hit you? Did your brother hit you?" and the questions went on. Then I realized what I was looking at, the mark of the Lyme beast; and I felt slightly greatful. Unfortunately, he had been suffering from a list of symptoms since the end of May, right after I removed a normal wood tick embedded deep beneath the skin. I was told wood ticks can not carry Lyme disease and not to worry. After symptoms started showing I went in for the tests, but they were negative. Without a known deer tick bite, EM rash, or positive test results his doctor would not prescribe an antibiotic. I have no idea if he got bite again, or if this was some delayed rash, but I pray the 21 day antibiotic treatment will be enough. It is all about how soon treatment can be started, and our doctors need to start using clinical diagnosis, to prevent the long term suffering for some people. Check out this link, I had no idea the rash could appear around 32 days after exposure - Wow!
I am a firm believer in keeping lists, and well kept logs for each child and their symptoms (I have a horrible memory). I had a clear list of symptoms, dates, strange marks or known tick bites for my adventurous son. As frustrating as it was, I believe we parents need to have this type of knowledge as proof, in order to help direct our doctors in properly seeking the correct diagnosis. Perhaps these listed dates and symptoms played some roll in helping treat our son this time around, but I truly believe it was the EM rash which was the clincher.
The question was asked by a friend, 'What would you have done if the doctor wouldn't prescribe antibiotic?' The plan would have been - Find a Doctor Who Will! As mothers we seem to just know what is normal for our children and what is not. A good doctor should really listen carefully to our concerns. It just isn't normal for a nine year old to have joints that ache, back pains, shoulder pains, unable to put on their socks, or not want to play their favorite sports. When they just want to sleep, or lay around sad, then there is really something seriously wrong. I believe there are other diseases out there as well, and this is the tough part about Lyme, but when in doubt what is the six dollar antibiotic going to hurt? Yes, I realize we do not want to create the super bug, but diagnosis at the clinical stage is very important and we need to be on top of this disease. I pray our doctors can learn to take ownership of their educations and start learning to be doctors of medical science, to solve problems outside of the box, and have the confidence to treat our sick loved ones. This is the war zone we are living in, our American medical system at its best. We should hope for a better medical future, where we have doctors who are not under the governments thumb and insurance companies stifling grip; that's a blog for my husband.
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