On our tour of the UK in our motorhome this "summer", I became unwell in Ireland and spent 48 hours in hospital. I told them that I suspected lyme disease and a blood test confirmed it. I was treated with antibiotics and made a full recovery within a few days. However, if untreated it can be very serious. The comedian/actress Miranda Hart had it when she was 14 and it was never treated - this is why she's been unwell for the whole of her life since then. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...-hart-review-chronic-illness-and-love-at-last
It’s a terrible disease and much more prevalent in the UK with the increase in tics. Another. Impact from the warming climate I’m afraid. Doctors not too brilliant at recognising the symptoms either.
I very reluctant to walk through longish grass with shorts on anymore and I tuck my trousers into my socks when out hiking. I'm glad you caught it early, its absolutely devastating for some if not treated. The musician Ren had it for years undiagnosed, ended up being diagnosed with all kinds of things before they worked out what it was:
Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill) also had it undiagnosed from a child. She was touring Europe and started hallucinating when the antibiotics she'd been prescribed for something else started causing symptoms of the Lyme disease. IIRC she married Adam Horovitz from the Beastie Boys so his insurance would help pay for treatment (they are still together).
Wow. Glad you recognised it and got treatment quickly. Hope you are totally free from it now mate. All the best Brian.
I had this strange looking mark on my arm which wasn't like any insect bite I'd ever had - didn't sting, itch or anything. In fact it was my wife that noticed it before me. I'd started getting a bit of a temperature and feeling really tired. Two weeks earlier we'd been on Arran where there are loads of deer and I remembered my son telling me that he'd had it but it took 2 weeks for the symptoms to start. It can have all sorts of nasty effects, some being neurological so I thought it wise to get it looked at.
Yes absolutely fine now mate, I reckon I got bit on Arran, we stayed at a place called Catacol and watched deer playing on the beach at sunset. Which was beautiful to see but they tend to be infested with ticks, no doubt the grass where we were parked was full of the buggers. Surprisingly, despite spending almost a week on Skye and 4 days on Arran we didn't get a single midge bite...
I got it a few years ago from a bite on a camping trip in North Yorkshire. Only reason I knew was the bite mark shape that wouldn’t go for a week or so, so went to Drs and had it confirmed with tests. Antibiotics for a month and then I was clear. I think I got to it before I got any major symptoms. When I went to the Dr though, she initially said nothing to worry about, I really pushed her about the size and shape of the bite mark and had to show her the images on google for her to believe what it potentially could be. If I had have just taken her word for it or not challenged her hypothesis, things could have been massively different.
When I told the A&E doctor (Castlebar hospital County Mayo) that I thought it was Lyme disease, he was quite arrogant saying I shouldn't be googling illnesses etc... Anyway he took a blood sample and came back a couple hours later to say that I had a "bacterial blood infection". An hour later another doctor came to see me and asked me if I'd had Lyme disease before...
Seriously my Dr’s are appalling. They have a 1 star google review result. 3 years ago, I had been feeling really unwell so had some blood tests in January. Didn’t hear back at all. Continued for months afterwards. As this was during Covid months it was impossible to get through on the phone and they weren’t letting anyone in. Anyway in May I thought eff it, I’m going to bang on the door until I see someone. The receptionist came to door and asked what I wanted, I told her the situation and she told me to wait. 5 mins later she came to me looking worried and said you’d better come in. I thought **** I’ve got cancer. She started to tell me that they should have called me in February with the results. When I asked her how this could have happened, her words were because I had a peculiar and uncommon second name she’d forgot to ring me as she couldn’t remember my name! Anyway Dr called me the morning after to apologise and tell me I was diabetic. He needed to do more blood tests before prescribing me the necessary drugs to help. Basically another 4 weeks minimum before I could get any respite. So 6 months after I should have had the medication I finally got it.
