Living in CT and often going in the woods, you DO get lyme disease. Many people in Connecticut have it, most people don't even know, and that's BAD. It can cause alzheimer's like effects in your twenties-thirties, after having it for only 2-5 years. It can be treated at this point, but the procedure is a terrible amount of IV antibiotics, and you will be in the hospital for at least 3 days, and out of commission for probably a week afterwards. It will cause SEVERE arthritis like effects in your forties and fifties, even with treatment sometimes. It attacks the brain, joints, muscles. It can (and does) permeate just about every tissue in your body, as it's a corkscrew. Tt burrows just like the creature that carries it. I had it for approx. 2 weeks before I developed Bell's palsy on the left side of my face(facial paralysis).
Here's a couple myths that I dispelled when I contracted it, personal experience:
1: The rash. It's actually quite a bit more like a BRUISE than a rash. It might have a slight red ring on the outside, but it definitely isn't a skin irritation. It's much deeper, and is sensitive to pressure, not abrasion.
2: The rash appears where the tick bite is. False. I got the rash in 3 distinct places on my body, and while I never found a tick, I know for certain I didn't have 3 ticks. The rash was actually not my first symptom.
3. No symptoms: Now, maybe some people don't exhibit symptoms, but I definitely did. Before I found the rash, I was sick for about 2 days with a "summer cold". There wasn't much congestion, but fever and aches almost like a very mild flu. I say very mild flu because I've gotten real flus and they are just awful; Fever hallucinations, profuse vomiting, the whole 9. This wasn't that bad, mostly a fever and achy, but it still sure wasn't fun. This also didn't run as long as a flu, maybe 2-3 days. Be suspicious of any summer colds. It got better, but this wasn't my body defeating the bacteria, it was my body becoming accustomed and my immune system no longer viewing it as a threat. Also not good.
4. The advanced symptoms. The one most commonly reported is extreme fatigue. I didn't experience this at all, and because the "rash" didn't look like most of the photos that I had seen, with the concentric red rings, but looked and felt more like a bruise with a very thin red line around the outside, I didn't pay it much mind until I experienced facial paralysis. The symptoms of Lyme disease can be extremely variable, as it can attack any of your body's sytems.
4. The treatment. DON'T BELIEVE YOUR DOCTOR. He or she will probably put you on 30 days of antibiotics. This is NOT long enough to eradicate it fully. Sometimes up to 6 months is required, but 6 weeks should be your minimum. If a doctor won't give you longer, finish up your bottle and go to a walk in clinic or some other physician to get some more. You REALLY want to eradicate it as much as possible. The long term effects are not something you want to deal with. The only things you should accept(barring -cillin allergies) are Doxycycline, Penicillin, or Amoxicillin. Another that I have heard of is Cefuroxime axetil (Ceftin), but I don't know much about that. Erythromycin (for people allergic to penicillin) is the antibiotic generally prescribed for -cillin allergic patients.
5. It can be cured with antibiotics. False. It can be TREATED, and mostly eradicated, but chances are, if you have exhibited any symptoms further than the initial illness and the rash, that you've got it forever. It is a corkscrew, and drills deep within muscle , organ, and sometimes even bone tissue. Only the extremely harsh antibiotic regimens(read above) really get rid of it forever, and sometimes even these don't. That being said, it goes more or less dormant, and unless under heavy sleep deprivation, stress, malnourishment, usually sympotms don't return and you can consider yourself cured, but it should be in the back of your mind to watch for symptoms.
6. Reinfection. You can absolutely get it again from another tick, and it's likely that onset of symptoms will be faster as you already have the bacteria in your body. Once again, a 6 week regimen of amoxicillin or doxycycline should eradicate most of it.
Once you have been treated, there isn't much to worry about. You should get checked when you have a physical to be certain it's not in remission, and you should be
weary of your health if you are feeling fatigued or generally unhealthy. It's not that big of a deal, it's not something that I think about daily or even all that often, but I'm weary when I get sick or am feeling generally unhealthy, and I make sure to pay attention if I start feeling any strange or familiar symptoms.
