I do not have Lyme Disease

Posted By: Adam 2 Comments

So, I guess I have some splain'in to do.

There is an inherent risk — of embarrassment, at least — in self-diagnosis. I hope you can understand my thought process:

  • Camping trip involving dozens of deer ticks crawling all over me, day and night.
  • Doctor wants to hedge against possibility of Lyme, puts me on the meds.
  • Circular rash develops.

Having no past personal experience with Lyme — not even a friend or fellow Boy Scout, after more than 10 years going camping and such, if you can believe it — I jumped straight to the conclusion of Lyme. What else could it be, right? Right?! Wrong, I guess.

I have Ringworm — not to be confused with Tapeworm or Pinworm, as has already been the case with others I have informed (those are actual parasitic worms, Ringworm is just fungus). The doc says that the most likely cause is that Dylan brought it home from day care and gave it to me. Luckily, so far, he's not showing any signs of developing it himself.

The prognosis for Ringworm is much better than that for Lyme. Lyme is treatable, for sure, and if I did have it, my uneducated guess is that we caught it early enough to avoid any significant side effects; though untreated it can be a significant detriment.

The treatment for Ringworm is also much simpler: just a topical anti-fungal cream, twice a day. Wash your hands well, and don't touch it. But of course, not just any anti-fungal cream. This one:

Lamisil

That's right, JOCK ITCH cream. I tried hard to find a generic alternative, hoping that it might not be covered in the words "JOCK ITCH", but sadly, there didn't seem to be any alternative with the same active ingredients. So I picked up what I imagined to be a giant sign reading "I HAVE JOCK ITCH BECAUSE I DON'T WASH MY JUNK" and marched to the front of Rite Aid to pay for it. If I had a hat and dark sunglasses available, I would have tried hard to hide my face.

So now, in addition to my regular pills, I'm taking antibiotics as a hedge against Lyme, I'm on jock-itch cream for the fungus growing on my back, and some other prescription-strength Cortisone-like cream to deal with the localized allergic reactions from the tick bites.

But I don't have Lyme.

2 responses to “I do not have Lyme Disease”

  1. Well, in my book, its always better to err on the side of caution. Sorry for your embarrassment. . .

    I'm GLAD you mostlikelydonothave Lymes disease. Thats a good thing :)

    Love you, Kiddo.

    MomW

    MomW ~ Sep 10, 2010 at 2:16 PM

  2. Was very glad to hear the news before, but I still had already done some reading. I also found pictures of the 'ring' type of rash that shows up around Lyme infected bites. It's a lot different than the small ring you had.

    Even if I had known it looked so different I would have still thought like you did and wanted to be sure it wasn't Lyme.

    A big scare to be sure! So glad you seem to have caught a break this time - you were due!

    As for jock itch walk of shame, I can go you one better. I had to ask where the condoms were and the lady wouldn't come around the counter where she could hear me. After a couple of discrete attempts I decided WTF and said very loudly "WHERE ARE THE CONDOMS?". She quickly ran around the counter and escorted me to the correct isle.

    Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it... |:^)

    Dad

    Dad ~ Sep 10, 2010 at 5:20 PM

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