In our last article on Lyme Disease, we discussed how to best prevent a tick bite and what to do if a tick is found burrowed into the skin. 

A tick bite does not necessarily mean a tick-borne infection will be transmitted, but it very well could. Vive’s Tick Bite Prevention Kit is useful to minimize the likelihood that a tick transmits an infection, and helps a person fight any infection that may have been passed along.

Despite one’s best efforts however, an acute infection can develop, and importantly, in many cases of Lyme disease, the patient does not remember ever having a tick bite!

So, today we are going to discuss the early, acute symptoms of Lyme Disease to be aware of. And lastly, these will be compared with the symptoms that develop with Chronic Lyme Disease.

Symptoms of Acute Lyme Disease

Acute and early symptoms may range between moderate to very severe in intensity, and may or may not include all or most of the following:

– fatigue

– headache

– bullseye (or other) rash at the site of the bite

– fever, sweats, and chills

– muscle pain

– joint pains

– neck pain 

– sleep issues

Of these symptoms, only the bulls-eye rash is properly diagnostic of Lyme disease. Unfortunately, this rash is only evident in some cases, estimated between 25 and 80%. The remaining symptoms are common in many types of acute infection, and not unique to Lyme.

Symptoms of Chronic Lyme Disease

Chronic Lyme Disease, on the other hand, presents with persistent symptoms including the following:

– persistent fatigue

– cognitive issues (brain fog, poor short-term memory)

– migrating joint pain or swelling

– muscle pain

– neuropathy (tingling, numbness, burning, or stabbing sensations)

– disturbed sleep

– Lyme carditis (dizziness or light-headedness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations)

– eye floaters

– stiff neck

Testing in Acute Lyme Disease

Laboratory tests in an acute case of Lyme disease is unreliable and often appear falsely negative within the first four weeks of infection. 

The difficulty that arises here is that a person will often NOT present with the bulls-eye rash that is characteristic of Lyme disease. Consequently, Lyme disease will not be properly treated until far too late, after which time it has spread to infect multiple areas of the body. 

This is why it is critical to treat even a suspected Lyme case or for at least 4 weeks after a tick bite (even without symptoms) with the appropriately dosed antibacterial medications or botanical remedies before testing can be completed/accomplished.

Laboratory testing for Lyme (after 4 weeks post tick bite) and for Chronic Lyme Disease

We will limit ourselves to a brief discussion of lab testing here. Firstly, without going into detail, there are limitations to the standard testing offered, most notably a low sensitivity, resulting in at least 25% false-negative results.

More advanced testing exists however and while still imperfect, it does help better home in on what the underlying infections may be present.

Some critics of these tests have suggested a too high false-positive rate – that too many people are being told they have a disease that they don’t. 

However, the sensitivity and specificity of these tests is substantially better than the typical tests, and when assessing Lyme via several different types of tests, a clearer picture can be developed. 

Furthermore, a skilled doctor will assemble a complete picture from the patient history, presenting symptoms, and test results. From this bigger picture, combined with clinical experience, the contributors underlying a patient’s debilitating illness are more clearly determined.

In our next post, we will dive into strategies for treatment and resolution of Chronic Lyme.