Could It Be Lyme Disease? Symptoms and Diagnosis

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A user reported a bite on the back of their leg, which developed into a lump with a pink spot surrounded by a ring, resembling a bullseye. They had recently killed deer ticks and were experiencing fever and discomfort. The community strongly advised seeking immediate medical attention, as the bullseye rash is a classic sign of Lyme disease, which can have serious long-term effects if untreated. Discussions highlighted the importance of early diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics, as well as the potential for other tick-borne diseases. Despite some humorous exchanges about the situation, the consensus remained that medical evaluation was crucial, especially given the user's symptoms and recent tick encounters. Ultimately, the user visited a doctor who diagnosed the issue as a bruise with a bug bite, alleviating initial concerns about Lyme disease.
  • #61
Astronuc said:
If one gets capsaicin on the hands, one should keep one's fingers away from sensitive areas like eyes and nose. To remove it, one would have to put butter or yoghurt on the hands, rub hands together, then rinse hands, then wash with detergent and water. Otherwise the capsaicin will stay on the skin, and water will hydrolyze capsaicin to dihydrocapsaicin, which I believe is the one that is the most burning one.
This seems to be the case. Water alone is a very poor response to capsaicin burns, as anybody who has tried to to quench the burn in their mouth after a surprisingly-hot pepper knows. Our dish detergent is made from palm-oil, and it does a better job of washing out the capsaicin than hand-soap, though even repeated applications interspersed with rubbing-alcohol rinses don't remove habanero juice well enough to prevent subsequent burning - especially when hands are immersed in hot water.
 
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  • #62
Makes sense, aren't most chillis fat soluble? That's why you drink milk/lhasi wthhot curries rather than water.
 
  • #63
Here's a handy page that touches on the chemistry of capsaicin.

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/features/capsaicin.shtml

One expects that the long hydrocarbon tail will make capsaicin less water soluble than vanillin. This is indeed the case. Capsaicin is insoluble in cold water, but freely soluble in alcohol and vegetable oils. This is why drinking water after munching an habanero pepper won't stop the burning. A cold beer is the traditional remedy, but the small percentage of alcohol will not wash away much capsaicin. For relief from a chile burn, drink milk. Milk contains casein, a lipophilic (fat-loving) substance that surrounds and washes away the fatty capsaicin molecules in much the same way that soap washes away grease.

This is why my regimen of palm-oil soap alternated with alcohol rinses can lessen the burn of habanero juice on the skin. I've never been able to eliminate such burns when I've gotten a lot of juice on my skin, but it does help.
 
  • #64
larkspur said:
:smile::smile: That is what Q-Tips are for!

Hmm I thought Q tips were for poking holes in your ear drums.
 
  • #65
turbo-1 said:
Our dish detergent is made from palm-oil,
You do know that palm oil is at the core of one of the most heated environmental debates?

Tropical forests are being destroyed so that palm oil can be produced!

FOR SHAME!
 
  • #66
Evo said:
Ok, they worked me in (he's just two blocks away) and he said it looks like I had a bruise and now a bug bit me inside the bruised area.
Does anyone think this sounds like a misdiagnosis? A bite on a bruise?

Evo, I think you should get a second opinion.

And I still think you should do it fast.

Because of you don't I will introduce you to my friend whose life is ruined because of Lyme Disease. She didn't get it treated because her doctor didn't recognize it. She became so sick and weak she has not been able to work ever since.
 
  • #67
DaveC426913 said:
Does anyone think this sounds like a misdiagnosis? A bite on a bruise?

Evo, I think you should get a second opinion.

And I still think you should do it fast.

Because of you don't I will introduce you to my friend whose life is ruined because of Lyme Disease. She didn't get it treated because her doctor didn't recognize it. She became so sick and weak she has not been able to work ever since.
:cry:

I was ready to go to sleep. I thought everything was ok.
 
  • #68
I don't know. I kinda have to agree with Evo and the doc. If you look at the pic its not as circular, or widely spaced as the lyme rashes, and it is sort of purple.
 
  • #69
binzing said:
I don't know. I kinda have to agree with Evo and the doc. If you look at the pic its not as circular, or widely spaced as the lyme rashes, and it is sort of purple.
And the circle has broken up, which I was told is due to the bruise getting old and dissapating.
 
  • #70
binzing said:
I don't know. I kinda have to agree with Evo and the doc.
Lyme disease is one of the http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/l/lyme_disease/misdiag.htm".


binzing said:
If you look at the pic its not as circular, or widely spaced as the lyme rashes, and it is sort of purple.
And if you're wrong?
 
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  • #71
And if I'm wrong its not my fault, I myself told her to go to the doctor, and she has. I'm 16, she's ?? so I THINK she can choose for herself...
 
  • #72
I just read this thread for the first time--

Don't go to the doctor----you can be your own experiment

and if in two weeks time, if you can't move at all, then you know its Lyme's disease
 
  • #73
binzing said:
And if I'm wrong its not my fault, I myself told her to go to the doctor, and she has. I'm 16, she's ?? so I THINK she can choose for herself...
binzing should run for US President. :approve:

wrongdiagnosis.com

Actually I have been misdiagnosed as having some of those things, turns out they were wrong. That website is notorious for fear mongering.

Ok, it never hurts to get a second opinion, it does hurt when you pander to hypochondriacs.
 
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  • #74
Evo ---no one every said that you weren't one tough kookie---but...


that bite may be worth having it lookied at again
 
  • #75
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  • #76
For what it's worth, the treatment for a lyme tick bite is a course of antibiotics consisting of *a single pill*!

I was bitten by a deer tick last year. My doctor said it was it was unlikely I was infected since I had no bullseye or redness, but offered me the prescription accompanied by this quick cost/benefit analysis: the downside to treating a nonexistent condition with a single dose of antibiotic is small, while the downside of missing Lyme's disease can be life altering and devastating. I agreed to take the pill.
 
  • #77
marcusl said:
For what it's worth, the treatment for a lyme tick bite is a course of antibiotics consisting of *a single pill*!

I was bitten by a deer tick last year. My doctor said it was it was unlikely I was infected since I had no bullseye or redness, but offered me the prescription accompanied by this quick cost/benefit analysis: the downside to treating a nonexistent condition with a single dose of antibiotic is small, while the downside of missing Lyme's disease can be life altering and devastating. I agreed to take the pill.

I can't remember----was it red or blue?
 
  • #78
rewebster said:
(look at the last thing on that list)
Looks like a cyclical redundancy cycle.
 
  • #79
We don't have Lyme disease in the UK but the same thing applies to Weil's disease (Leptospirosis) rowers and canoeists get it and have a real job trying to persuade doctors to even test for it.
 
  • #80
rewebster said:
I can't remember----was it red or blue?

I don't remember either, but I now seem to be able to move faster than light :smile:
 
  • #81
Yeah, that wrong diagnosis site looked REALLY respectable...NOT! It had banner ads for all sorts of random stuff. If your going to provide a website to counter somebody's statement at least make a respectable one.
 
  • #82
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  • #83
So, now that the dust has settled, what's the scoop? Is Evo turning into a Were-deer?
 
  • #84
Apparently just a bizarre bruise.
 
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  • #85
rewebster said:
I looked at this page and a little way down on the page there's this sub-heading:

Alternative diagnoses list for Lyme disease:

(look at the last thing on that list)


:smile:

Of course, looking at that list, some really aren't misdiagnoses so much as diagnoses of exclusion. For example, PCOS has a lot of symptoms in common with other reproductive disorders. There's no specific test for it, so the only way to diagnose it is to test for everything else it might be first, and if it's none of those, then it's PCOS. Of course, that leaves people feeling like they've been misdiagnosed when they feel like they've been tested for everything on the planet before the doctor gives them their correct diagnosis.
 
  • #86
Moonbear said:
For example, PCOS has a lot of symptoms in common with other reproductive disorders.
Hey! that's what Mrs. DaveC426913 is currently recruiting for for clinical studies!
 

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