Rings of Saturn - The Lyme Disease Bull's Eye

This is my saga of Lyme disease which began in July 2009 and finished, I hope, in April 2010.

In July last year, 2009, I notice a red patch behind my left knee. It didn't itch or hurt. Later that month I saw that it was starting to creep around my knee, so I phoned Anna, homeopath - have been seeing her for over 20 years. Anna asked if the rash was on the knee I had had replaced in 2007. No. She recommended calendula cream and to continue with the homeopathic remedies she had given me when last we met, which I did. Then I forgot about it.

In  October I went with my friend Ginnie, in picture, on a jaunce to Portugal - and the weather was amazing, so to the beach we headed, saw dolphins dancing in the sea. We swam in clear blue water under a hot sun. And in that dazzling light I noticed that, like an alien creeping through my body, I still had the central splodgy red rash behind my knee plus two rings of rashes, one heading towards my ankle and the other heading up my left thigh towards my hips. It didn't hurt, it wasn't inflamed (though the central rash was a wee bit hot). Licking our icecreams we inspected it in the sunshine. Then forgot it.

In December I was doing some muck spreading. A neighbour's had grazed her two horses in our paddock for most of the summer leaving piles of lovely manure to be shifted to the vegetable garden. Pushing a laden wheelbarrow up a very muddy slope I wrenched my back. On next London visit in January osteopath Gill got back into form and noticed a heart shaped rash creeping up my back. These rashes resembled the mark of a high tide left behind on the beach, or one of the rings around Saturn, not attached to the original. Still there glowing red was the rash behind my knee. Gill told me to use Tee Tree oil to calm it down and to kill off the infection. So have been a Tee Tree queen ever since.

I don't know about you, but viewing one's back, especially the lower back, requires more contortions than even I with my loose body can manage. It was also far too cold to stand naked in front of a full-length mirror this snow-bound winter. So again forgot about it and had faith that this Tee Tree bombardment would clear it up.

On Monday February 8th I treated myself to The Times, I usually don't feed my newspaper addiction on a Monday as I still have all the weekend papers to plough through. The Times that day had this article:

Lyme disease: ‘I knew whatever was troubling me wasn’t a sports injury’

Lyme is a tick borne bacterial infection, and the ticks live mainly in deer populations. They are very tiny... this fellow on the right is hugely magnified. You can read more about it on this web page: Lyme Disease.

That Times article described EXACTLY what I was experiencing, the bull's eye rash, moving around the body etc. A little brick of heaviness in belly grew as I researched Lyme Disease on the internet. Make an appointment with the doctor. First available appointment was Monday, 15 February. A charming and full of cold man who I have never met before listened with a slight suspension of disbelief: "Lyme disease is rare, and how come you think you have it?" he mumbled through the mucus pouring out of him. "Well, I do live in the sticks and there are deer around these 'ere parts," I responded, my confidence in my self-diagnosis wavering. But he kindly pandered to an aging lady and ordered blood tests: one for inflammation and one for the disease itself.

On Wednesday 17th February I saw a lovely nurse who had to consult a colleague to learn the procedure for the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, pictured right, not something she had done before. On the Friday 19th the results of the inflammation tests were in, no inflammation. Phew. Almost two weeks later on Monday 1st March the doctor phoned me at home sounding a little surprised, the second blood test showed I had Lyme Disease and he was leaving an antibiotic prescription (doxycycline, also treats venereal disease) for me at reception. He strongly advised me to take it when I said Anna, homeopath, had given me a remedy for Lyme. He also asked me to come in and have an ecg as Lyme can affect the heart, liver and brain. Oh.

I wavered in what treatment to follow, so phoned a friend or two. But my friends are busy people so no response, and my message was bit veiled, didn't wish to cause alarm. Now knowing that Lyme can be debilitating, swallowed the antibiotics for the next two weeks.

On Friday 5th March had the ecg. The lovely nurse refused to interpret the read-out, she said she didn't know what the wiggles meant. I had a look at it, and there was a little message at the top saying something about an enlargement. I breathed away the little alarm bells tinkling away in my mind.

I was teaching in Birmingham the following morning and requested doctor call me with the result of the ecg on my mobile: heart fine, and the enlargement was natural, the left side of the heart is bigger than the right, he told me. Silly me! Huge relief. 

Another blood test a fortnight after finishing the antibiotic course on 30 March. Result came in on 8th April, I learned later when I went into the surgery on 13 April. The receptionist was puzzled by the verdict: reactive. So requested doctor phone, which he did on the evening of 16th April. He didn't get it either and phoned the Southampton microbiologist who had looked at my bloods (that's the term used: bloods) on 19 April, Monday. Spoke again and doctor said that I must have had Lyme for a long time (yes, noticed rash last July) so now my blood carries resistance to it, thus the 'reactive'. Think I have got that right... 

 

So if you notice a rash that looks like a bull's eye or the rings of Saturn, ask for a blood test for Lyme disease. Wear socks and leg coverings if walking where deer roam - it might not be as rare as we think, there are many pretty deer out there, all over the UK.