FirstCare Medical Center diagnoses and treats several lyme disease patients every day. We also remove ticks, tick parts and give prophylactic antibiotics.
Lyme disease is an ailment that is spread by deer ticks which feed on the blood of both humans and animals and thus spread the bacteria that causes the disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. It tends to strike at people who live and work in grassy or heavily wooded area where the deer ticks thrive.
The symptoms of Lyme disease is progressive. About a month after getting infected, the sufferer will notice a rash around the area of the bite. It can look like a bull’s eye red ring around a white area. Some people can develop the rash on various parts of their bodies. The sufferer will also begin to experience flu like symptoms, such as fever, chills, fatigue, body aches and headaches.
After several weeks to months after a person has been infected, he or she may start to experience joint pain and swelling. The knee joints are most likely to be affected, but can shift from one joint to the other.
Weeks to even years after infection, a person can start to experience neurological problems. They might include inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain, i.e. meningitis, temporary paralysis of one side of the face, i.e. Bell’s palsy, numbness or weakness in your limbs, and impaired muscle movement.
Other less common symptoms include heart problems, meningitis, inflammation of the eye, and severe fatigue.
Fortunately a course of antibiotics will knock out Lyme disease and will allow a person so infected to make a complete recovery. It is cautioned that the sooner one gets treated, the quicker the recovery will be.