Had Tick Bites Leading To Bulls Eye Rash With Cold Symptoms. Noticed Spots In Thigh And Feet. Have Aplopecia. Is It Early Lymes?

Posted on Wed, 17 Jul 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 Answered on

Thu, 8 Aug 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I have had about 3 tick bites this past year, one leading to a bulls eye rash with cold symptoms....I did get treated by antibiotics then for 10 days...I live with doggies in Wisconsin in a heavily wooded area. I now notice some small areas of numb spots in my upper left thigh area and have really achy feet when I walk first thing in the morning which does clear up when I have shoes on a few minutes later. My mother had severe rheumatism and I have only the alopecia so far. Do you think it is early Lymes?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Shruti Rijhwani (32 minutes later)

Dear sir ,

Thank you for posting your query on XXXXXXX .

Looking into the history you have given it is a very likely possibilty that you could be suffering from Lymes disease but since your mother had rheumatism and you too suffer from alopecia totalis a possibilty of rheumatic disease cannot be ruled out . Only on the history it will not be possible to label the exact cause , it needs evaluation and physical examination.

Joint pains can be a late manifestation also . I advise you to see a rheumatologist and get inflammatory markers like CRP , ESR etc , routine investigations like CBC , Urine r/m etc. to look for any evidence plus specialised tests like RF etc. if required . An ELISA test can be done to look for evidence of lymes disease . So , get yourself evaluated first because treatment of both disease is different .

Wish you good health .

Take care.

Dr. Shruti

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar