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  Lyme Rash Photos 

It’s very very important to see a Lyme literate doctor right away!  Lyme disease can do many bad things to your body – your joints might start to hurt, suddenly you find your brain doesn’t work right anymore, and it can even cause paralysis and death if left untreated!

What will the LLMD (Lyme literate doctor) do?  He will examine you for Lyme symptoms, ask if the area you live in is Lyme endemic (Say:  en-deh-mik), which means lots of ticks live where you do, and he’ll probably take a sample of blood to have a blood test run to see if you have Lyme disease.  Once your LLMD knows if you have Lyme disease, he or she will prescribe antibiotics.  You’ve probably taken antibiotics before like if you had an ear infection.  If you don’t take this medicine or stop taking it too soon, it won’t kill all the spirochetes. 

When you’re outside, it’s a good idea to cover your skin, so ticks can’t latch on to you.  After you come inside, do a tick check – look for ticks on your body, especially where you have creases in your skin.  Remember, ticks are very small so LOOK CAREFULLY!  Or have your parents check you.  April and September are the worst months for ticks to bite you, but you can get bitten anytime in between April and September, too!  If you do find a tick on you, your parents can remove it with a tweezers.  They must grab the tick by its head and pull it out slowly and firmly.  Your mom and dad can even put the tick in a jar of rubbing alcohol to have it tested later for the bacteria that carry Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is caused by creepy, crawly bugs called ticks.  That’s a tick in the picture above.  GROSS, huh?  Ticks hide in tall grass, weeds and wooded areas, waiting to latch on to you.  Then they suck your blood just like Dracula!  The tick has 8 legs and is no bigger than a speck of dirt or the period at the end of this sentence. 

You don’t feel anything when the tick first bites you.  You probably won’t even know the tick is sucking your blood!  After an infected tick bites you, it pumps water out of its mouth to lower its body weight.  Then the tick spits the bacteria that cause Lyme disease into you.  When the tick bites you, it buries its head in your skin like in the picture below.  Ticks like to bite you where you have creases in your skin on your body. 

The ticks carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.  These bacteria are called spirochetes.  (Say:  spy-ruh-keets)  If the tick spits spirochetes into you, then you get Lyme disease. 

Spirochetes are like little drill bits.  They burrow into your heart, brain, other body organs, tissue, muscles and even hide in your cells.  They cause your immune system to attack itself and can hide in the body for years, only to come out later and cause you to be sick again. 

If you think you might have Lyme disease, it’s very important to see a Lyme literate doctor (we call them LLMD’s) right away! 

 Two common signs
 of Lyme disease are: 

1.  If you feel like you have the flu and feel tired and achy all over.