What are the initial symptoms of Lyme disease?
Victims frequently are not aware that they have been bitten, partly because the ticks carrying Lyme disease are so tiny. A larval tick is the size of a poppy seed, and an adult tick is only as big as the head of a pin. There is, however, a classic symptom: a bull’s-eye rash of concentric red circles at the site of the bite. The bite is usually on the arms or legs of an adult, but it could be anywhere on he body, and with children it can often be on the hairline or scalp, where it is difficult to see. I frequently hear from people, “I had a tiny mole on my arm that left a rash, and then the mole went away.” Initial infection also has flulike symptoms such as muscle aches, fever and joint pain. Many people don’t know that they have been bitten, and they don’t see the rash. But if Lyme disease is not treated in its early stages, serious heart, muscular, skeletal and neurological problems can arise. There can be facial paralysis and seizures. One of my patients, Amy Tan, has had hallucinat
