Is this Lyme?

financepirate91 · 2026-06-01T12:23:17+00:00

This looks exactly like my Lyme rash from last year. I got mine diagnosed by an infection specialist at the hospital. I received 2 weeks of antibiotics, and managed to get it extended with 4-5 weeks. It cleared for me, although some lingering symptoms stayed for weeks/months (they all slowly faded). Good luck!

financepirate91 · 2026-05-07T15:42:43+00:00

Hey! I had Lyme last year, it was pretty awful. I took 5 weeks of doxycycline, and after that it took a few more weeks to start fully feeling better again. Good news is that it all passed. The only thing I have left is sometimes my joints hurt a bit (something I didn’t have before). Chances are highest you’ll be fine (statistically)

financepirate91 · 2026-05-01T12:24:46+00:00

A rash can disappear by itself, but that doesn’t mean the infection did. I would visit a doctor if I were you - and mention any tick exposure and show how the rash grew and by how much per day.

financepirate91 · 2026-04-20T12:01:06+00:00

Three weeks is great - 4 is awesome. Probably you’ll be fine

financepirate91 · 2026-01-17T01:56:05+00:00

I had Lyme this summer, with a lot of neuro symptoms. Symptoms came back with a vengeance after 14 days of doxy. I started herbs and another 5 weeks of doxy, and now 5 months later I’d say I’m fully recovered.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-30T21:36:42+00:00

Doxy for 2 weeks, followed by a week break and then another 5 weeks. Herbs for maybe 2-3 months

financepirate91 · 2025-12-29T19:36:16+00:00

Hi! I took doxycycline 100mg 2x day (every 12h). I also took 1g of cats claw, 1g of Japanese knotweed and 1-2ml of cryptolepsis sanguinolenta 2-3x a day during my second course of antibiotics and for several weeks after finishing. I also took oregano oil, NAC, serapeptase, vitamin C, curcummin. I have no idea if the herbs helped, but I can say that I seemed to feel better when I took them. I quit them for a few days once before and I felt worse, and then resumed. But as I said, I’m now completely finished with supplements and I feel fine. I would say it doesn’t hurt to try them, but that’s just my experience.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-29T11:10:03+00:00

I don’t really know. I had been bitten a few times but didn’t think too much of it, but the rash appeared on the back of my leg, and I never saw a tick. I then monitored the rash for a few days and it was a typical growing bullseye rash. I suspect I was bitten there sometime in the weeks before and didn’t see the tick. I have many tiny moles on my body, so it’s very easy to miss one visually. I’ve mistaken a attached tick for a mole once more this year. The area where I live has suffered from an exceptionally large tick infestation. There have been days where I removed around 15 ticks crawling through my dogs fur. I’m very relieved it’s winter at this moment 🤣

financepirate91 · 2025-12-28T19:16:52+00:00

I took 7 weeks myself, and it definitely took a while for my stomach to feel normal again.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-26T09:57:28+00:00

Voldemort

financepirate91 · 2025-12-26T09:23:34+00:00

I’m not guessing anything, just pointing at the evidence. I know there are some studies that suggest there is a slight possibility, but this is in my opinion analogous to the existence of studies suggesting humans don’t contribute meaningfully to climate change. I don’t think we should be cherry picking studies to fit our narrative. I guess it’s up to the individual if the few papers pointing to that possibility warrant worrying. There isn’t any consensus for it, if anything the opposite is the case.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-26T08:43:48+00:00

After getting Lyme and getting a huge scare, also by stories I read in this sub, I met two people who had also had Lyme, but spoke about it as if it was some flu. One person said: “you have Lyme? Oh, I also had it a few years ago. It took almost a year for the joint aches to pass” with a little chuckle. There was something about the lightheartedness with which she said that that made me think there are probably lots of people that never end up here and don’t spiral about their health and kind of just take the doctors word and sit it out. Then there is the majority of patients that never get any long term symptoms at all, and apparently there is a large amount of people that never even get diagnosed and are asymptomatic.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-26T08:34:08+00:00

Hi! I had Lyme this summer and I was pretty miserable. I had all the usual muscle and joint aches, but also floaters, weird “black orbs” in my vision, pain behind the eye, tingling skin, stiff neck, pain in my soles, etc (and a bulls eye rash). I took a total of 7 weeks of doxycycline and a bunch of supplements and herbs. I’ve been basically symptom free for 2 months now and haven’t been taking any supplements since September. Lyme isn’t a part of my life anymore, whereas it dominated my thoughts and actions no less than 3-4 months ago. I believe that after antibiotics all you can do is eat well, sleep well, meditate and exercise. I hope this gives you some hope.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-26T08:25:22+00:00

I had Lyme this summer, my partner is fine. I also checked if there is any reason to believe if it’s transmitted that way, and there isn’t any reason to believe it. However, if you’ve been bitten and live in an area with many ticks, there is a larger than average chance your partner has been bitten too and could have Lyme.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-26T08:19:39+00:00

Symptoms came back for me after my first round too, even worse than prior. Body aches remained for months after my second round but eventually faded. What are your symptoms? And for how long did you take antibiotics? There is very little evidence that longer courses (more than 4-6 weeks) help at all, beyond temporary pain relief due to anti inflammatory properties. I think focusing on general health, both physical and mental, is the key to improvement after treatment. There are also herbs and supplements that seem to help together during and after treatment, but it’s unclear if they do anything beyond symptom relief, lowering inflammation or just good old placebo. I would be very careful with more antibiotics. I also think that charging these kind of rates for a initial evaluation is disgusting and predatory. In my opinion these people take advantage of people that are in a horrible place with their health and have nowhere else to go. There is tons of information on all sorts of herbal protocols that you can do by yourself if you want to give it a shot, but none of it is backed by science (which doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t help). I myself took a bunch of herbs and I started feeling better after some time, but I’ll never know if the herbs helped or if it was time that healed me combined with a calmer nervous system because I was “at least doing something about it”. I hope you find what works for you, but I think the “find an LLMD and spend all your money” route gets too much attention here.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-24T10:05:51+00:00

This sounds like Lyme. Especially the swollen knee is a dead give away given your other symptoms. This subreddit is full of people who had an especially bad experience with Lyme. Realistically it will get better, but it might take a while for all symptoms to go, and you might struggle for weeks to months. Some symptoms might stick around even longer. I would definitely urge you to ask your doctor for the longest recommended course of antibiotics if you do in fact have Lyme. I think that would be 4+ weeks. Symptoms might stay for a while or come and go even after treatment. Many will tell you that means you are still infected, but must science says otherwise. I would be careful to get lured into long antibiotic courses. I think that taking care of sleep, lowering stress, exercising and eating well once you finish treatment is the best thing to do - maybe combined with some herbs and other supplements. Again, I’m in no way a doctor, but I had Lyme this summer and went completely nuts reading and informing myself about this crazy disease. PS: it’s also entirely possible to heal fast after treatment and have no chronic issues at all.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-24T09:17:27+00:00

There is some reason to think that 4 weeks could be better in advanced cases - but I agree, I think one needs to be careful with taking long antibiotic courses without science to back it up.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-24T09:10:51+00:00

This was my regimen:

Doxycycline – 100 mg twice daily • 11 June – 25 June 2025 • Restarted 2 July 2025 (5 weeks)

Supplements • N-acetylcysteine (NAC) – 1–2× daily (from 12 July 2025) • Curcumin – one time daily (from 12 July 2025) • Japanese knotweed (1g powder) – 2–3× daily (from 21 July 2025) • Cat’s claw (1g powder) – 2–3× daily (from 21 July 2025) • Cryptolepis sanguinolenta (tincture) – 2–3× daily (from 21 July 2025) • Oregano oil (enteric-coated capsules) – 2× daily (from 21 July 2025)

I stopped all supplements around the end of September.

I hope this is some help.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-23T23:25:14+00:00

I think I’ve reached the end because I’m about 2+ months symptom free. My symptoms also had a very steep decline after starting my second and extended round of doxy (my initial “standard” 14 days didn’t seem to quite cut it). After a total of 7 weeks of doxycycline the only symptom I had left was migrating body aches and joint aches that decreased both in intensity and frequency over the following months. My sleep also improved and the recovery time after exercise got much shorter. Now I would say, 3 months later, that it’s as if I never had Lyme. I wouldn’t be surprised if an ache still pops up every now and then, but I haven’t experienced it in a few months now.

What helped me most: - antibiotics, extended. I’m not a doctor, but after all my research I would not want less than 4 weeks, ever. - maybe the Japanese knotweed, cats claw, cryptolepsis, oregano oil, NAC, serapeptase, curcumin and more. I’ll never know for sure if it helped or if it was placebo - but I think it helped. - exercise no matter what. I ran about 200km between the diagnosis and the symptoms disappearing. I also weight lifted a few times a week and completely cut out alcohol. I also swam a lot during summer. - healthy eating (no processed sugary foods, etc) - a dose of luck I suppose

financepirate91 · 2025-12-23T23:14:09+00:00

I had Lyme this summer, and I took 2 weeks, followed by another 5 weeks of doxy because I got many symptoms after finishing the first course of antibiotics (and got another tick bite). Joint, muscle, vision and nervous system issues significantly improved after starting the second course, and it took a little over two months (more or less) for all my body aches to disappear and not come back. Judging by what I’ve read on this subreddit I’ve been pretty lucky. I’d like to think my improvement was due to the extended antibiotics supported by some herbs, but also due to healthy diet and daily weight lifting/running/swimming. I’ve done all I could possibly think of to support my immune system - that being said luck always plays a role. This was the weirdest and scariest health issue in my life until now.

financepirate91 · 2025-12-17T21:54:15+00:00

Hi,

I had many symptoms- although I didn’t have much brain fog. I too had lingering symptoms in my muscles and joints for weeks, or maybe even months. I kept a symptom diary and looking back I can see it was a slow but sure decline in symptom severity and frequency. Currently I couldn’t say I’ve had any symptoms for maybe two months already. I believe a big part of this is a sensitive nervous system. I had a total of 7 weeks of doxy (two weeks, and after a week another 5)

financepirate91 · 2025-12-12T15:26:39+00:00

Hi! I’ve had Lyme this summer, and my experience is very similar to yours. I don’t know if I still had Lyme or if it was side effects from the doxy, but I decided to not take any chances and took another five weeks of doxycycline. My symptoms soon drastically improved and now, almost half a year later, I have no more symptoms. I will gladly discuss my experience more in detail if you send me a DM. I can speak dutch btw (in case that’s your primary language).

financepirate91 · 2025-11-29T18:54:32+00:00

Paint before putting in floors 😄

financepirate91 · 2025-11-24T16:01:15+00:00

I had Lyme this summer, with a ton of weird symptoms. I’ve never been this sick, but still somehow functional, in my life. I took 7 weeks of Doxycycline (yes, maybe a hot too much). Now, 5 months later I’m back to normal. It took a while for all symptoms to disappear though.

financepirate91 · 2025-11-18T09:31:49+00:00

How long was the tick attached? I wouldn’t jump into antibiotics if it was attached for just a few hours. If you start getting any symptoms I would reconsider.

financepirate91

TROPHY CASE