I may or may not have had chronic lyme disease. I definitely had many many ticks. (Never cared about em, just pulled them off). And I definitely was sick for over a decade. And I definitely tested positive on the Western Blot multiple times. (And chronic lyme is definitely a bit of a catch-all diagnosis for a host of auto-immune stuff we don't quite understand yet)
It was awful, something I wouldn't wish on anyone.
If you do get a deer tick (they are the small ones, not the giant gross ones) save it, there are a number of places you can send it for peace of mind that it was not infected.
Also consider brief antibiotic prophylaxis: 1-3 doses of doxycycline are often recommended. I'm not in favor of anti-biotic overuse, but if lyme can turn into chronic lyme and that was indeed what I dealt with for 10 years of pain and crushing fatigue, then you want to avoid it.
It was awful, something I wouldn't wish on anyone.
If you do get a deer tick (they are the small ones, not the giant gross ones) save it, there are a number of places you can send it for peace of mind that it was not infected.
Also consider brief antibiotic prophylaxis: 1-3 doses of doxycycline are often recommended. I'm not in favor of anti-biotic overuse, but if lyme can turn into chronic lyme and that was indeed what I dealt with for 10 years of pain and crushing fatigue, then you want to avoid it.
(edit: typos)