With summer in full swing, more people are excited to head outdoors. But along with the warmer weather comes the threat of Lyme disease, a bacterial infection caused by a bite from deer ticks commonly found in grassy and heavily wooded areas. When detected early, Lyme disease is indeed treatable.
Unfortunately, many people don't know the signs to look for, and as the infection progresses the condition can be crippling… even fatal.
The first symptom is usually a rash, which resembles a bull's eye. As the infection spreads, symptoms include fever, headache, muscle ache, and fatigue. Lyme disease can be difficult to spot because its symptoms are initially flu-like, and many people don't notice the bite mark at first.
One mother named Karen McGregor noticed a red, rash-like splotch on her young son's skin after played in tall grass.
As the markings began to spread across his body, Karen called her doctor — who said he had never seen this before in a child so young.
Karen's photos went viral on Facebook, along with her powerful warning for parents everywhere…
"Yesterday I noticed a spot on his temple that looked a lot like a bullseye – the bullseye I had seen in a post about a little girl who was diagnosed with Lyme Disease," Karen McGregor wrote on Facebook." I phoned our doctor as soon as they opened yesterday and got him in quickly.
Within a few hours, more and more of these bullseye spots were showing up on his face, legs and arms. We were given antibiotics to treat for Lyme Disease and we are hoping we caught it in time!!
The doctor had never seen this before in a child so young…"
"We ended up at McMaster Children’s Hospital this morning for a second opinion because we really didn’t want to mess around with something like Lyme Disease, and let me tell you – the staff at MAC are nothing short of world class! They were amazing with us!
Two doctors looked at him and confirmed that it is indeed Lyme disease."
"The stage of rash indicates it must have been from a tick bite he would have received 3-4 weeks ago (we never even saw a tick…).
The funny thing is that because my son had been on antibiotics for 24 hours, the spots with the bullseye marking didn't look as bad as they did yesterday. It took the pictures I had taken with my phone, as well as the doctor seeing a brand new spot pop up while we were there to confirm what they were looking at.
One of these amazing doctors even looked me straight in the eye and said 'It’s scary for a mom to hear all this… are you okay?'"
"I encourage everyone to watch for these spots!! They look just a bullseye, and had it not been for the post I read, I never would have known it was something more than a simple rash caused by being the long grass!
Take a picture with your phone if you see one of these spots on yourself or your family – you might need it to show a doctor down the road what you saw."
"We are now waiting and watching. Hoping and praying that nothing else comes of this. The list of things we are watching for is scary – not a list I ever expected to have to watch my kids for, but I am grateful for the fact that we likely caught this in time!!
Feel free to share this post – I would love nothing more than to have our scary situation educate others about what to look for thi
