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Routine Care & Wellness

Early Signs and Symptoms of Lyme Disease

Typically the early signs or symptoms of Lyme disease include one or more of the following:

fatigue
chills and fever
headache
muscle and joint pain
swollen lymph nodes
characteristic skin rash - erythema migrans
a red, circular patch may appear 3 days to 1 month after the bite of an infected tick, at the site of the bite. The patch often expands to a large size. Sometimes many patches appear. The most common areas for the patch to occur are thigh, groin, trunk, and armpits. The center of the rash may clear as it enlarges, resulting in the bulls-eye appearance. The rash may be warm but it is not painful.

An important note:
There is sometimes confusion and alarm because an allergic reaction to tick saliva may occur at the site of a tick bite. This is evidenced by local irritation within hours to a few days after the tick bite. The inmportant thing to notice is that this usually does not expand, and resolves after a few days.