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Most people never known they are bitten by a "deer" tick. The babies cannot be seen with a naked eye and the adults are no bigger than a period at the end of this sentence.
Be careful on the testing issue. Lyme is a clinical diagnosis and false negative are very common. 36% of people dont even make antibodies and it matters what lab you use. Dr.'s who treat the disease every day use the lab Igenex in CA.
http://www.igenex.com
Lyme is a very controversial disease. It is so controversial that Dr.'s who treat the illness have gone underground and their names are kept confidential by patients.
There is a dispute between European guidelines (Burrascano--you can do a search) and American guidelines (Steere). I would never send anyone to a Dr. who followed Steere guidelines and I would never send a Lyme patient to an ID Dr.
Go to
http://www.lymenet.org under Flash Discussions and post to find a Dr. willing to take a look at you. Someone will privatly email you the name of a Dr. It is worth checking out.
What is said by the CDC on this illness is not even close to the reality.
I deal with children in wheelchair and people in their 20's who have had strokes. The Lyme bacteria is a spirochete and makes syphallis look like a joke.