| One-Minute Clinician
Identifying Lyme Disease: Symptoms
Identifying Lyme
- If systemic Lyme, a blood test
- To identify a neuro Lyme, you need to show specific intraspinal intrathecal production of antibody to Lyme, as done through a spinal tap
- Spinal taps can be done under fluoroscopic guidance with sedation; a Gertie needle with a blunt tip doesn’t shear the meninges; postlumbar puncture symptoms are fewer
- We offer people a spinal tap if needed in a nonurgent setting under X-ray or fluoroscopic guidance
- The patient will be numbed with local anesthetic
- Spinal taps can be done in an outpatient ambulatory; we watch people afterward for several hours, to make sure they’re hydrated and comfortable before they go home
Lyme disease symptoms may be quite painful and range from acute to chronic:
- Joint pain and stiffness
- Localized arthritis
- Fatigue
- Flu-like symptoms
- Sleep problems
- Radicular pain
- Neuropathies
- Facial pain