Started treatment for Rocky Mountain spotted fever day 8
hi, there is not a subreddit for Rmsf i guess. I see a lot of posts here. plz let know if there is a better place to post this.
To preface this post, I got a blood test done 8 days after my bite and only tested positive for rmsf antibodies but not a positive? idk how that works but they say I was at least " exposed to it"...
I was working in the garden recently, I thought I got bit by a spider cause when I went in for the day I had a red itchy raised bump (no tick on my body) so I didnt bother with it. just itched... fast forward to exactly 7 days later.
7 days after the bite, I had a headache most of the day and slept a lot. later that day I was laying in bed at night and all the sudden started feeling numbness like I couldn't even feel the air around me, then rush of hard pins and needles. It felt like someone was dragging velcro from my feet to my face. My cheeks even. I knew something was wrong at that point. I thought I may be having an extremely bad anxiety attack so I tried to sleep through the night, but mostly spent all night shaking and tensed up, sweating and cold.
The next day Monday (Day 8) I went to the ER cause it was happening again. They suspected Rocky mountain spotted fever. Even tho I had no rash or fever the whole week I had the bite. They gave me 10 days of Doxycycline. This same night I did notice some red spots on my feet but they went away the same night of my first dose of doxy.
Over the next few days I felt absolutely worse after the doxy kicked in. 3 days into the doxy I was on and off feeling good than randomly like back on my death bed. I couldn't really write or take notes. Processing information was very hard for my brain. I went back to the Dr on Day 4 because I was not sure if I was supposed to be still feeling that bad. I had new symptoms and couldn't really turn my head from my neck being so stiff. That did get better over a few days but it still hurts. I can turn my head at least...
So today, is my 6th day of treatment and im still having horrible symptoms on and off. My body feels extremely bad. I cant really regulate my body temp. I still havent actually had a fever but I keep cold sweating a lot. like my feet are soaked on and off. My face still getting tingly. I was washing my hands in regular cold water I use it all the time like that on the inside of my hands it felt cold but on the back of hands it felt like the water °30 and ice. My hands felt like they had running water over them for several minutes after I turned the water off and dried them.
I am mostly starting to wonder what signs or things I need to be looking for at this point. I feel like my Doctor is brushing me off because I do have anxiety regularly. She seems like a "I need to get to my next patient as soon as possible" type of doctor (not that she is a specialist or anything.) She is just a regular pcp boo boos and pills. She just wants to give me pills instead of addressing what might be going on. She didnt even think another Test would be worth it, which im not sure is true or not.
I wish I could call Dr. house :( I dont care about being smiled at or not. I just want to feel like im being heard and not brushed off. She basically said I dont need to worry about it anymore since im on Doxy and didnt say if there was anything I need to look out for that would indicate any other more serious issues caused by the delayed treatment.
So the big questions:
What is something you would worry about at this point?