About this Blog

~Hi, my name is Courtney. I was a full time college student, starting to be a dancer, and used to work with kids part time, living on my own until my illness disabled me.
~I became sick in 2005. I created this blog in the summer of 2006 to record my "headache" diary and to see if anyone finds it interesting.
~12/2006 I lost my job then after, failed a year of college.
~2/2007 Dx Lyme Disease with Bartonella: prescribed 8 months of oral antibiotics. I'm not even sure if I ever had the Lyme Disease.
~11/2007 The doctor took me off medicines while I was still improving but not fully recovered.
~6/2008 Dx Chiari I Malformation by a neurosurgeon in Beverly Hills.
~8/2008 Decompression and Lamenectomy helped 80% of my problems.
~2/2009 Dx Hypermobility by an Orthopedic Surgeon/School Doc: Started PT, dancing, going to school and working.
~6/2009 Started working full time as an Infant-Toddler teacher, which requires lifting. Dancing part time, maybe I'll finish school eventually...lol
~12/2009 Dx Chronic Sinusitis: Stopped dancing due to constant infections.
~2/2010 Sinus Surgery & complication: Severe Epistaxis: Became severely anemic.
~3/2010: Dx Ehlers Danlos Syndrome: by Geneticist
~4/2011: Switched jobs, now work at a Pre-K teacher for 3 and 4 year olds. Less lifting!
~5/2011: Started PT and exercising again

Thursday, August 16, 2007

i got a rash?

it started out as an itch and i rubbed it. a while later my friend noticed it and i looked at it more closely. i noticed it resembled the lyme rash but smaller and fainter. its next to this "scar". the story behind the scar is that i just noticed the scar like 3-4 years ago and never ever remember hurting myself there. i wonder if the rash is related to the scar in any way. anyways i put some pictures of it here to see what you think. its kinda hard to make it out so i put pictures to show where it looks like a bullseye...





8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dont know what it is, you do have Bartonella too, right? Which is known for "odd" rashes. However, I had two rashes that started out as a small red dot, but expanded into larger rashes--Not "Bullseyes" but rashes my doctor said were related to Lyme or a co-infection....I have pics too...lol...we whould make this a "rash pics thread" hehe

Okay, this one was a while back, it started out as small red dot, and than this rash was the end result:

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This one is a bullseye, but it also started out as a red dot, this rash was on my stomach at the start of my IV Rocephin treatment almost a year ago.

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I have a ton of more pics too, but these are the ones that started out like yours. Keep an eye on it ;) Do these look familiar to anyone else?

Anonymous said...

Here are a few of the recent rashes - from this year - I think these are from January - February of this year - on my Arms -
Not sure what they are - - Guessing just weird lyme stuff -

Oh and they do leave scars -

Courtney said...

wow! maybe my scar was from lyme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yikes. i've had that for like 4 years now.
i'm gonna see what happens to this rash. its on my left arm.

Anonymous said...

Those all look like Lyme Rashes to me. See if you can culture or biopsie from them, look for Borelia B.

Anonymous said...

Courtney and Jessica, that's smart of you to take pictures.

Courtney said...

mine hasnt grown at all and all the rash red has faded all thats left is those faded rings. lame . but it is sorta looking like the other scar. i actually thought you guys would think i was gross posting pictures. lol

Anonymous said...

I got another Bullseye Rash today, so I started searching online again for "recurrant EM rashes"...This is from Dr. Jemsek's website, I found it helpful:


A little recognized fact about the EM rash is that it can recur, usually in the original site, with or without antibiotic therapy. We estimate that between 5-10% of patients demonstrate this phenomenon during their illness. Other patients remark that they have migratory rashes of moderate duration from time to time that remain unexplained. It is more common, in our experience, to observe the presence of recurrent EM after the onset of antimicrobial therapy. We note that some patients erupt with rash repeatedly while on antibiotic therapy, often in different areas. Eventually this dissipates as the patient improves on antibiotic therapy. Pressure points may play a role in the appearance of the rash, but gravitational influence does not appear to play a role in terms of the site of eruption, i.e. as one would see in a vasculitis-like presentation characteristic of most drug reactions. The first appearance of rash has been reported as late as 6 months into therapy (personal observation). This has led to obvious diagnostic challenges when one is on antibiotic therapy and has to consider a drug reaction. However, we have come to recognize that the LD rash on treatment presents as flat or occasionally raised coalescent islands of erythema, in contrast to the classic generalized morbilliform rash caused by a drug reaction. When confronted with this clinical picture, the Jemsek Specialty Clinic views this as a positive indication of therapeutic benefit, probably representing a dermal form of the "Herxheimer reaction", and so we generally proceed cautiously on with antibiotic therapy, usually with eventual resolution of the rash.

Courtney said...

wow! i'm not crazy then! lol. to think that my scar tissue that occurred out of nowhere was where i had a rash the last time and didnt know it. lol. now the circular redder parts of it is just scabbing. its so light though. but its like a lighter version of the other one. and the other one is a little bigger now. i know what i'm meaning if no one else understands me.

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