Ticks (Lyme Disease) & Pregnancy

[ILindGurl]

Does anyone have any experience with being bitten by a tick while pregnant? We went down to North Carolina to visit family and I found a tick embedded on my arm. It was not engorged and my SIL removed it very easily -- there was a pool of blood around where it was...so we suspect it had not been attached for very long. I am about 6.5 weeks pregnant so now I am so scared to acquire lyme or rocky mountain spotted fever (RMSF is more common in that part of NC for people who are bitten by ticks). Of course this happened on the late afternoon on July 3rd, so my doctor's office was closed. I left a message this morning so am waiting to hear back....but figured I would ask if anyone knows anything about this sort of thing. Thanks!!

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, I've been bitten twice while pg (we have a lot of ticks here so I'm a tick expert LOL). In almost all of the tick-borne diseases the tick needs to stay embedded for a long time, like a whole entire day. If the tick was big enough to see, it's probably not the kind that carries Lyme Disease and for RMSF it has to be in you and undisturbed for a full day and it would for sure have been engorged by that point.

My chief concern for you would be that some docs are not well versed in tick-borne diseases and that you could be prescribed strong antibiotics that you 99.999% do not need as a preventative measure.

It is normal for the bite to be a bit itchy for a few days after you pull the tick out so don't panic if you have a little bump that's itchy and maybe a little red for a few days.

[ILindGurl]

Thanks, Atomic! I am soooo happy that you responded (bec I value your opinion :). I spoke with a nurse in my internists office and she said based on what I described, it should be fine. It's been a little over a year since my last physical, so we scheduled one for Monday -- probably a good idea anyway for me to get a full work-up...with the tick, pregnancy, etc. I also am waiting for my OBs office to call me back...but so far the internists office didn't mention any antibiotics at this point.