The physician can check titers of antibodies to look for previous infection but honestly given that your symptoms have resolved and you were treated for tick borne illness further follow-up really should not be necessary.Suprised they sent you to a rheumatologist for this, arguably could have been managed by general internal medicine vrs infectious diseases
What to Expect from a Lyme Disease Rheumatology Appointment?I am a 27 year old male, about 5'10", no remarkable pre existing conditions or allergies, medical history, etc.Some (optional) backstory- I live in and work outside in East TN and various places around the country relatively frequently. I was bit by a tick around April 26 and I estimate it was attached for a few hours (less than 10). Over the next week or two I started having very general symptoms... occassional dizziness, general fatigue, a feeling of weakness, fierce night sweats (probably my biggest complaint.. sweating buckets beginning as soon as I went to sleep), some minor and intermittent joint aches especially in the knees. I measured a fever of 100.4 F on May 8 and tested myself at home for COVID and it returned negative. I also received my 2nd dose of Moderna on 4/21/2021.I eventually decided to just have a Teladoc appointment the night of May 8. The phone doc basically said it would be impossible to treat me over the phone and surmised it was Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and he was not allowed by policy to treat tickborne illness. I went to an urgent care the following day and we decided to begin doxycycline and tested for Lyme/RMSF. Long story short the test was positive for both and they started a second 10 day course of doxycycline. The nurse practitioner at the urgent care told me I would need to see a rheumatologist, especially for the Lyme diagnosis. They referred me and my appointment is June 22.So here's the question- what should I expect from the rheumatology appointment? I feel fine, the symptoms are gone and I've completed 20 days of an antibiotic. I have a feeling the rheumatologist will kind of just shrug and say if I took 2 courses of doxycycline and I have no symptoms then he's not worried about it. What am I signing up for? Will we at least do a confirmatory test for Lyme/RMSF?