Does This Smaller Faint Rash Look Like Lyme's? Best Lyme's Test?

[Jane2017]

My general questions are what do you recommend in my particular case? How can I protect young children from developing chronic Lyme’s in a Lyme endemic area when they normally don’t get the rash and Lyme’s hides behind other symptoms? And is the upcoming Lyme’s vaccine recommended in being effective to prevent Lyme’s?  

My case: My rash was a smaller faint rash, just under 2 cm on my foot, which didn’t appear to expand. I woke up with a bite which was itchy. I remember thinking I am bit by a spider or mosquito. It was itchy at first and after a week, I noticed a fainter circle around it. Ring worm test was negative. The tests I’ve taken for Lyme’s were negative, the IgG Blot, the Lyme antibody cascade, and CRP.

I’ve been on amoxicillin for a potential Lyme disease case, though my primary doctor said it was murky waters. She didn’t think it was Lyme’s because the rash didn’t go away within 2 weeks, and wants to take me off the medication. Nonetheless, I’ve continued the antibiotics.

I am wondering what this looks like to you. I spoke with a nurse (without seeing the rash) who studied Lyme’s in-depth and she said using Amoxicillan is undertreated for Lyme’s because it doesn’t take care of the chronic component. She said assuming it's Lyme's I need to go on Minocycline for another 3 weeks to ensure you don’t develop chronic Lyme’s. I’m breastfeeding (though I can stop if necessary) so she doesn’t recommend docyclinine.

Context: Out of the people I’ve spoken with in our neighborhood (11 people) in central East Minnesota, 27 percent have had Lyme disease, which includes 1 chronic case who said her life has never been the same and that she will be on heavy medicine for the rest of her life.

The rash has since been increasingly fading, really making a notable difference after the 2 weeks mark. Along with the antibiotics, I have been doing the fungal cream just in case it’s fungal, even though it wasn’t scaly. I’ve been on the fungal cream for about 6 day. The rash appears to be going away. I don’t know if it means anything but when I put a topical silver anointment on it, it appeared to temporarily get worse or more red. The rash has always appeared to fade in and out, looking different when I wake up and during the day.

Here are the pics, from closer to the beginning with the center and a faint ring. With the last one how it looks now, faded.

https://postimg.org/image/y29uc52qb/
https://postimg.org/image/r0bwpxz4j/
https://postimg.org/image/5f6u2c2dv/
https://postimg.org/image/cwg1hjrwz
https://postimg.org/image/wsc0x38yb/
https://postimg.org/image/6lau14qoj/

So the first question is do you recommend going on minocycline after 3 weeks of amoxicillin, based on an offices recommendation who focuses on Lyme? And another, outside the CDC’s recommendations and insurance, what is the best test for Lyme’s?  

I also am super overwhelmed and worried about my young kids, since the tests are really inaccurate, less than 10 percent get the rash, and they can’t communicate the symptoms to me in a way I can understand. For example, we’ve been outside during nymph season mainly out in the lawn (we love the outdoors and it’s torture to stay inside for 3 months during the season) -and my little one threw up uncontrollably 9 times for 4 hours. He’s had a loose stool. There are days he’s been more fussy, but his molars are also coming in. I feel I don't know what I’m looking for. I’m vigilant and check for ticks everyday but I’m so worried I will miss is in it’s earlier stages and it will really lessen his quality of life. I know someone whose son had the flu, and she missed it and now at 5 he walks with a limp and has arthritis in his knees. I found a deer tick crawling up him, but I worry I'm not able to see a nymph.

I want to know what the most accurate test for Lyme’s is because if I feel my little guy needs to be tested, it’s going to be hard to hold him down for a blood test. I only want to do it once, not for a test that confirms 30 % of the people who have it.

Even with the vaccine being developed, people are so adamant against it, saying we don’t understand Lyme disease well enough at this point to develop it and it’s not like you’re even immune to ticks after you are bitten once, so why would it work. They also claim that with the last vaccine (and this one is similar) it caused folks to have the symptoms it was trying to prevent, so no way would they take it.

Questions: Outside the CDC’s recommendations and insurance, what is the best test for Lyme’s? Are there any natural things you can take internally to protect kids against Lyme disease? (Note: here is a good start my doctor pointed me to for ways to repel ticks: http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/wisconsin-ticks/on-people/) Would you recommend the vaccine when it’s available even though we’re not a big vaccine family?

We haven’t done any of the other vaccines, because we didn’t find many of the diseases to be a major threat, but this sure seems relevant at this point. Those against it say the vaccine is worthless and created the exact symptoms it was trying to protect against.