My son was possibly bit again by a deer tick and he already has been diagnosed with lyme two years ago...

My son, 5 now was diagnosed with Lyme Disease when he was three.  He was recently bit by possibly another deer tick...how does this work...is his body immune or protected against another episode of lyme?  What would happen if I get him tested in a couple of weeks, wouldn't his body already show antibodies for lyme?

[JackieCalifornia]

To my understanding, there is no lasting immunity to Lyme after an initial infection.  There is also the question of whether a decline in symptoms from the initial infection is truly a cure, or if the bacteria reside at a low level in his body.  Lyme have the ability to hide in places in the body where the immune system cannot detect them.

Whether a re-infection with Lyme would show increased positive result on a current test, I don't know, but if he is tested and gets a positive result, then it means he's infected, whether an old infection or a new one doesn't really matter, I would not think.

I would take my child to a doc for a quick course of antibiotics to ward off a new infection, in any event.  I am not medically trained, but that is what I would do.  

Best wishes, let us know how it goes.

[JackieCalifornia]

and PS, if your son was not fully treated after the initial infection some years ago, then a short course of antibiotics now would likely not cure the old infection, to my understanding.

[brblbr3]

I'm giving his doctor a call for a course of antibiotics...I don't know enogh about lymes and am pretty scared for him.  He often complains of neck pain, fatigue, and sometimes dizziness.  Becasue he was infected, are these symptoms he will have for the rest of his life??  Will symptoms get worse?  Can anything make them better?  So basically what I understand is that once you get lymes, even if you take a course of antibiotics, you will always have lymes and the symptoms too?

[JackieCalifornia]

Lyme is not a quick cure, but it is curable.  The usual 2 weeks or so of antibiotics you get for an ear infection etc. is not enough for Lyme, but that is what non-Lyme-specialists tend to prescribe.

The docs who don't believe in treating for a longer time have a theory that if you are still sick after ~2 weeks of antibiotics, then it is not still the infection acting up, but instead it is an auto-immune reaction of your body thinking that there is still an infection that is no longer there.  Lyme specialists (LLMDs) take the opposite position (which makes more sense to me) that if you still have symptoms, it is because you are still infected and more treatment is needed.