Not sure if my son has lyme disease

My son found a tick on him in may and not long after that got very sick with server pain.  He was put in the hospital and was told he has diabetic neuropathy in his stomach and his whole body.  The diabetic dr said it was not possible.  What kind of test should he have to find out if it is lyme.  He is in a great deal of pain.

[JackieCalifornia]

I'm very sorry to hear about your son's condition.  

It is sad but true that many MDs do not know very much about Lyme, and they often don't understand how little they know.  The ticks that carry Lyme also carry several other diseases sometimes, and those diseases can have different symptoms from Lyme ... and Lyme affects different people differently.  (No wonder the MDs are confused.)  There is a condition called 'Bell's Palsy of the gut' which can affect Lyme patients, causing severe pain and problems.  I'm not medically trained, so I don't know if this is what your son has, but I too would want to know that it was or was not Lyme or a coinfection.

I would, in your situation, find a Lyme specialist, which can be any kind of an MD (internist, GP, infectious disease, whatever) but one who has an open mind about Lyme.  Unfortunately too many MD (often infectious disease MDs) don't take Lyme seriously, so what is important is the open mind and a familiarity with Lyme.

Here are some websites to go to to find and LLMD (which is slang for an MD who has the open-minded view of Lyme -- a 'Lyme Literate' MD):

lymediseaseassociation [dot] org
truthaboutlymedisease [dot] com
lymenet [dot] org
chroniclymedisease [dot] com

You can also search for your geographic area, such as "lyme southern ohio" -- I just tried that and didn't get much, but I didn't look all the way through the results.

There is an organization of LLMDs called International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) which has a website at ILADS [dot] org.  It is meant for medical professionals and can get overwhelming pretty fast, but that is the 'cutting edge' organization in the Lyme world.

The first website listed above, lymediseaseassociation [dot] org, is named on the ILADS website as a place to go to find an LLMD.  Because Lyme MDs have been harassed and some been run out of practice because of their views, we don't post their names in the open here.  You could post another message here "Looking for LLMD in So. Ohio/No. Kentucky" and see what you get -- there are lots of folks who check in here but don't necessarily post very often or read all the postings.  Then they could send you a private message with any recommenations (you will get an email to your email address that you registered with MedHelp, and in that email will be a link to click to bring you back to this website where the message is.  Sounds complicated, but it's not.)

Try the websites up above too.  The sooner your son is diagnosed and treated, the better, for all kinds of reasons.  One is that the longer Lyme remains untreated, the harder it is to get rid of.  You are doing the right thing to follow up as you are on this.

I wish your son the best, and you too -- let us know how you all are.  Best wishes --