“Could this be lyme disease?”

Yes, it could be. Where you live plays into the diagnosis. But it could also be a spider bite. Are you having aches, headaches, overwhelming fatigue, joint pain? Call your PCP or go to Urgent Care.

A bite from the black legged ticks is normally the cause for Lyme disease. If this is endemic to your area, then it could be. Common symptoms of Lyme disease are rash, fever, body aches, arthritis, facial paralysis, which will need urgent medical attention. Did you pick a tick off your skin?

This can definitely be Lyme disease. Any round reddish spot is suspicious especially when the center is darker, the periphery pallor and the line that delineates the spot darker. The Lyme rash tends to enlarge and NOT to be itchy. Most of other insect bites are itchy. Applying hot water with a wet warm towel or hot shower may make the bull's eye rash more apparent. Of course, if you are in an endemic zone, are tired with headaches, joint pain, etc., it would be more suspicious. All agree (but who do not know Lyme disease) that a blood test at this time is FOOLISH and MISLEADING. Within the first two months of a tick bite, the blood test is most often falsely negative.

Alain Mass, M.D.