Erythema Migrans Rash

Last night, as I was peeling off the Tic-Tac-Toe board of band-aids from my butt so that I could apply medicine to my latest Bicillin injection site, I noticed something peculiar on the "good" side (the side currently "on break" from injections). The "good side," in this particular case being the left side, had five circles, each one approximately the size of a quarter.

I figured it was just a reaction to the circle band-aids that I currently had on. Then, I realized that that particular side had only three injection sites, which didn't explain why there were five circles. Also, I could see the three unhealed marks left from each shot, which didn't match up with the circles.

That left me with two other ideas: either a late drug reaction to the Bicillin, or--and this is what I was hoping for--the tell-tale Lyme rash (called an erythema migrans rash or EM for short), which has been known to "magically" appear during antibiotic treatment.

I gave my doctor a call, so that I could let her know what was going on. She had me come in and show her the rash so that she could make sure that it wasn't a reaction to the Bicillin (which is really great because I'm hoping to never, ever have to use the Epi-Pen that I'm supposed to keep handy during shots--you know, just in case).

She said what I was hoping she would: not a reaction to the Bicillin, but in fact, the EM rash--which proves evidence of disseminated borrelia. In non-doctor-speak, what that means is the rash is clear evidence that the Lyme bacteria has spread throughout my body--chronic Lyme disease/late-stage Lyme disease/advanced Lyme disease, whatever name you'd like to call it (I will refrain from using the colorful name my friend came up with for it today).

So, in my excitement, I decided to do a little research about the EM rash appearing long after the actual tick bite and here's what I found:
-Erythema migrans itself may appear at a site far from the original bite as untreated Lyme disease bacterial infection spreads through the skin. 
-Multiple painless EM rashes may occur, indicating disseminated infection.
-A little recognized fact about the EM rash is that it can recur, usually in the original site, with or without antibiotic therapy. We estimate that between 5-10% of patients demonstrate this phenomenon during their illness. Other patients remark that they have migratory rashes of moderate duration from time to time that remain unexplained.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the Lyme disease rash. Here is a great site with lots of pictures of different Lyme rashes.

I can't believe I am publishing this, but I have been begged to, so enjoy!

Multiple EM rashes around Bicillin injection sites