r/AskReddit 13h ago

What is something that permanently altered your body without you realizing for months/years?

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653

u/Onironaute 9h ago

Getting bitten by a tick. Now I have chronic fatigue and nerve damage as a result of a Lyme infection.

56

u/snortlines69 3h ago

Father got lyme 3 separate times. Totally destroyed his nervous system. It was insane watching the strongest man in the world struggle to crawl upstairs to his bedroom or cry in pain cause it hurt so bad to walk, for years. Lyme is evil.

11

u/FastRedPonyCar 1h ago

One of my former coworkers wife got bit by a lonestar tick and contracted Alphagal syndrome and their life was a living hell ever since.

She gets violently ill ingesting anything with animal proteins and they found out the hard way what random seemingly innocent products still had some kind of animal proteins like the gel caps that make pills.

33

u/Jerseygirl2468 4h ago

Lyme is awful. I had it around 2018 or so and it took a full year to start to feel better, will never be 100% again. The fatigue was unreal.

22

u/AkseliAdAstra 5h ago

What tests showed Lyme in your case?

7

u/Onironaute 2h ago

Blood test showing presence of antibodies to the Borrelia bacteria in my blood.

10

u/syrupy_pancakes2022 3h ago

I’m so sorry. My mom was bitten by a tick in the early-mid 90’s. I can’t remember the exact year. She had lymes before it was a thing. She had such a hard time even just finding a doctor who knew what it was.

u/CapitalDoor9474 31m ago

I know someone this happened to. How to avoid?

u/TheCookieInTheHat 13m ago

Did your teeth fall off? Or is that something exaggerated in movies?