Lyme Disease/Brown Recluse Questionnaire

If you have ever had Lyme disease and were initially diagnosed by a medical person as having a brown recluse spider bite, I am looking for your help.

I am a researcher in the Department of Entomology at the University of California-Riverside. One of my biggest research areas is brown recluse spiders and the overdiagnoses of brown recluse bites throughout the United States. There are about 30 conditions that look similar to brown recluse bites but doctors often blame the spider even though no brown recluses live in their area. A diagnostic symptom of brown recluse bite is a bull's eye wound which is also sometimes expressed in Lyme disease. Because doctors quickly blame the spider, often Lyme disease is not diagnosed immediately. Therefore, as part of my research goal to educate the medical community about misdiagnosing Lyme disease as brown recluse bite, I am hoping to document cases of such so that I can publish the information in a medical journal. Therefore, this questionnaire is only for those people who have been diagnosed by a medical person as having Lyme disease who also received an initial diagnosis of brown recluse bite from a medical person. Please answer the questions below and supply me with some way of contacting you (email, regular mail, etc.) in case I have questions about your responses. I have just completed another medical questionnaire study and often I needed to contact the respondent to ask additional questions in order to clear up some point that I did not understand. Be assured that your personal information will remain confidential. If you can't answer all the questions, I probably will still be able to use the data depending on what I eventually present.

1. If you were initially diagnosed as having a brown recluse bite and then later the same wound was diagnosed as a symptom of Lyme disease: Where did you live at the time of the medical condition? State: County: City/Town:

2. When you were diagnosed with brown recluse bite, where did the diagnosis occur? (if the answers are the same as above, just check 'Same as above': sometimes people have to travel great distances to medical appointments so their bite and diagnosis localities will differ) State: County: City/Town: Same as above (Question #1)

3. If you didn't acquire Lyme disease from the same place where you live or work, where do you think it happened? (for example, a person living in the heart of San Francisco has little chance of picking up Lyme disease in downtown SF and might have been hiking in the mountains) Location: Probably acquired Lyme disease where I live or work

4. Approximately what month and/or year did your condition occur? Month: Year: Select month January February March April May June July August September October November December Select year 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030

5. Did you have the classic bull's eye wound? Yes No

6. What type of doctor made the diagnosis of brown recluse bite? General Practitioner Dermatologist Other What kind of other?

7. What type of doctor made the diagnosis of Lyme disease? General Practitioner Dermatologist Other What kind of other?

8. If your answers were the same to the two previous questions, did the same doctor make the two diagnoses? (that is, did the doctor change his/her mind or was it a second doctor of the same type who made the diagnosis of Lyme disease.) Same doctor changed mind Different doctors made the diagnoses Not Applicable

9. If you can remember, how much time transpired between the diagnoses of brown recluse bite and Lyme disease? (Please select a value for EACH OF years, months, and days or check I don't remember) Years: Months: Days: Select years 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 Select months 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Select days 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 I don't remember

Other comments:

How do I contact you if I have questions?   You must fill in at least your name and either your phone, email, or physical address below. If you prefer not to leave your full name, just a first name is ok.   Name: Address: City: State: Zipcode: Phone:     Email:

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If you wish to contact me: Rick Vetter vetter@citrus.ucr.edu Entomology UC Riverside Riverside, CA 92521 If you wish to see my website: http://spiders.ucr.edu