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Comment by dabber | Hacker News Reader

I've had it three times as a kid and the most recent one didn't produce a "bulls eye" rash. I knew what it was by then and went to the doctor, symptomatic, telling them that I had limes, but they hadn't seen it before and told me I had the flu.

I got a second opinion with blood work that came back positive for limes.

So if you have "the flu" symptoms around a time you were had been running around grassy area where limes is a thing, ask for blood work.

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It's "Lyme disease," named after Lyme, Connecticut (which, in turn, gets its name from Lyme Regis in England). Not "limes," that's a fruit.

Sure, but I'm not a doctor and anyone who is living in an area that I'm speaking to will understand what I wrote and those that don't (perhaps yourself included) might learn a new colloquial phrase given the context of the comment.

When writing about medical issues, spelling matters. If you don't like being corrected, then just ignore the helpful hint and move on. Doubling down on a typo is just weird.

We aren't mind readers, tell us the context, is it a regional spelling?

Maybe you couldn't get treatment because you told your doctor you "had limes" rather than "are exhibiting symptoms of Lyme disease after a tick bite."

Precision matters in medical contexts.

Although Lyme Regis gets its name from the river Lim.

(But yes, Lyme disease).

And the river Lim potentially got its name from the Latin word for 'border'.

And the Latin word for border got its name from a hem stitch.

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