If you think you may have contracted Lyme disease, there are a few courses of action you might want to consider. First, you can send in the tick to a lab that can test to see if the tick is a carrier (link to labs). These tests are extremely reliable, particularly when the tick is sent in within a few days. The CDC does not recommend this (nor do I), because this does not have any real bearing on whether or not you have contracted Lyme. If the tick tests positive, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve contracted Lyme disease. If it comes back negative, it doesn’t mean that you have not contracted Lyme from another tick.
You can also get tested for Lyme disease. The test (the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or ELISA test) actually measures specific antibodies that develop as your body attempts to fight off the infection rather than testing for the presence of the bacteria itself. These tests are more reliable as time passes (because your body builds up more antibodies). The CDC states that Lyme should be diagnosed by a combo of signs and symptoms + a history of possibly exposure to infected ticks (link), but this conflicts with the above cited review paper published in the American Journal of Medicine that signs symptoms, other than the bullseye rash, cannot be used to diagnose the disease (link). What’s a person to do?!?!
If you think you’ve contracted Lyme, treatment for localized Lyme (when the disease is caught in the early stages) is rather straightforward, and typically successful. Treatment for disseminated or late Lyme disease is much more complicated. Here’s the CDC’s recommended treatment protocol for Lyme in the early stages: