Was out in the woods a week ago, Thursday. Saw a tiny tick on my data collector. By a week ago, Sunday found a little tiny bugger in the upper middle of my back. Wife plucked it out.
Felt fine all week. Started feeling a bit like a stomach bug Saturday, Sunday, today. No clue if this is just some strange mild constipation, a mild stomach bug, or what. It is rare that I feel this poor.
A couple weeks ago I mentioned some dental issues and some anti- biotics that tried to kill me (or that is certainly how that felt).
My little bit of research between trips to the toilet tell me that if it is Lyme, early tests might misdiagnose negative.
At any rate, I am heading in to see my GP asap. I have a lot of work to do, and really need to feel better to do it.
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it was about this tiny:
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Lyme disease is really serious for what it??s worth. A buddy??s wife had it & she??s never been the same the last couple years (she was a curvy gal & shrunk up to damn near nothing hardly). Be careful man & best of luck with it!
There is a standard blood test to determine several tick borne infections in humans.?ÿ Get one asap.?ÿ A few years ago, after being tick-bit for years, I tested positive for rickettsia. ?ÿLater determined to be the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever variety.
Thought I was going to die.?ÿ With fever and nausea every joint ached with the slightest movement.?ÿ A couple of rounds of antibiotics and six weeks of light duty did the trick.?ÿ I don't ever want to feel like that again.?ÿ The only way I could have felt worse would have been to actually die.?ÿ That was the hardest twenty pounds I ever lost.
Get to a doctor and don't mess around about it.
Yeah. I will but I do feel like I am over reacting.
Make sure you inform your Doctor the possibility of Lyme disease, that may help zero in the diagnosis and which diagnostic tests are performed. Take care Bud. ?????ÿ
The particular tick bite I'm talking about was just like a thousand others.?ÿ The little booger wasn't even really dug in yet.?ÿ After a few days the bite started itching and became inflamed.?ÿ BTW it did NOT get a "bullseye" red ring around it.?ÿ Having had those before I discounted the bite.
After about a week I felt like crap and powered through my chores.?ÿ Like you I felt that going to the doc was "overreacting".?ÿ By the second week I was running a delirious fever and could hardly get up to pee.?ÿ SWMBO made the call and got me right in.?ÿ With the antibiotics the doc gave me 24 hours to see if my fever would drop.?ÿ It did and I avoided a hospital visit.
Antibiotics earlier would have lessened the symptoms.?ÿ I learned a lesson there.
Have had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in the Summer of 2020 and Summer of 2019.?ÿ Fever was the first particularly noticeable clue.?ÿ A blood test is run for a wide variety of possible forms of tick-borne disease.?ÿ In both cases the bite was probably two to four weeks ahead of the symptoms.
I surveyed in the PNW & AK but never detected one tick bite or got infected.?ÿ My sister in the same clime has to strip down and inspect after every trip.?ÿ I attribute to eating lots of garlic.?ÿ Peeled dozens of ticks off my dogs so I know what they look like and how to remove them.?ÿ My affliction is chiggers,?ÿ turning my ankles into oozing itchy meat and no DEET or gaiters helps.?ÿ Not life threatening but quite irritating for weeks.
Mosquitoes I hate.?ÿ But heavy douses of DEET neutralizes them although you gotta be careful not to dissolve your plastic watch or survey gear using it.?ÿ Did you know the most deadly animal in the world is the?ÿmosquito??ÿ ?ÿIt might seem impossible that something so miniscule can kill so many people, but it's true. According to the World Health Organization,?ÿmosquito?ÿbites result in the?ÿdeaths?ÿof more than 1 million people every year.?ÿ Mostly because of malaria which is rare in the US, but beware in Mexico, South America, India, SE Asia and Africa.?ÿ When I've travelled to such areas it's best to prophylactically take anti-malarials?ÿ and keep up with it during and after your visit.
My affliction is chiggers
Likewise here. I am very careful after about this time of year, depending on the weather conditions. Pants tucked into socks, and DEET around the ankles, knees, crotch, and belt line.
You don't have to go much further north than where I am in Cedar Rapids before they are much less common, but where I grew up in southern Iowa they were a terror most of the summer.
I don't think chiggers bite immediately, so if you are out in the weeds for a few hours you may get rid of many of them by taking a shower at the first moment you can and running your clothes through the dryer on hot.
Chiggers are the normal scourge in this area, followed by mosquitos.?ÿ For some reason, if a dozen people were with me in a tick loaded area, at the end of the day I would be the one with the least number of ticks.?ÿ BUT, IT ONLY TAKES ONE!
My dad suffered from Lyme disease for years before finally being diagnosed. By that time it took several years of antibiotics to get better and he's still not perfect.?ÿ
Best to take it seriously. False negatives are very common.?ÿ
DEET:?ÿ If it will eat plastic, it is of high enough concentration.
We use to come out the brush everyday crawling with ticks. Eat dinner and head for the Bar. Pickup a local girl that was dying to get off the ranch. We would strip and check out each other for ticks.??? Those were the days.????
Not a lot of ticks this far north but I've read Permethrin is highly effective at keeping them off. Fellow I ran into was telling me he had to retire early from Lyme disease, did a number on his joints. Said wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy. Good luck.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
There are several other tickborne illnesses out there. I spent two weeks with purple legs followed by a few weeks of yellow skin and eyes in the 80s. Hate those little creepers...
I've been bitten a couple of times by ticks leaving the tell-tale ring.?ÿ I've been tested and they never show a high white blood cell count. One time I saved a tick it came back negative.?ÿ Never been sick a some people I know with Lyme, but each one I've gotten the affects have also gotten worse.
Be careful.
Thanks for the reminder to remain vigilant on ticks this time of year. I always worry about the one you can??t see in an inconspicuous location.?ÿ
I also eat a lot of garlic, wear a hat, long sleeves, long pants, and boots year round in an area of high temps and high humidity. I believe this deters a lot of bugs as well as sun exposure.
I also am a chigger/red bug magnet. I use Deep Woods Off on my boots, ankles, and pants from the knees down and that seems to work for me.?ÿ
Mosquitos don??t bother me too much. Maybe because of all the garlic and deet I now have in my system.?ÿ
Deer flies/yellow flies - hate them. I almost quit surveying back in 1988 because of the dang yellow flies. Those bastards will land on your eyelid while trying to take a shot. I will spray my whole body with deet if those things are biting.?ÿ
Noseeums/Gnats - I can tolerate them here in NC. But the Savannah, GA area gets the award for most aggressive population of these insects.?ÿ
Nothing like setting an appointment with your GP to make all your symptoms magically disappear. ?ÿI go in at 3:10PM EST today.
Seeing the EST reminded me of something.?ÿ Is all of Indiana now on EST??ÿ Years ago the South Bend area and several other counties were CST.?ÿ Does Indiana still avoid the switch to Daylight Savings Time?
@holy-cow I wish. ?ÿNo our governor broke our clocks years ago. ?ÿNow we have to spring forward and fall back like the rest of the fools on the planet. ?ÿPeer pressure on a global scale.