Lyme's disease

[ctom]

I just started my antibiotics this morning.

A couple days back I found an attached tick and plucked it off my hide. A dab of alcohol and I thought I was good to go until Ma mentioned yeaterday that I had a huge bullseye looking mark where the tick had been. Sure enough did so I went to the er for an opinion. They did some tests and the results came by phone this morning along with instructions to pick the drugs up at our favorite [tongue-in-cheek] pharmacy.

Two weeks of popping Doxycycline twice a day and enjoying hyper-sensitivity to sunlight and not being able to have milk, yougart, ice cream....anything with calcium except between doses as long as its more than two hours after taking a pill. Apparently even sunscreen won't help with the sunlight issue so no fishing if the sun is shining.

Deer tiicks have had all the notoriety for spreading Lyme's but this one was a plain old wood tick and the Doc said that the deer tick thing is just one of the mis-conceptions being cast around. Even fleas can infect you with this stuff.

If you're outside in the grass and meadows/woods, spray up people.

[romeo d]

Sorry to hear about that CTom,  Thanks for the reminder.  Hope you get better soon.

[ctom]

I popped the tick off and in three days had that darned bullseye. A swab of whatever the bite was seeping and a blood draw pointed to the crud but it could be cellulitis from bacterial infection from the bite itself. Same regime of drug therapy. The doc said that this looked identical to another bite she'd seen this year that had the bullseye three weeks after the tick removal and that the all of the hospitals and clinics are handling these things very aggresively.

I know one person who got Lyme's and didn't do anything to treat it for three or four years. Once they determined what this guy's health ptoblems were coming from he went thru hell on earth to get rid of the disease. He's been free of it for about 6 years now but the problems he has to live with because of Lyme's is nothing I want to have to deal with.

[TTDuckman]

I work in public health and this has been a bad year for ticks.  The weather was great when they were really ampping up and now we are on third and maybe 4th generation.  I am glad you got it checked right away and are on the path to recovery.

[biglewers]

My wife is being treated as well.  Doxy works in crazy ways.  You might get some crazy dreams and or just pule for no reason. We took them to prevent moleria while in other countries.  Good luck man.