New Gastons Friend

J

jesse

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jesse
It seems I made a new friend at Gastons...though slightly unwanted.

...It followed me the entire way back...sucking my blood the whole time.. Noticed it on my back this morning

I hate ticks.
 
get to a doctor NOW and get checked for Lyme Disease or other tick borne illnesses. don't wait. not kidding.
 
Was it a deer tick or some other type? If its a deer tick this could be serious, need to be checked for Lyme's Disease.

Luckily, I avoided the ticks this year, and my dog did too!!!
 
I'm leaning towards deer tick based on pictures.

I beleive Ed Fred said he got one too.

smigaldi said:
Ick! How'd you get it out?
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Tweasers

woodstock said:
either way, go to the doc.
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Going to the doc is an expensive adventure that I'd rather avoid. I'll watch for symptoms for now.

I'm leaning towards the tick being from Saturday night...If so that means it was probably on me for about 80 hours.

somewebsite said:
In 60-80 percent of cases, a rash resembling a bull’s eye or solid patch, about two inches in diameter, appears and expands around or near the site of the bite. Sometimes, multiple rash sites appear. The early stage of Lyme disease is usually marked by one or more of the following symptoms: chills and fever, headache, fatigue, stiff neck, muscle and/or joint pain, and swollen glands. If Lyme disease is unrecognized or untreated in the early stage more severe symptoms may occur. As the disease progresses, severe fatigue, a stiff aching neck, and tingling or numbness in the arms and legs, or facial paralysis can occur. The most severe symptoms of Lyme disease may not appear until weeks, months or years after the tick bite. These can include severe headaches, painful arthritis, swelling of the joints, and heart and central nervous system problems.
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So far so good...Guess I'll watch for symptoms for..years?
 
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Jesse:

"Penny wise, pound foolish."

Brief visit to the sawbones, no problems, you have certainty; problems, you avoid something much worse.

===
Hey, that's better than when I came back from Belize with two Bot Fly larvae residing in my knee. Look it up. Gross.
 
jangell said:
So far so good...Guess I'll watch for symptoms for..years?
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I have a friend who has gotten Lyme disease twice because of just such a "strategy." It put her on disability for more than a year and basically derailed her career.
 
BTW Jesse if you are looking for a new avatar for yourself....
tick.jpg


:D:D:D
 
Hmm. A few questions for those that may know..

On 5/21 I took my little sister hiking....On 5/25 I developed a severe cough out of no where and a fever..and did plenty of laying in the grass because she wore me out.

I ignored this with my "going to the doctor is expensive" philosophy..and became extremely tired...The cough wouldn't go away and everyhting kept getting worse.

Eventually it got to the point to where my sinuses were killing and I couldn't bend over as it was too painful. Flying was out of the question. I finally went in and was diaganozed with a sinus infection..Which is weird because I've never had any such issue.

Amoxocillin seemed to help with that, but the coughing has yet to go away. I'm sure one or two of you may have noticed that I was coughing at Gastons quite a bit. Kind of weird to catch a cold this time of year...

and now I find this tick..which appears based on pictures to me that it was a female deer tick...

Based on looking on wikipedia....sinus infection, cough, fatigue, fever..all seems to fit lyme disease pretty well.

So now my question is..What's the chance that I picked up this damn tick on 5/20 and just noticed now...They don't stay attached that long do they?

More or less I'm just starting to connect dots now.
 
all it takes is one good bite. they don't have to stay attached.

get to the doctor. you'd be best going to a real Lyme Doc, because some of the tests they use are bogus.
 
woodstock said:
all it takes is one good bite. they don't have to stay attached.

get to the doctor. you'd be best going to a real Lyme Doc, because some of the tests they use are bogus.
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Listen to Elizabeth! Get checked out. There are a lot of false positives and negatives with the tests, but you should probably get on antibiotics either way. Try to go to a doc that knows about Lyme. My wife has it.

Typical symptoms are a "bullseye" rash around the bite area, headaches and achy joints. Get treated, its no fun.
 
Anthony said:
Listen to Elizabeth! Get checked out. There are a lot of false positives and negatives with the tests, but you should probably get on antibiotics either way. Try to go to a doc that knows about Lyme. My wife has it.

Typical symptoms are a "bullseye" rash around the bite area, headaches and achy joints. Get treated, its no fun.
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plus the quicker you treat it, the shorter the treatment. if you sit around and wait for years before doing anything about it, you will be on hard core meds, that will be very expensive and make you sick, for a long time. (including anti-malarials).
 
Anthony said:
Typical symptoms are a "bullseye" rash around the bite
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That is true. However, the lack of the rash does NOT mean that you don't have the disease.

I used to live in Connecticut, and Lyme, CT is ground zero for Lyme Disease. When one of my kids got a tick bite, we pulled it off and asked the Doc if it was worth analyzing to see if it was infected. Even this was a Dog Tick, not a Deer Tick, he said that would be a waste of money.... they all had it.

A bite is not likely to give you the disease if you pull it off quickly... they have to be latched to you for 8 - 24 hours to transmit the disease.

-Skip
 
Skip I don't believe that's true. You can get it just by being bitten - it doesn't take much at all.
 
While not making light of Jesse's situation, if I went to the Dr. every time I pulled a tick off of me I'd be better off asking him to move in with us. I pull at least 2-3 ticks off of me a week due to living in the woods. This happens even with the use of deet and permathon.
 
woodstock said:
Skip I don't believe that's true. You can get it just by being bitten - it doesn't take much at all.
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Can... Yes. But the probability is pretty low. The following is an excerpt from the American Lyme Disease Foundation web site FAQ at http://aldf.com

"2) To assess your risk of contracting Lyme disease following a known tick bite, ask yourself the following questions:

a) Do I live in a Lyme disease-endemic area (an area of high incidence or high risk)?
b) Is the tick I just removed either a deer tick or a western black-legged tick?
c) If so, did the tick appear engorged (swollen like a balloon) vs. flattened?

If you answered no to any one or two of these questions, your risk of contracting Lyme disease is low, but you should nevertheless be watchful for possible symptoms. If you answered yes to all three questions, your risk for Lyme disease is high, and you should be particularly alert for any early symptoms, including the rash, that might develop in the next several weeks. If symptoms appear, call your physician immediately."

Note that it takes time for the tick to engorge itself.

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
That is true. However, the lack of the rash does NOT mean that you don't have the disease.

I used to live in Connecticut, and Lyme, CT is ground zero for Lyme Disease. When one of my kids got a tick bite, we pulled it off and asked the Doc if it was worth analyzing to see if it was infected. Even this was a Dog Tick, not a Deer Tick, he said that would be a waste of money.... they all had it.

A bite is not likely to give you the disease if you pull it off quickly... they have to be latched to you for 8 - 24 hours to transmit the disease.

-Skip
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Very true. My wife never got the traditional symptoms like the Bullseye rash and therefore it did not get treated for a long time.
 
kevin47881 said:
I pull at least 2-3 ticks off of me a week due to living in the woods. This happens even with the use of deet and permathon.
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That's the way it is for us here on the farm. We both usually find at least one a day that is already embedded. The large ticks you can usually feel crawling on you, but those little bitty ones go undetected longer. We used to get yearly tests for Lyme Disease and all the other diseases and take rounds of antibiotics, but we had to switch doctors this year and haven't talked with him about it yet.
 
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