"THAT'S A TICK BITE!" I screamed. Upon closer examination I saw that there was a dark spot in the middle of the red area, and in the middle of the darker spot, a nasty little bug, clinging on to me as if his, or more likely her, life depended on it, which as it turned out it did. With Stephanie practically in the next county by now (she didn't like seeing the sight of something eating her husband) I was pretty much on my own. Whilst I ran into the bathroom in search of some tweezers Stephanie slowly came to her senses and looked up on the Internet the proper procedure for removing the tick. As it turns out, they will not let go, no matter what, even if you burn them (which I didn't do, thanks the info my wife retrieved). So, I just got a good hold on it and slowly, and painfully, pulled it out. Point of interest, up to this point I felt no pain at all. I literally could not feel it at all, as if it wasn't even there! When I started pulling, however, it was somewhere in between slowly pulling out a head hair and pinching off a good piece of your own flesh. In short, it wasn't pleasant.
The tick is dead! We put it in a jar and headed out to the Medical Center. Big mistake! In retrospect I almost wish I had decided to live as a permanent host to what would have quickly become a precious member of the family, I'm sure. But with 63% of Green Lakes ticks testing positive for Lyme, we went on our way. We spent the better part of the next hour in the waiting room, then my name was called and we thought, "that wasn't too bad." WRONG! Then we spent about an hour and half (at least) just sitting in the exam room, waiting and waiting... eventually the Physician's Asst. (which, by the way, is not a doctor) shows up, looks at me for about thirteen seconds and says "oh I'll be right back with a prescription." All lies, maybe a half hour later she came back. Told us that they will send the tick out to see if it is the kind that can carry Lyme and gave me the script and we were on our way.
I'm glad that I have the drugs, and that the tick isn't attached to me anymore, but it sure seemed like a bad way to spend a Saturday.
Oh, and that breakfast in bed? I had to eat it in the car on the way, cold. Figures.
Thanks for reading!
5 comments:
Ugh! I got bit by a tick once, it is just so violating!
The question is.... did you scream like a girl???? Seriously, our school district has cancelled the third grade nature trips to Green Lakes because of the tick issue. The eighth grade swimming picnic is in question.... Glad you got it out, sounded painful. Where could you have possibly gotten that?
Unfortunately, and I didn't learn this until just the other day, when the doctor takes your tick to have it tested... it gets sent to the CDC or state health lab, and they do two things. They determine the species and gender of the tick, and they estimate how long it had been attached to you.
They do not test the tick for Lyme disease.
Based on your comment, Scott, it would seem that some species are more likely to carry Lyme than others. The longer the tick is feasting on your flesh, the more likely it will spit its contents into you, which could include Lyme bacteria.
But everyone says a different amount... if it was less than 6 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours, 48 hours, then you're probably safe. But people can't agree on the safe number of hours.
So by having your tick tested, you are finding out some relative likelyhood of contracting Lyme disease, but you don't learn if the tick actually carried Lyme or not!
/rant
I'm glad I don't remember the tick that got me. It would really give me the heebie-jeebies.
Wow...glad we got out of NY when we did! Too many tick bites going on...although I guess Kim's probably didn't happen in NY...oh no! What if they are out to get everyone from Wednesday night Bible study!
NO ONE IS SAFE!!
oh yeah and also I had to read that blog in two segments because I started blacking out...and it would NOT be a good idea for me to pee myself by all of the electronic equipment here in the office!!
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