Firstly, if you're here, thank you. I don't quite know where to start and I've been contemplating how to put everything in to words, as well as the easiest way to share updates without coming off as something I don't want to be. Honestly, I'm shifting back and forth between hopeful and hopeless, thankful and bitter, happy and scared, coming to terms and denial. And honestly, I think all of that's okay, and necessary.
This blog has three purposes: 1. Most importantly, to educate about Lyme Disease, so that you can help prevent it from happening to you or a loved one and know what to do if you ever get a known tick bite and/or the Erythema Migrans rash (bulls' eye rash), or Lyme symptoms. 2. To tell you about my personal story, because it's a long story, and it's hard to explain. 3. Therapy for me. It's therapeutic to write it all out.
So here's my story of how I arrived at the diagnosis of Lyme Disease, and some of my thoughts on it- some of them edited and some raw. Take it or leave it, but don't start reading unless you understand that this is what's happening and this is how I feel. I will love you no matter how you feel or what you think in return. This is just the information that I have to give you at this time.
In the last month since my diagnosis, I've told very few people about it. Partially because no one has a clue what Lyme Disease is, so their reaction is "oh, okay cool." Partially because no one has a clue what Lyme Disease is, and it's really difficult to explain (read on). Partially because I don't like talking about myself or bringing attention to myself, and I definitely wouldn't want to come across as dramatic, attention-seeking, needy, etc. And partially because I slip in and out of denial. I guess 16 years of not knowing can do that to you.
So, here goes:
16 Years In the Making:
Summer of 1998, when I was 10 years old, my family and I went to SunRiver for a little vacation, as we often did. I had a great time bike riding through the woods with my dad, uncle, and cousin. We biked for miles.
Somewhere along the ride, I had a bug bite appear on my neck. It was just a regular looking bug bite, probably a mosquito bite, and I didn't think anything of it until a few days later it developed a red bulls'-eye ring around it. Thankfully (seriously, thank God- we'll come back to this), my mom knew that the bulls'-eye rash was an indicator of Lyme Disease from a tick bite (although that was all we knew about Lyme Disease), so she got me right in to my pediatrician.
As was standard 16 years ago (and as is pretty much still the standard today), my doctor saw the bulls' -eye rash, known as an Erythema Migrans rash, prescribed me two weeks of Doxycycline (antibiotics), and that was the end of that. The Erythema Migrans rash is the only tell-tale sign that you have Lyme Disease. They won't even test you for it, they just start treatment right away. Statistics differ, but it's estimated that only around 30%-50% of people who get a tick bite that's infected with Lyme, ever develop the rash. Thank God I had the rash so we knew right away. Two weeks of Doxycycline was supposed to clear it up. Man, have we ever been so wrong? We never thought of it ever again.
Immediately following that summer, things started changing for me. I developed food allergies to almost everything I put in my body (anyone who went to middle school with me knows this is not an exaggeration... I wish it was, and I wish I didn't accidentally switch lunches with Lindsay, who ended up with my weird cheese-puffs and brown baggies ;-)). I was allergic to the glue under the new carpet at our middle school, peanuts, tree nuts, apples, peaches, avocado, cantaloupe, carrots, amoxicillin, penicillin... To name a few. Is this related to Lyme Disease? I don't know. We'll never truly know. But it's worth noting.
I loved playing soccer, I was a good athlete. The summer following my tick bite I joined a club soccer team and began playing year-round. I loved it. I loved soccer. Except some days I was really, really good, and some days I was in too much pain or too fatigued to keep up. The more that happened, the more the faith that my coaches had in me decreased, and the more my confidence decreased. I didn't know why my ankles, knees, and hips were in so much pain, when I was only an 11 year old kid. I felt like something was wrong with me, but my teammates and coaches, and likely friends and family (no hard feelings) chalked it up to laziness on certain days (and apparently I made the decision to be a great athlete on great days?). I kept playing because I wasn't a quitter. No matter how much pain I was in, how tired I was, how bad my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was, I was going to keep doing what I loved. And I did, for a while.
In middle school and high school, my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder spiraled out of control. I had no control. I've had OCD since I can pretty much remember. Whether Lyme exacerbated it is up for debate. I suppose it doesn't matter. My sophomore year of high school, I decided we had to do something about my OCD. Over the next four years or so, I was on at least six different antidepressants for OCD, because that felt like the only option- none of which, unfortunately for me, helped my OCD at all- although they have great benefits for some people. They caused too many side-effects to begin listing. But I think this is where things were hazy for me... Not only because the antidepressants literally caused fogginess and memory problems amongst other things, but because I began blaming any strange symptom on the antidepressants, because I figured they had to be that. Symptoms like feeling like I was being electrocuted when my immunity is low, dizzy/fainting spells, seizure-like episodes, etc.
My senior year of high school, I was at school at 5:40am for choir rehearsal. We had a concert that night so we were rehearsing on the stage in the auditorium. I started feeling nauseous and really dizzy and shaky, so I went to go sit in the auditorium to watch. 50 minutes later, the rehearsal was over, and I thought "wow, that's weird.. I just sat down out here." When I was leaving, my choir director stopped me and said "oh my gosh, Kristen, are you okay?" I was so confused as to why she was so concerned (she didn't ever show concern on the day of a concert- if you were dying, you bucked it up and showed up for the rehearsal and concert). I said "yes, I think so. I'm just going to go home." I remember that multiple people stopped me as I was walking out of the school- both people I knew and people I didn't know, to ask me if I was okay. I still don't know what I was displaying to compel them to stop me. Again, I thought that was strange but was too "out of it" to realize how strange it was and to not get in my car. I called my mom to tell her I was going home and she asked if I was okay enough to drive. "Yes, mom!" 10 minutes later I got in an accident. Somewhere on the highway I slipped out of consciousness like I did in the auditorium and hit the car in front of me when traffic stopped (thank goodness there was traffic, so I was probably only going 25-30 miles per hour and no one was hurt at all). But my car was totaled. So that was a wake-up call.
I had neurology appointments and an MRI and the work-up, but everything came back normal. We were so thankful that everything was normal, yet left confused as to what in the heck had happened. My neurologist laughed at me when I told him my symptoms before the accident and he said "I've never heard of those symptoms..." With all due respect, sir, neither had I. And I was scared. But I wasn't making them up. I didn't need attention. I had no reason to make them up. They happened, and I was looking for an answer and got laughed at. The other people in my choir later told me that during the 50 minutes in which I have no memory, my head would slump down for a while and then I would sit up and wave at them... I have no memory of those 50 minutes. I've always assumed that episode was from the Paxil that I was on for OCD at the time... Again, maybe we'll never truly know, but...
Joint pain, feelings of electrocution, and smaller, but similar episodes continued through college (I stopped taking any and all medication my sophomore year). I could handle the pain (it's been daily since I was 10) and the strange sensations (so many symptoms were daily occurrences that I'd adapted to them. I had to), but it was the "episodes" that would scare me (and my family). I would have these seizure-like episodes, but no one could tell me they were seizures, or anything else for that matter. They'd say "has anyone ever told you you're having seizures?" And I'd say "no..." And they'd say "hmm, okay..." And that was that. I was in and out of urgent care with these episodes, because I'd be doing somewhat fine and then have an episode out of the blue, that would scare the crap out of us. Sometimes they were mostly neurological, sometimes they were related to my heart (EKG's are always normal too), and sometimes it was a strange workup of a variety of different symptoms- but it would knock me off my feet for a day... Or a few. But then they'd tell me nothing was wrong and we'd shrug it off because no one ever knew what was wrong, and I'd feel fine again for a while. It was too complicated and unknown and frightening to keep thinking about, so as long as I was feeling fine again, it was easier to pretend nothing had ever happened. And then it would happen again... It was a cycle.
Throughout college this thing morphed a little more. I was sick all the time. Chronic UTI's (literally every 2-4 weeks), constant colds, tonsillitis, etc. I had my tonsils removed during my junior year of college, hoping that would solve some of the problems (oh my dear, tonsillectomy when you're an adult... woof). It didn't really. Things just changed again.
Since college, things have continued to change. Joint pain, electrocution, "episodes," etc. all continue to happen, and now there are some added goodies:
feelings of something crawling on my skin;
tingling in my fingers;
tingling in my tongue;
body parts falling to sleep;
hair loss;
tremors;
feeling of starvation and depletion, regardless of what or how often I eat;
extreme fatigue;
headaches;
jaw pain;
dizziness;
body aches;
muscle spasms;
feeling of tightness/heaviness/pressure or pain in my chest;
heart palpitations;
I can feel my heart pounding and working hard with minimal or no exertion;
shortness of breath;
foggy thinking/zone outs;
difficulty concentrating/multi-tasking;
vision rapidly shifting back and forth for a moment, usually when I work out;
shooting pains that follow nerves;
pressure in my head;
increased eye floaters;
easy bruising, slow healing;
Charlie horses;
feeling of vibration, like a light buzz or hum inside my body, sometimes when I work out and often when I first wake up in the morning;
episodes where everything hits me at once and I can't work for a few days or a week or so...
To name a few... : - )
The above list has been increasing since about 2012, and more so in the summer of 2013. So I had had enough. I was done getting the run-around from doctors who looked at me like I was crazy, referred me to psychiatrists, told me they didn't know what was wrong, or that nothing was wrong, or that "maybe I had MS, but they didn't know," or anything else they could tell me because they didn't know what to do with me. Obviously, something definitely was not right. I was determined to figure out what that was.
So I shifted gears and went to an awesome naturopath in Portland. He listened to me. He started with the basics and checked for vitamin deficiencies. I had major vitamin D and B deficiencies, as well as really low ferritin (iron stores). Yay, we knew that was probably causing a lot of my symptoms. So we treated that. Six months later I began crashing again, so I went back to see him. He figured we should test my cortisol levels (stress hormone) and check adrenal function. My cortisol levels were low at 11am and 12pm, which is pretty much exactly when I would begin to crash daily at that point. Yay again! We began treating that. Somewhere along the road a lightbulb turned on in my doctor's head. He was looking through all of my bloodwork and test results and looking at my progress (or lack thereof) and said "you know, now this is probably jumping the gun, and I wouldn't want to even suggest that you could have this if you don't, because I don't want you to have this... But maybe we should test for Lyme Disease." Like an idiot (who still knew nothing about Lyme Disease), I said "Oh! I had that when I was 10 : - )." He turned white and asked me all about it. When I told him I'd been treated for 2 weeks with Doxycycline he said "we're testing you for Lyme Disease." Thank goodness for this doctor who listened to me and was patient with me.
Once I started learning what Lyme Disease actually was, I was convinced that that's what I had. It made so much sense. People always thought that I was crazy for asking if or for thinking that the extensive list of symptoms above were related to each other at all. Often times when I'd go to a doctor I'd say "well right now I'm having [chest pain and heart palpitations], but as long as I'm here..." and they'd look at me like I was nuts. I don't blame them. It's obviously hard to piece together. But I always had a feeling that I should mention as many symptoms as I could think of at that moment, because although I had no idea, I felt as though they were all related in some way.
My blood test for Lyme Disease came back positive, according to the guidelines set by the Center for Disease Control and Infectious Diseases Society of America. This means that I had antibodies to the borrelia burgdorferi bacteria that causes Lyme Disease. Whether that means I had it or have it is the great debate, which leads me to...
The struggle:
Now let me explain to you the Lyme Disease struggle. Lyme Disease is one of the most controversial diseases on this planet. Scientists/researchers/doctors cannot agree on the prevalence/stages/severity of Lyme Disease, nor how to treat it. So I will present to you both sides of the spectrum, and we'll go from there:
Stance 1: All treatment guidelines for Lyme Disease in the United States are controlled by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
I will refer you to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website on this. Take a quick look around to understand their stance on Lyme Disease and how Lyme is supposed to be diagnosed and treated in our country. http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/
In a nutshell, generally, it is believed that Lyme Disease is difficult to contract and easy to treat with a short course of antibiotics. Any lingering symptoms after 2-4 weeks of antibiotic treatment are termed "Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Symptoms (PTLDS), not Stage 3/Late Stage/Chronic Lyme Disease as others may incorrectly term it- there's no such thing as Chronic Lyme Disease. The bacteria is no longer active and there are lingering symptoms- the cause is unknown.
Stance 2: Note: Anyone who treats a Lyme patient with antibiotics for longer than the 2-4 weeks as the IDSA lays out is at risk of losing their license to practice. These practitioners are willing to do that, because their research shows that there is such a thing as Stage 3/Late Stage/Chronic Lyme Disease, yet this research will not get recognized by the CDC or IDSA. They believe the bacteria is still active and running rampant in the patient's body, attacking various organs, which in turn cause the host of complications and symptoms related to them.
Regardless of what the CDC and IDSA say, there are patients who have had "Lyme Disease" listed as their cause of death on their birth certificates.
The excerpt below is from a doctor in Oregon who believes in the occurrence of chronic Lyme Disease:
There is controversy about the prevalence, and accuracy of diagnosis, of what is called chronic lyme disease. The symptoms can mimic other diseases and may be misdiagnosed. Lyme disease has been labeled the ‘great mimicker’. The most common symptoms are roaming joint pain, headaches, twitching, numbness in the body, weakness in muscles, Bell’s palsy, visual changes, light sensitivity, shortness of breath, night sweats, memory loss, confusion, difficulty concentrating, mood swings, extreme fatigue, swollen glands and unexplained fevers. Lab testing is suggested but is not always accurate in identifying the presence of lyme disease. This makes it very difficult to arrive at a diagnosis. Many doctors have resorted to a “clinical diagnosis”. This means that when the medical history and the clinic symptoms are most characteristic of Lyme disease, then Lyme disease is diagnosed..
Further, the testing for Lyme Disease is not reliable. There is no 100%, fool-proof, "yes, you have Lyme Disease," or "no, you do not have Lyme Disease" test (again, only the Erythema Migrans rash is a tell-tale sign. If you don't have the rash but have symptoms, things are much more difficult... Yet I had the rash and I had 2 weeks of treatment, but it's taken me 16 years to arrive at where I am today). Hundreds of people who get tested for Lyme Disease have negative results, but are infected. The blood tests check for antibodies to the Lyme bacteria. There's disagreement as to what this even means as far as current or past infection.
So again, my blood test came back positive for Lyme Disease- even by CDC and IDSA standards. But the theory on how to treat me... Man, oh man is that up for debate. A hot debate. If you'd like to know what my thoughts are on this, feel free to send me a private message... Or look at my list of symptoms and experiences at doctor's offices for the last 16 years and decide if you think I would think that this is likely "Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Symptoms" (yes, quotes used intentionally here), or Chronic Lyme Disease. One means that I was treated as well as anyone could treat me when I was 10, and everything since then and everything that will be for the rest of my life are symptoms caused by something unknown or an autoimmune response for which there is no cure; and one says that I still have an active bacterial infection that needs to be treated for months to years, for which there is no cure but there is remission. Either way... Awesome.
I have no clue what the hell this is (sorry). I just know that since I was 10 years old, I have not felt right. It's been one thing after another, and I had no idea what Lyme Disease even was. No idea. Do you think the above list spawned out of nowhere and I made it up for fun-sies? Do I think it's coincidental that since I was 10 years old, all of the above has happened and just so happens to fit the picture of Chronic Lyme Disease, when I didn't know there was such a thing? No, I do not. Thousands of other people are battling my same battle- I've spoken with quite a few, and it's creepy. So I don't know, and really no one knows for sure what this is depending on how you look at it, because no one in the world can agree on it. I pray that some day (some day soon would be awesome) there will be accurate testing for Lyme Disease, proper education of what it is and how to prevent it, and an agreement on whether chronic Lyme Disease exists and how to treat it. Until then, yikes on bikes. This will continue to be one crazy journey.
I HIGHLY encourage you to watch the documentary "Under Our Skin." The whole thing is on YouTube, right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JgR_Jfbhv8&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2F&has_verified=1
It explains Lyme Disease and the controversy surrounding Lyme much better. It's really interesting. It won't be a waste of your time, I promise.
The Plan:
I am seeing a doctor who has years of experience treating patients with Chronic Lyme Disease. This doctor is capable of treating with either/both antibiotics and herbs. As it currently stands, the plan is to begin with herbal treatment and go from there. Likely down the road we will switch to antibiotics, or add antibiotics to the mix, and likely further down the road switch things up more. No matter what you believe is happening (Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Symptoms or Chronic Lyme, or neither), there is no cure-all, no quick fix. This is going to be a long battle. I've been dealing with this for 16 years, so really nothing has changed, except now I know what I'm battling (kind of, ha). But at the same time things have changed a lot in the last 2 years- even in the last few months. I do not feel well. My days are up and down. Today I had to lay down after doing the dishes, and I couldn't really get back up for 3 hours. Until my next appointment, mid-September, I am taking some things that are supposed to begin breaking down the biofilm around the bacteria (its protective layer) so that the bacteria is more exposed when we begin treatment.
This bacteria is evolved and means business. Take a look at this page to see the 3 forms the bacteria can take-on in order to survive in the human body: http://www.lymebook.com/top10forms
To sum it up, Lyme bacteria begin as a "spirochete," a spiral shape when it is transmitted from tick to human, so that it can drill through all cells and tissues and invade any part of your body that it would like to.
When the spirochete feels threatened, whether by your own body attacking it or a helper such as antibiotics or herbs, it can change into a cell-wall-deficient form in order to better hide. And from there, when it feels further threatened, it can transform into a cyst form. All three forms cause differing symptoms and need a different form of treatment. Take it or leave it. Perhaps my 2 week Doxycycline treatment wasn't long enough and only forced these jerks to morph into something that would be more challenging to treat- and therefore I have gone untreated for 16 years? That's one school of thought.
Asking days, or weeks, or even months from right now if I'm "all better" just hurts, just to be honest with you, when I know that this doesn't work like that. Feeling like this and knowing that there's no cure is hard to swallow. One of the hardest things for me right now is coming to terms with that. Right now, there is no cure. I have a disease from a stupid tick bite that will be with me forever. And what's so much worse is that it will be with my family forever. Lyme Disease (whether you agree with CDC and IDSA or not) can be transmitted from mother to child. There's more controversy over that, but THAT possibility of transmission is a fact, no matter how you look at it. There are unknowns with every pregnancy, of course, just as anything can happen to anyone at any time. But the fact that we know this specific possibility exists because I have Lyme, and we know the complications that can come from it... You do the math. I felt like part of me died when my doctor confirmed that any pregnancies are basically "at your own risk." So yes, I'm still grieving about that. And no, that doesn't mean we've already completely ruled out the possibility of having children. It's way too early in this game to make that decision. We have a lot to learn and a lot to accomplish before we make that decision. But the decision is now there, where there never was a decision before.
Some more feelings:
I'm learning a lot, but there's so much I can't tell you because there's so much controversy or just plain unknown. If this brings up more questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. Just please be sure to be really sensitive to what and how you ask them, because I'm having a hard time. I never want to admit that I'm having a hard time, and I'm straight up telling you, this is hard. I know it will get better, this is just all so knew. But I also know it will get harder, because this is just the beginning and there's a long road ahead of us. I appreciate optimism, but also don't appreciate false hope right now. I'm not expecting or hoping you will tell me it will all be okay. I know that it will somehow. But for some reason I don't want to hear it from you right now, unless you know all the facts about Lyme. What I want to hear is "I'm here for you," and "let me know if there's anything I can do for you," if you have that to offer.
I'm not crazy, I'm confused. I'm validated, but confused as all get-out. When someone says "it must feel so good to finally know!" Of course it does. Seriously, that validation is priceless after 16 years, but did you read above? I feel validated and I feel more frightened with the knowledge that I now have. Nothing about it feels "good." The fact that nobody can agree on Lyme Disease is extremely unsettling.
When you ask me how I'm feeling, I will tell you. I have lied for so long, that I'm ready to tell you when I don't feel good. That feeling may pass, when I realize that no one wants to hear it anymore (which is already happening), but don't ask if you don't legitimately want to know or care.
When I tell you what symptoms are flaring up, please don't tell me "well it's probably just stress..." or "you're probably just tired..." or "you probably just overdid it today..." or "have you had enough water today?" or "have you eaten enough today?" or "what have you done differently today?" or "have you taken anything for it?" Please, for Pete's sake, don't say any of those things to me. They really, really frustrate me. I'm not looking for answers from you. After 16 years, I know what Lyme feels like and I know what it doesn't feel like. I know the difference between a regular headache and a damn Lyme headache. I know the difference between overdoing it at the gym or injuring myself, and excruciating traveling pain from Lyme. I know the difference between a body part falling to sleep because I've been sleeping on it the wrong way for hours and body parts falling to sleep for no apparent reason. I know the difference between my tongue being numb from a food allergy and my tongue being numb from Lyme. I know the difference between tremors, light-headedness, and anything else related to not having enough food or water, and Lyme. I know the difference between feeling overwhelmed and stressed out and having pain in my chest and heart palpitations from Lyme. I know the difference. I can feel a difference. I never knew what that difference could be attributed to, but I could feel the difference.
Thank you:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening. Just writing this has been really therapeutic for me. And I'm fine. I feel like any time anyone has to blog about something difficult, people get up-in-arms about it. I'll be fine. I've made it this far... ; - ). I will beat this blasted thing. I'm prepared to fight. I will win. I just need you to know that as of now, "winning" doesn't mean being cured. It means putting it into remission so that I can live as symptom-free of a life as possible.
In the mean time, I don't want to be treated any differently... Except, be thoughtful of the questions you ask. That is all.
CHECK YOURSELF:
And please, for the love of all that is good, check yourself for ticks when you spend time outdoors. Not all ticks are infected with Lyme Disease, but they're out there- even in Oregon. Don't let anyone tell you Lyme isn't in Oregon. I'm living proof that it is. Let me remind you that I was in SunRiver, Oregon when I contracted this. I don't want to scare you. No one needs to live their life in fear. I just want you to know. Just know to check yourself for ticks, and know what to do if you find one. Knowing how to remove the tick if you are lucky enough to find it is really important as well!
Taken from the American Lyme Disease Foundation's website:
Prevention & Control
Larval and nymphal deer ticks often hide in shady, moist ground litter, but adults can often be found above the ground clinging to tall grass, brush, and shrubs. They also inhabit lawns and gardens, especially at the edges of woodlands and around old stone walls where deer and white-footed mice, the ticks' preferred hosts, thrive. Within the endemic range of B. burgdorferi (the spirochete that infects the deer tick and causes LD), no natural, vegetated area can be considered completely free of infected ticks.
Deer ticks cannot jump or fly, and do not drop from above onto a passing animal. Potential hosts (which include all wild birds and mammals, domestic animals, and humans) acquire ticks only by direct contact with them. Once a tick latches onto human skin it generally climbs upward until it reaches a protected or creased area, often the back of the knee, groin, navel, armpit, ears, or nape of the neck. It then begins the process of inserting its mouthparts into the skin until it reaches the blood supply.
In tick-infested areas, the best precaution against LD is to avoid contact with soil, leaf litter and vegetation as much as possible. However, if you garden, hike, camp, hunt, work outdoors or otherwise spend time in woods, brush or overgrown fields, you should use acombination of precautions to dramatically reduce your chances of getting Lyme disease:
First, using color and size as indicators, learn how to distinguish between:
 Deer tick larva (top),nymph (right) and adult (left). |
|
 Dog tick. |  Lone star tick. |
Then, when spending time outdoors, make these easy precautions part of your routine:
- Wear enclosed shoes and light-colored clothing with a tight weave to spot ticks easily
- Scan clothes and any exposed skin frequently for ticks while outdoors
- Stay on cleared, well-traveled trails
- Use insect repellant containing DEET (Diethyl-meta-toluamide) on skin or clothes if you intend to go off-trail or into overgrown areas
- Avoid sitting directly on the ground or on stone walls (havens for ticks and their hosts)
- Keep long hair tied back, especially when gardening
- Do a final, full-body tick-check at the end of the day (also check children and pets)
When taking the above precautions, consider these important facts:
- If you tuck long pants into socks and shirts into pants, be aware that ticks that contact your clothes will climb upward in search of exposed skin. This means they may climb to hidden areas of the head and neck if not intercepted first; spot-check clothes frequently.
- Clothes can be sprayed with either DEET or Permethrin. Only DEET can be used on exposed skin, but never in high concentrations; follow the manufacturer's directions.
- Upon returning home, clothes can be spun in the dryer for 20 minutes to kill any unseen ticks
- A shower and shampoo may help to remove crawling ticks, but will not remove attached ticks. Inspect yourself and your children carefully after a shower. Keep in mind that nymphal deer ticks are the size of poppy seeds; adult deer ticks are the size of apple seeds.
Any contact with vegetation, even playing in the yard, can result in exposure to ticks, so careful daily self-inspection is necessary whenever you engage in outdoor activities and the temperature exceeds 45° F (the temperature above which deer ticks are active). Frequent tick checks should be followed by a systematic, whole-body examination each night before going to bed. Performed consistently, this ritual is perhaps the single most effective current method for prevention of Lyme disease.
If you DO find a tick attached to your skin, there is no need to panic. Not all ticks are infected, and studies of infected deer ticks have shown that they begin transmitting Lyme disease an average of 36 to 48 hours after attachment.Therefore, your chances of contracting LD are greatly reduced if you remove a tick within the first 48 hours. Remember, too, that nearly all of early diagnosed Lyme disease cases are easily treated and cured.
To remove a tick, follow these steps:
- Using a pair of pointed precision* tweezers, grasp the tick by the head or mouthparts right where they enter the skin. DO NOT grasp the tick by the body.
- Without jerking, pull firmly and steadily directly outward. DO NOT twist the tick out or apply petroleum jelly, a hot match, alcohol or any other irritant to the tick in an attempt to get it to back out.
- Place the tick in a vial or jar of alcohol to kill it.
- Clean the bite wound with disinfectant.
*Keep in mind that certain types of fine-pointed tweezers, especially those that are etched, or rasped, at the tips, may not be effective in removing nymphal deer ticks. Choose unrasped fine-pointed tweezers whose tips align tightly when pressed firmly together.
Then, monitor the site of the bite for the appearance of a rash beginning 3 to 30 days after the bite. At the same time, learn about the other early symptoms of Lyme disease and watch to see if they appear in about the same timeframe. If a rash or other early symptoms develop, see a physician immediately.
Finally, prevention is not limited to personal precautions. Those who enjoy spending time in their yards can reduce the tick population around the home by:
- keeping lawns mowed and edges trimmed
- clearing brush, leaf litter and tall grass around houses and at the edges of gardens and open stone walls
- stacking woodpiles neatly in a dry location and preferably off the ground
- clearing all leaf litter (including the remains of perennials) out of the garden in the fall
- having a licensed professional spray the residential environment (only the areas frequented by humans) with an insecticide in late May (to control nymphs) and optionally in September (to control adults).
Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I love you!
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