Not sure this should be in the Rant section or here!

I am just finishing my 6th bout ( treatment ) with tick borne disease . RMSF this time. 21 days of antibiotics.

The first time I had a tick borne disease, it was both the Lyme variant and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever same time, In bed 4 days, lost 10 lbs. Sick.

This was 3 years ago. Over the summers, Since then I have had other infestations of TBD's treated successfullt, and seemed to weather the duration very good.

In June, I had RMSF, and took antibiotics Doxycycline) for 10 days, thinking it was in remission. However, in August, symptoms came back, and was tested positive for RMSF again.

So back on 21 days of antibiotics again. This case was a bad one, as I didn'get over it quickly and the effects had gotten me down.

I now have what seems to be arthritis , which started during treatments, headaches, and fatigue, that has not eased up.

I am beginning to wonder, if multiple cases of Tick Borne Diseases, even treated promptly, can degrade your health drastically over time.

I am at the age where arthritis usually flares up (67), but strange it started this last episode of RMSF.

I have had Lyme disease but no symptoms. I have a strong immune system and take supplements.

In 2011, I had a tick attach to the back of my leg and didn't notice it. My lower leg got stiff and swollen so I soaked it in Epsom salts. I thought I had jammed my leg from jumping off the back of my pickup.

Then several years later, I found another tick and felt bad so I went to the doctor and he gave me some antibiotics but only for two weeks which was not long enough from what I had read in the Lyme disease book, "The Top 10 Lyme Disease Treatments: Defeat Lyme Disease with the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine".

https://www.amazon.com/Top-Lym...tional/dp/0976379716

So I went back to the doctor and he gave me a different antibiotic which made me feel bad so I stopped taking it. I continued taking additional supplements and got better.

From what I have learned is that once you are positive for Lyme, you need to take antibiotics for at least 4 weeks. Lyme disease can detect the antibiotics and form a protective shield and go dormant.

Recent studies show that Lyme disease can be cured by Stevia.

https://draxe.com/health/stevia-kills-lyme-disease/

There is a new tick disease which has no cure to date: Powassan Virus.

Powassan virus is spread to people by the bite of an infected tick. Although still rare, the number of reported cases of people sick from Powassan virus has increased in recent years.

Most cases in the United States occur in the northeast and Great Lakes regions from late spring through mid-fall when ticks are most active. There are no vaccines to prevent or medicines to treat Powassan virus disease. Reduce your risk of infection from Powassan virus by avoiding ticks.



I would get the book and start taking the supplements they recommend. And also go to Walmart and get their Stevia and use it each day in your coffee.

Also get out each day and get some vitamin D3 from the sun and take a walk.

This post is why I diligently check myself and my clothing each and every time I come in from the woods.
I have found ticks in my truck and on the walls of my staircase leading to my bedroom.
I think you should be routinely tested for TBDs every time you get a physical.

The ticks I contract all this mess from, usually are so tiny, I only find them attached to me after they have probably been on me a day or so.

I have tried using insect repellant over the years, and find, that somehow, the ticks always find the areas that I didn't apply the repellant to.

I live in a really rural area.
In my area, TBD's have become an epidemic. And the ticks are active in my area for longer periods of time these days.

My concern is, after repeatly having these encounters, my body's defenses, even with medications is breaking down.


Another issue is the doctor's I use, tend to only authorize the blood tests for TBD's and prescribe antibiotics to treat. They will not delve into the possible long term side effects that these diseases reportly incur on victims.
A pox on the land.

One of God creatures that I would not mind going extinct.

Not much frightens me more than a tick bite. I’ve seen some crazy stuff in animals infected, and imho, there is not much worse in the US. This shit carries forever, and has serious repercussions.

A tick bite is nothing to fool with. Watch them closely.

Missouri is full of ticks which is why I stay out of the woods completely in the summer. I have a dog and he gets them occasionally, but they never seem to bother the wife or I.

I'm in CT, and I've had Lyme twice. cured both times with 21-days of antibiotics.

watch out for the lone star tick and "alpha-gal"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy

turns you allergic to red meat. which would suck. I have one co-worker and one USNA friend that have contracted it, and it is life-changing. luckily, not life ending.

About 6 years ago my wife's friend and fellow horse trainer was bitten by a Lone Star Tick and was afflicted with the Alpha Gal Allergy.

She still has it today - the effects:

quote:

A typical allergic reaction to alpha-gal has a delayed onset, occurring 3–8 hours after the consumption of mammalian meat products, in contrast to the typical rapid onset of most food allergies. After the delayed onset, the allergic response is like most food allergies, and especially an IgE-mediated allergy, including severe whole-body itching, hives, angioedema, gastrointestinal upset, and possible anaphylaxis. In 70% of cases the reaction is accompanied by respiratory distress and as such is particularly harmful to those with asthma.

Alpha-gal allergies are the first known food allergies that present the possibility of delayed anaphylaxis. It is also the first known food-related allergy associated with a carbohydrate, rather than a protein.

She has to carry an epi-pen everywhere and eating out is an adventure.

Ticks around here are the size of a pin head. As stated by others, you don't know they are on you until you feel an itch.

I use tea tree oil on the tick which sterilizes the area and probably suffocates the tick.

Most doctors have no education in nutritional supplements which provide you with a strong immune system. I am hoping the Stevia study shows some merit in fighting tick diseases.

Lots of good information on Green Med Info site:

https://www.greenmedinfo.com/s...gsc.q=tick%20disease

When I worked for the State, some workers from all over the state came together for a conference at a state park near Ft Campbell KY. All went well for the trip until the day of departure. I had almost a 5 hour drive and right away I started getting a headache as bad as migraines I get, body stiffness and pain all over like a bad case of flu as well as a fever. I made the long, agonizing trip home and went straight to the ER. First they feared meningitis so add spinal puncture to the already intense pain I was having. Lots of blood and urine tests and imaging tests and then they admit me. I get a call in my room from Department of Health. By now I’m wondering if there is anything to the meningitis they were mentioning. I’m on IV and IV antibiotics (doxycycline) and I swell up like the Michelin Tire Man. Co-workers came and held vigils which didn’t help really my confidence in the care I was receiving. I can’t remember how long I was there but when they turned me loose they “thought” I had mononucleosis and Hepatitis A (I believe that’s right). Follow up with my doctor a few weeks later and lab results show Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I never noticed a tick bite and never had spots. I’m just glad they guessed with the correct antibiotic. That illness had me feeling like the dead.

Yeeeshhh, I guess all that DEET I absorbed from my service time maybe helped me??

We used to get a little 2 oz bottle, where the directions melted off...my buddy placed a drop on the table and wiped a finger thru it, dropped a tick on one side and the tick never made it thruthe half inch wide strip of deet.....

I never go into the woods w/o deet, never. Because of these kinda stories.

quote:

Originally posted by 10X-Shooter:
When I worked for the State, some workers from all over the state came together for a conference at a state park near Ft Campbell KY. All went well for the trip until the day of departure. I had almost a 5 hour drive and right away I started getting a headache as bad as migraines I get, body stiffness and pain all over like a bad case of flu as well as a fever. I made the long, agonizing trip home and went straight to the ER. First they feared meningitis so add spinal puncture to the already intense pain I was having. Lots of blood and urine tests and imaging tests and then they admit me. I get a call in my room from Department of Health. By now I’m wondering if there is anything to the meningitis they were mentioning. I’m on IV and IV antibiotics (doxycycline) and I swell up like the Michelin Tire Man. Co-workers came and held vigils which didn’t help really my confidence in the care I was receiving. I can’t remember how long I was there but when they turned me loose they “thought” I had mononucleosis and Hepatitis A (I believe that’s right). Follow up with my doctor a few weeks later and lab results show Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I never noticed a tick bite and never had spots. I’m just glad they guessed with the correct antibiotic. That illness had me feeling like the dead.

Can you imagine having 6 cases of a tick borne disease like I have had?

I haven't been in the hospital, but its like having a case of extreme flu sans vomiting/ diarrhea.

And to add insult to injury, taking antibiotics, such as doxacyline, makes you highly susecptible to sunburn. I stayed out of the sun as possible during our September heat wave, but my face still burned.

quote:

Originally posted by 10X-Shooter:
When I worked for the State, some workers from all over the state came together for a conference at a state park near Ft Campbell KY. All went well for the trip until the day of departure. I had almost a 5 hour drive and right away I started getting a headache as bad as migraines I get, body stiffness and pain all over like a bad case of flu as well as a fever. I made the long, agonizing trip home and went straight to the ER. First they feared meningitis so add spinal puncture to the already intense pain I was having. Lots of blood and urine tests and imaging tests and then they admit me. I get a call in my room from Department of Health. By now I’m wondering if there is anything to the meningitis they were mentioning. I’m on IV and IV antibiotics (doxycycline) and I swell up like the Michelin Tire Man. Co-workers came and held vigils which didn’t help really my confidence in the care I was receiving. I can’t remember how long I was there but when they turned me loose they “thought” I had mononucleosis and Hepatitis A (I believe that’s right). Follow up with my doctor a few weeks later and lab results show Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I never noticed a tick bite and never had spots. I’m just glad they guessed with the correct antibiotic. That illness had me feeling like the dead.

Back in the mid '70s my family moved from a tiny little town in PNW (dry area) to the Mid-Atlantic region. Although we had just moved from an area in the general region of the Rocky Mountains we had never heard of ticks, let alone seen one...rattle snakes, Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders, even the occasional scorpion...but not ticks. My Dad implemented the "tick check" and every day before we went inside the house from our chores or playing outside my siblings and I would pair up and check each other for ticks.

My father, who rarely missed work due to illness, started to have headaches, stiffness in his joints, general pain, and would cycle between fevers and chills. He got progressively worse each day. We had to walk a mile up the dirt road from our school bus stop and as we walked up our long driveway in the hot humid mid 90 degree temperatures there was my father huddled on our front deck with a blanket wrapped around him shivering in chills. He was absolutely miserable.

After several days, maybe a week or so, he finally relented and let my mother take him to the Emergency Room. They admitted him and the doctors started running one battery of tests on him after another, each one coming back negative.

As my father continued to decline his doctor decided to just chance it, sort of a "Hail Mary" pass, and treat him as though he had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Sure enough my father slowly started to respond and improve, and the doctors came to the conclusion that he had contracted RMSF.

He was told back then that, once you contracted it, you were more prone to getting it again.

Kind of ironic to have to move to the East Coast to discover what ticks and RMSF were. Even today, living much closer to the Rocky Mountains, I've only seen one tick here in over 20 years...but from the various maps I've seen ticks, and the diseases they spread, are increasing across the U.S. each year.

I'm generally a live and let live guy...I'm that crazy neighbor that, at 2AM in my underwear, I will take a spider outside to release it...but I'm for eradicating ticks and mosquitoes with extreme prejudice.

quote:

Originally posted by feersum dreadnaught:
I'm in CT, and I've had Lyme twice. cured both times with 21-days of antibiotics.

watch out for the lone star tick and "alpha-gal"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy

turns you allergic to red meat. which would suck. I have one co-worker and one USNA friend that have contracted it, and it is life-changing. luckily, not life ending.

I once knew an elderly couple who lived in rural area. The wife came down with symptoms and was eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease. Although she was being treated for it she generally declined and developed dementia and, after a prolonged period, died. There is no way to know for certain whether she would have developed dementia without the Lyme disease but the family believes it led to her eventual death.

Sambucol would help to boost your immune system. Also you need to take probiotics since they are important to get the nutrition from your food.

Walmart has the best price on Sambucol:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sam...rup-4-fl-oz/26960359

I like the syrup but they have other forms like chewable tablets.

My tick story gets "personal" and I am sure you will get a good laugh so here it goes...

We were out at our shooting club property conducting our 2x/yr mowing, trimming, etc.

Literally every time we go out there I either get ticks crawling on me or chiggers. Doesn't matter how many times I spray myself (usually 3-4 times for the 4 hour duration we are there) or whether I tuck my pants into my socks, etc.

About 5 years ago after the property clean up, I checked myself for critters, showered, we ate dinner, and later went to bed. I woke up about midnight because something wasn't right "down there". I scratched, felt something hard, and almost bolted out of the bed.

Got up, grabbed a flashlight, reading glasses, and went into the bathroom. Put my left leg on top of the vanity, stuck the flashlight in my mouth, perched the reading glasses on the end of my nose, used my left hand to pull my satchel up, and DAMN, found an embedded tick on the back of my balls.

Carefully pulled the blood sucker off with a pair of tweezers as close to the head as I could get given my precarious position balanced with one foot on the floor. Put the tick in the sink, grabbed a lighter, and roasted him.

Thought all was well until a few days later when I had flu like symptoms. Went to our internist and he said the head was still embedded.

He took a scalpel to cut out the head and I almost hit the ceiling. He then said; "I guess we will need some anesthesia"! So he hit me with the needle and I almost hit the ceiling again. After the local took effect he removed the head of the tick and put me on antibiotics.

For the next 1-1/2 years I had non-stop elbow pain. After time it finally went away so all is good now.

So there is my tick story.

Deep woods hiking - 2 inch band of vaseline on my calfs and upper thighs. Stops and suffocates the little bastards every time.

Years ago my father came inches away from dying of Colorado Spotted Fever.

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
My tick story gets "personal" and I am sure you will get a good laugh so here it goes...

We were out at our shooting club property conducting our 2x/yr mowing, trimming, etc.

Literally every time we go out there I either get ticks crawling on me or chiggers. Doesn't matter how many times I spray myself (usually 3-4 times for the 4 hour duration we are there) or whether I tuck my pants into my socks, etc.

About 5 years ago after the property clean up, I checked myself for critters, showered, we ate dinner, and later went to bed. I woke up about midnight because something wasn't right "down there". I scratched, felt something hard, and almost bolted out of the bed.

Got up, grabbed a flashlight, reading glasses, and went into the bathroom. Put my left leg on top of the vanity, stuck the flashlight in my mouth, perched the reading glasses on the end of my nose, used my left hand to pull my satchel up, and DAMN, found an embedded tick on the back of my balls.

Carefully pulled the blood sucker off with a pair of tweezers as close to the head as I could get given my precarious position balanced with one foot on the floor. Put the tick in the sink, grabbed a lighter, and roasted him.

Thought all was well until a few days later when I had flu like symptoms. Went to our internist and he said the head was still embedded.

He took a scalpel to cut out the head and I almost hit the ceiling. He then said; "I guess we will need some anesthesia"! So he hit me with the needle and I almost hit the ceiling again. After the local took effect he removed the head of the tick and put me on antibiotics.

For the next 1-1/2 years I had non-stop elbow pain. After time it finally went away so all is good now.

So there is my tick story.

Link to original video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V4jg8o9wXys


Nasty. Glad you discovered the little bastard as quickly as you did.

So, a similar story. Growing up, the kids in our family went hunting, fishing, camping etc...and as I mentioned previously, we had moved down South into "tick territory". Our Northern cousins on one side of the family basically lived in the 'burbs, although they did live near a large neighborhood pond and wild area. Basically we were the 'country cousins' and they were the 'city' cousins.

Well we went on a family visit to their house (CT). During the course of the day there developed a slight commotion and so I went in the house to see what the fuss was about.

Apparently my oldest cousin, a girl maybe 10 or 11, had discovered a tick that had bitten her square on the ass. Once they discovered it my Dad mentioned that they needed to be careful to remove the head along with the body and described the removal procedure...however the family had never seen or removed a tick before and to them this delicate procedure was as complicated as heart surgery and so my Dad, as the "expert", was quickly recruited into action.

I was only a couple years older than my cousin and so took great interest in her bent over a foot rest in the living room with her shorts pulled down and my Dad being as clinical as possible during the removal. I swear I thought he was going to turn to his sister, my aunt, and say "tweezers" at which point she would slap them in his hand, then he would say "cotton ball" which would be slapped into his hand, he would apply the rubbing alcohol, and then ask the "nurse" to wipe his brow...then follow up with a band-aid on her ass.

Tick successfully removed, to the best of my knowledge she went on her way without any further problems from the bite.