[pct-l] Tick Alert

[Mary Kwart]

I got Lyme disease in 1993 from a tick that was brought into the house by my dog when I lived in the Sierra foothills south of Yosemite. I felt something at night that itched and it felt like a small piece of lint or dirt next to my skin--I was half asleep so just went back to sleep. The tick was embedded in my upper arm the next morning. I made the mistake of pulling it out and squashing it as I did so, killing it. I saved it on a cotton ball. The doctor later told me that you should make sure the tick is alive and intact on a cotton ball in a ziplock.  (Although I was used to pulling ticks out of my dog, using a pair of tweezers, grasping the sides of the tick near the head and gently pulling, I didn't take equal care for myself. Oh yeah--even my dog had to have lyme disease preventative shots when I lived there).

I developed the "bulls eye" red ring around the bite area soon after, and after about a month I developed flu like symptoms. The doctor had my "solid waste" tested and Lyme disease was a positive. I just took antibiotics for a month--couldn't go into the sun, a drag for hiking--but the Lyme disease cleared up--no trace.

Some people don't have the red ring or flu like symptoms. Another guy on the forest where I worked got it and left it untreated and eventually had to quit work because of the side effect of arthritis.

--Fireweed