[pct-l] Anybody familiar with lyme disease?

[Trekker4 at aol.com (Trekker4@aol.com)]

Ben & PCT-L,
    I'm replying online, because ticks are somewhat  more on subject than 
Sabarus and lesbians. All hikers get ticks on them. I got a  tick bite on my arm, 
of all places, on my PCT section hike this year. I never  felt a thing, but 
noticed it there, and it was already hooked in. I removed it  with my stainless 
steel, v-slotted, flat tick remover, but it was hooked into me  so well it 
was tough to lift it off.
    A few years ago I got some Okie ticks up in some  tight jeans; I found 3 
on me after I'd returned to TX, because I kept wearing  the same jeans. I 
imagine all 3 were dug in for 2-4 days; I had marked all 3  bite spots with a 
black marker; and a red, 2.5 inch, roundish rash,  showed  up within a week at one 
of the spots. 
    Within a day I had a doxycycline (sp?) antibiotic  prescription; within 
another day the redness was fading; and within about a week  the rash was gone. 
WebMD, at the time, said the older tests were unreliable, and  that a new, 
much more reliable test was coming out. A female friend here in Big  Bend has 
gotten a Lyme diagnosis from the new test, after probably having Lyme  for 15 
years. So, make sure you get the new test; find out it's name from the  Inet 
before you go to the doctor. My friend's doctors over those years had  never 
diagnosed her properly; she finally got the diagnosis from an alternative  
medicine doctor in NM.
    Lyme is a spirochete, like syphilis; you don't want  to get into 2nd or 
3rd stage Lyme. 2nd will mess up your life big time, and 3rd  will ruin in 
permanently most likely.
    
 
Bob "Trekker"  
Big Bend Desert Denizen
(Naturalized Citizen, Republic of  Texas)