Teeny tiny ticks.... all over!

[morningbell]

You can get Lyme disease a number of times. After being "cured" or put into remission, you CAN be bitten by another tick infected with the spirochete and ta-da! You are now infected again.

This could go on and on and on. Likelihood is not that great, but yes, you can get it more than once.

I didn't know that. The likelihood being not so great sounds a bit off especially for someone who enjoys hiking, camping, mountain biking... etc... It's very discouraging.

Lord, I wish that was the truth... unfortunately not. Either that, or I am a freak of nature My dad has had lyme disease 3 times - he hunts and would come home covered in ticks despite spraying 'off' - but all three times he had it (and they were all confirmed by bloodwork) he did a month of doxycycline and was just fine. When I had it the first time, I put off going to the doctor for a long time. The symptoms start off as just plain old being tired all of the time, being a bit achy, a bit forgetful. But I was working close to 50 hour weeks then (not counting a 45 minute communte each way) so I put it off to the stress of working. When I couldn't get out of bed in the morning, and started totally forgetting important spreadsheets that were due, and running into walls - I finally went. Once it spreads to your neurological system it is a B!tch to get the crap out of your body.

I was surprised as anything when I went into the doctor not long ago complaining of a little fatigue. I thought it was a thyroid issue - but the doctor ran a bunch of tests and the lyme test was positive. Thyroid was fine. I have the neurological symptoms again, despite the oral antibiotics - so I am bummed to have to go through this again.

Lyme disease is one of those things that will be a huge problem one day and they are lagging behind in doing research for it. Like one poster said, there *was* a vaccine - when I had lyme the first time the doctor was telling me about it. According to him, the vaccine didn't work well and people were still getting lyme - so maybe that's why there wasn't any interest in it?? hahahaa!

I think that lyme disease is sort of like an auto-immune disease - once you get it, you have it for life in many ways. Maybe it stays dormant in your system until something triggers it - but I haven't been right since I had it the first time. So maybe you *can* only initially get it once - but then it can test positive and make you sick again if it is triggered by something. I think that's possible...


Why do I open this thread so close to bedtime???

I was explaining to my son about how Lyme disease manifests and progresses. I also told him that the further you are into it the harder it is to get rid of.

I called his school nurse today and told her about what had happened, why he was out of school. We discussed the Lyme vaccine, she said that the cost for the vaccine was too high and that was a driving factor that people were not interested in it. I guess insurance wasn't covering it :shrug:

I'm looking for a Lyme vaccine reform, perhaps Michele Obama could get behind that?

 

[lisa8439]

I was explaining to my son about how Lyme disease manifests and progresses. I also told him that the further you are into it the harder it is to get rid of.

I called his school nurse today and told her about what had happened, why he was out of school. We discussed the Lyme vaccine, she said that the cost for the vaccine was too high and that was a driving factor that people were not interested in it. I guess insurance wasn't covering it :shrug:

Yes - catching lyme early on is SO important when it comes to treatment. Even though my dad has had it 3 times, he went right in all 3 times when he had early symptoms... and a month of abx treated it.

When it gets into your neurological system, you will almost always need IV antibiotics... and those aren not fun. I caught mine earlier this time than I did last time - and I can feel a huge difference from when I had it last time - but unfortunately, I started getting the neurological symptoms just as I started the oral antibiotics, and I have an appointment in a few weeks with Dr. Cafferty who specializes in lyme, so I've heard.

Funny how everyone has heard different things about the vaccine!! LOL
It was too expensive, it didn't work, etc. - and ANY of those things would lead to the general public not being interested in receiving it. heh. I wish they'd worry about stuff like lyme and come out with a better, cheaper vaccine instead of messing with H1N1...

 

[Roxie04]

Boy came home covered with teeny tiny ticks, at first I thought they were chiggers but I looked closer as I was trying to scrape them off and they're so small, trying to burrow.... I stripped him down and they're on his legs, arms..... I asked if rolled in them.... he was playing in swampy grass.... UGH.

He is soaking in the tub with a blend of essential oils that threw in there because I initially thought they were chiggers.

Scrubbing the ticks off made me itchy, I kept thinking they were on me

I just couldn't believe how many there were.

By any chance did he get them on a field trip? My child came home with them too.

 

[morningbell]

By any chance did he get them on a field trip? My child came home with them too.

No, it was a neighbor's house, looking for frogs.... of course

Boys will be boys :shrug:

 

[smilin]

Boy came home covered with teeny tiny ticks, at first I thought they were chiggers but I looked closer as I was trying to scrape them off and they're so small, trying to burrow.... I stripped him down and they're on his legs, arms..... I asked if rolled in them.... he was playing in swampy grass.... UGH.

He is soaking in the tub with a blend of essential oils that threw in there because I initially thought they were chiggers.

Scrubbing the ticks off made me itchy, I kept thinking they were on me

I just couldn't believe how many there were.

A friend had the same thing happen to her children in the CRE. She said they were covered in them. She tried spraying them off with a hose then scraped them off and put the kids (who where screaming all the time!) in the tub with some sort of solution.
She moved to the Holiday Inn until a pest company came by and fumigated the yard. They said it's not uncommon the find nests of ticks.
Yech....

 

[Roxie04]

Every child in my daughter's class came home friday from Elm's Beach covered in deer ticks. Sad thing is they know how bad the problem is there but keep letting the kids come there. They even told the parents when they got there how bad they are there. They said as long as you get them off in 72 hours there should not be a problem.........no big deal. Well they are gonna know how big a deal it is if my child gets sick.

 

[lisa8439]

Every child in my daughter's class came home friday from Elm's Beach covered in deer ticks. Sad thing is they know how bad the problem is there but keep letting the kids come there. They even told the parents when they got there how bad they are there. They said as long as you get them off in 72 hours there should not be a problem.........no big deal. Well they are gonna know how big a deal it is if my child gets sick.

unfortunately, that is one of those areas where my phobia and life lessons would probably have led to my daughter and I doing something different and going on our own field trip that day

I got the tick off that bit me within 24 hours this time, I'm pretty sure - I know exactly when and where I got it on me, remember looking at it, everything - and thinking I had swiped it off. I had just taken a shower, gone out to garden, and found it in the shower that next morning.

 

[TurboK9]

A friend had the same thing happen to her children in the CRE. She said they were covered in them. She tried spraying them off with a hose then scraped them off and put the kids (who where screaming all the time!) in the tub with some sort of solution.
She moved to the Holiday Inn until a pest company came by and fumigated the yard. They said it's not uncommon the find nests of ticks.
Yech....

We're in CRE and the kids come in from playing and have them on them occasionally, so we check regularly. My wife also came in one day from planting flowers and her hands were covered in the buggers, must have found one of them nests! Got them all off before they bit in, thankfully.

 

[MEJABoxers]

another LD support group forming....

Hi everyone! There is another support group JUST forming, it is being started as ONLINE only, for the time being until the "kinks" are worked out. (Most of us go to the Support Group at the Calvert hospital as well.) The new group is NOT for Calvert County residents only, ANYONE can join in. You can't get enough info on LD. If we get enough people into this group it could branch out!
Here is the link: CalvertCountyLyme :