I live in the Lyme Disease capital of America (and perhaps the world): Suffolk County on Long Island, New York. We get more cases of Lyme here than anywhere else in the US. Given this unpleasant fact it did not come as a complete shock to me that after six months of sporadic caching and bushwhacking I recently came down with a case of Lyme Disease myself. Well, I do admit I was kind of suprised it was me that had it and not some acquaintance, family member, or friend. Things like this always seem to happen to someone else.
Until last week I knew very little about Lyme Disease, except that it was transmitted through tick bites and that this area was a Lyme Disease epicenter. But now that I have it myself, I've read a ton on the subject, and having read through this thread I see there's a lot of misinformation out there.
So if you're serious about learning the facts about this illness, how it's transmitted, and how you can prevent and detect it, I suggest looking to a reputable source of information, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention page on Lyme Disease: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme
For something a bit less formal, I can recommend this article: http://www.yankeemagazine.com/issues/2007-...res/lymecountry
There are a number of precautions you can take to prevent getting bitten by a tick. Here are the CDC's recommendations: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/Preve...ntion_Avoid.htm
So, apart from bushwhacking through the woods in Lyme Central, why did I get Lyme Disease? I think it's because I did just about everything wrong in terms of prevention and detection (though even if I'd done everything right there's no guarantee I wouldn't have been infected):
It's recommend that you wear light colored clothing, I wore dark clothing.
I never checked my clothes for deer ticks (though it would have been futile anyway, considering my clothes were so dark the ticks would be impossible to distinguish from the clothes). Deer ticks carrying Lyme Disease can be very small, by the way. They can be as small as the period at the end of this sentence, and still bite and infect you.
As per the recommendations, I did wear long sleeved shirts and long pants. But when it got hot I stripped down to my t-shirt, giving ticks easy access to my skin.
It is recommended that you tuck your pants in to your socks. Nope. Didn't do that either. Who wants to go traipsing through the woods, wearing all white and with your pants tucked in to your socks? You'd look like a complete dufus... Well, I'm paying for that particular choice of fashion.
It's recommended that you wear insect repellent. I meant to do so, but just never got around to it.
When I was young I was told to "check your hair for ticks", so I was under the mistaken impression that ticks would only infest one's head, so I only checked my hair and scalp. In fact, ticks can bite any part of your body and I believe that bites on one's body rather than one's head are more common (though don't quote me on that).
I knew to look out for a rash, but I expected the rash to itch, so was quite surprised that when I finally checked my entire body for a rash (after I'd already been diagnosed with Lyme Disease from a Western Blot blood test) that I had a big, painless and itch-less rash on my back, just under my left shoulder blade, where I would have ordinarily never noticed it unless I was meticulously checking my entire body. I had become too complacent and only casually looked for abnormalities on my skin where I could easily see them (like on the fronts of my arms, hands, legs, and torso). Now I realise how important it is to periodically check one's entire body, even "out of the way" places like one's back. "Out of sight, out of mind" is the path of least effort and stress, but you could wind up paying for such an attitude down the line.
Despite living in a Lyme endemic area, and knowning that there was a risk of contracting the disease if I went in to the woods, I never really took the risk seriously. It was one of those "it only happens to the other guy" situations. I never really thought it would happen to me, even though I well aware of and would have readily admitted its possibility.
Finally, not only did I go in to the woods in an area where Lyme Disease is endemic, but I went in to a parts of the woods where there are lots of deer, and deer ticks are the primary means Lyme Disease is transmitted.
So, if I hadn't gone in to the woods at all (at least not around here), I probably wouldn't have gotten bit. If I'd followed the other precautions like using insect repellent, I probably wouldn't have gotten bit. If I had detected ticks on my clothes or body I might have removed them before they could bite. If I'd regularly inspected my entire body for a rash I might have started treatment a lot sooner. But it wasn't until I'd started having some rather severe symptoms that I even went to the doctor, and another week until I got the results of my blood tests diagnosing Lyme Disease.
With Lyme Disease it's crucial to start treatment as soon as possible after being bitten by a Lyme Disease carrying tick. That's when the prognosis is best. The longer treatment is delayed the more likelyhood there is of getting more severe and long-lasting symptoms.
So now I'm on my first week of a four week course of antibiotics, and feeling better, but only time will tell how this disease will affect my life in the long run.
The disease has not been recognized by modern science until relatively recently (the term "Lyme Disease" did not become the standard way of referring to this disease until 1992). So there is still a lot that is unknown about this disease, and there's a lot controversy about its diagnosis, treatment, and theraputic outcome.
Don't become a victim of it. Be careful, especially if you're in an area where it is endemic.
As for me, after I (hopefully) get "cured", I am not setting foot in the Long Island woods again. Having had Lyme Disease will not make me immune to contracting it again, and once was enough. Now that I realize just how real the risk of getting the disease around here is, I also realize the risk is just not worth it. And even if I take all those precautions against getting bitten and go in to the woods wearing a mothballed hazmat outfit, it's still no guarantee against getting infected again. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to hang up my GPS as long as I'm in Long Island, or maybe just stick to urban caches (that is, if I'm still able to walk after Lyme Disease gets through with me).
::synesis::
