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This Sucks..lyme Disesase


SKYCOP

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I have been geocaching for 5 years and have had hundreds of ticks and it's been no big deal. I chaperoned 25 8th grade kids from MN to Washington DC and the surrounding area about 2 weeks ago and voila, i came down with Lymes Disease.

Best part of the story is it was diagnosed right away and I'm on antibiotics and that should take care of it. Moral of the story is........BE CAREFUL!

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You were lucky to have found a good doctor who put you on the antibiotics right away. Lyme disease is a terrible illness if it goes too long without a correct diagnosis and aggressive treatment.

 

Once diagnosed, it is better to continue the antibiotics much longer than you think is necessary because Lyme disease is difficult to cure.

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I feel your pain. I got Lyme Disease last summer. It sucked. Luckily, I did my homework and went to the doctor basically telling them I had Lyme Disease. They believed me and gave me the strong, broad spectrum anti-biotics. That knocked out the symptoms within a couple of days, and I haven't had any trouble after the three weeks worth of pills they gave me.

 

I had been around a lot of ticks in my life also. I can't ever recall having one become attached for more than a couple hours. Of course the one in my life that I missed for a couple of days had to be the one carrying the Lyme Disease.

 

Glad you caught it early. You'll be fine.

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what are the symptoms?

My main symptom was extreme myalgia. I did not feel ill or bad in any way if I was just sitting in one spot. But ask me to actually do any work, and I was SO tired, it was unbelievable.

 

Apparently, 80% of people get a "bull's eye" rash which grows larger and larger at the site of the tick bite. I evidently am in the 20% who don't. Having no energy was my only symptom.

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Please check out Lymenet.org for interesting information about Lyme disease and the "politics" of its treatment.

 

I've had the illness for many years and have been on antibiotics since 1997. I'll probably be taking Ceftin for the rest of my life because I went for so many years without a correct diagnosis.

 

Lyme disease can completely alter your life if you do not get aggressive, early treatment. :o

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what are the symptoms?

 

I had the "classic bullesey rash" which was the first sign.

I got a tick bite and a rash after visiting a cache called San Simeon Seal Spot. Got tested and had negative results. The first line of my sig was a direct result of that experience. :o

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If you are bitten by a larval or nymph stage tick you may well not know it. Adult Ixodes are uncommon between May and September.

 

The rash shows up sometimes, and sometimes not. I have reviewed studies finding it as little as 30 per cent of the time. Length of time a rash is present means nothing. A dermacenter tick (common wood or dog tick) is not a proven carrier of lyme disease. Ixodes family ticks are proven carriers. Standard protocol is to treat with doxycycline when an attached ixodes is found or diagnosis made by occult test or titer.

 

If you become clinical you can assume CNS(Central Nervous System) involvement, and treatment on that basis, which will usually be doxycycline IV for an extended period.

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I hit a cache yesterday at lunch and wore no protection. Last night, when I saw my wife, she saw the thing on my neck, behind my ear. She removed it and put alcohol on the bite. We're watching it. I feel fine but man. He was small. ... Last month in AR, I had one crawling on me as big as a tack. :lol: He got thrown out the window on I-30. ... I need a flea and tick collar.

 

:lol:

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Please check out Lymenet.org for interesting information about Lyme disease and the "politics" of its treatment.

 

I've had the illness for many years and have been on antibiotics since 1997. I'll probably be taking Ceftin for the rest of my life because I went for so many years without a correct diagnosis.

 

Lyme disease can completely alter your life if you do not get aggressive, early treatment. :lol:

^ Great post, gives us the reason why we should be preventing / looking / going for treatment after going into the woods.

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I hit a cache yesterday at lunch and wore no protection. Last night, when I saw my wife, she saw the thing on my neck, behind my ear. She removed it and put alcohol on the bite. We're watching it. I feel fine but man. He was small. ... Last month in AR, I had one crawling on me as big as a tack. :lol: He got thrown out the window on I-30. ... I need a flea and tick collar.

 

:lol:

I've heard of people putting a flea/tick collor around each ankle before going out into the woods.

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thanks for the info. ive never found so many ticks on me as this year, and its because of geocaching :lol: seems everytime i go out i find at least 2 or 3 trying to crawl up me. ive been lucky so far to find them all before they dug in, but im very paranoid one will eventually. im looking to buy a large quanity of the permathrin dip very soon and ill have dedicatdd geocaching clothes.

 

i have to ask another question though. when they attach, do they completely crawl under teh skin? or do they just attach and kinda hang there?

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i have to ask another question though. when they attach, do they completely crawl under teh skin? or do they just attach and kinda hang there?

Mine just attached. Although, they had only been on me for a few hours at most. I just dip the tweezers in alcohol and pluck em off. I only had one break. Many were as tiny as a pinhead. Just babies. Only had one large one bite in.

 

Last year, I only had two tick bites the entire "season." Am already well past that now and it's just June :lol: I wear Repel and/or Sawyers faithfully too.

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I got bit by a deer tick last summer and called my Dr. just to be sure. He's an avid outdoors man and I expected him to simply say, "Shake it off, you big baby." However, he prescribed 10 days worth of antibiotics "just to be safe."

 

It's best to get checked out as quick as possible.

 

Bret

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But the bullseye rash is only a symptom if it lasts longer than a week right? I had one on my hand for a few days and then it and the bite went away.

 

I got 9 tick bites last weekend :lol:

9 TICK BITES??? You know, you can catch a lot more than just Lyme disease from ticks. ALL tick bites are dangerous and should be avoided. There are lots of precautions you can take while outdoors to prevent a tick bite. I am always very sensitive when I'm outdoors and can usually feel them crawling on my skin before they attach. I also check myself as much as I can while hiking. I don't just wait until I get home.

 

I often hear recomendations to wear long sleeves and pants while outside. But I find shorts do better because I can see more and feel them better. But I guess long pants would help to keep them off your skin in the first place.

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I've only found one on me so far, which makes me wonder if I'm just missing them. I made my doctor give me the test this year. He was positively inimical to the idea. I know it throws off false positives, but it's not like he has to pay for it or do the test himself, is it? Dammit, I want one annually.

 

One of my coworkers has been sick for a couple of years with a Mystery Disease. He's wasted away to a stick. Now they've decided maybe it's Lyme. The guy's on an antibiotic regime that would choke a horse.

 

Yeah, too right I'm paranoid...

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i have to ask another question though. when they attach, do they completely crawl under teh skin? or do they just attach and kinda hang there?

They just bite and hang on. They have a special mouth to do this. It is important to not squeeze the body when you remove a tick. I have read that you don't get infected unless the tick regurgitates near the end of its feeding or if you squeeze the tick to get it off. There are special tools to use to remove them like "TickedOff" or you can use a fine pair of tweezers if you are careful to grab the head and not the body.

 

TickedOFF

 

Mouth parts

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9 TICK BITES???  You know, you can catch a lot more than just Lyme disease from ticks.  ALL tick bites are dangerous and should be avoided.  There are lots of precautions you can take while outdoors to prevent a tick bite.  I am always very sensitive when I'm outdoors and can usually feel them crawling on my skin before they attach.  I also check myself as much as I can while hiking.  I don't just wait until I get home. 

 

I often hear recomendations to wear long sleeves and pants while outside.  But I find shorts do better because I can see more and feel them better.  But I guess long pants would help to keep them off your skin in the first place.

Well I cache in pants 99.5% of the time and long sleeves 70% of the time. These suckers were all along my sock line and on my legs/behind my knees. It was pouring rain on Saturday so I didn't notice those until I got home. I assume 9 bites because I had to tweeze 9 of them off my skin.

 

We do tick checks after every non-urban micro cache practically. In fact, I found the bigger tick on my side when it did bite me. We had to pull the car off a busy road so I could get at the right angle to remove it.

 

I've spoken to someone who works at the CDC. They said unless I feel sick, I really shouldn't be too worried about it. And to be honest, the amount of time I'm out in the woods, I'd be at the doctor getting tested 3x a week at least. Even with copay's, I can't really afford that.

Edited by AtlantaGal
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Not related to caching but about 7 years ago, when I was in the 5th grade I got Lymes Desiease, only nobody realised at the time. It started small, not fealing very well, etc. then my knees started hurting. but its one of those things that gradually get worse till you don't realise you can hardly walk. One day at school I had decided that I wasn't going to play volleyball with the other kids because my knees hurt soo bad. Until my teacher threw me into the game wgem I couldn't even stand(that one moment is probably why I still have a nagging dislike for that woman) anyways, that night I finally got to go to the doctor where they proceded to take this extremely large needle to draw out the fluid that had built up in my knee. Needless to say the needle killed. And ever since then I swear something is always screwed up with my knees. I've always beem the kid who ran funny. And my knees occasionally ache today "for no apparent reason"

 

EDIT: Almost forgot, i'm also allergic to the entire -cilin family so that screwes things up royaly when I need antibiotics

 

MAKE SURE that you check yourself and your children over for ticks when you get put of the woods. Atleast be on the lookout for the symptomes and get to the doctor ASAP if you show any

Edited by pyrodogg
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I usually will pull the ticks off before they settle in, but since I started geocaching, I have had a few bites. Fortunately, in my area, the rate of lyme disease is comparately small. We owe a lot of that to the Western Fence Lizard. A tick carrying lyme disease will be purged after biting the lizard.

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In central TX, we've already had several ticks attach to the Otto the Poodle, who (fortunately) is bright white - so they show really well. But this thread really got us to thinking about Lyme disease. The site referred to above and the CDC site seem to imply that most of the southern states have very low rates of Lyme disease. But this crowd here is probably more in tune with outdoors activies than most. What's the general thoughs here about the prevalence of Lyme in Texas, Florida and the desert Southwest (where we do most of our geocaching)?

 

..Chris..

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Unfortunately I had a friend's father who was an elderly landscaper who developed Lymes Disease. It opened him up to other problems which finally caused his death. Since I started geocaching, I've dedicated a set of clothing: short sleeve shirt, socks, and long legged pants....all treated with a Permethrine spray. Pants are tucked into boots, shirt into pants. Haven't had a single tick since then. Occassionally I've had mosquitosg et by the Permethrine, but not often. I use a Deet or Picaridan based repellant on my arms and face.

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In central TX, we've already had several ticks attach to the Otto the Poodle, who (fortunately) is bright white - so they show really well. But this thread really got us to thinking about Lyme disease. The site referred to above and the CDC site seem to imply that most of the southern states have very low rates of Lyme disease. But this crowd here is probably more in tune with outdoors activies than most. What's the general thoughs here about the prevalence of Lyme in Texas, Florida and the desert Southwest (where we do most of our geocaching)?

 

..Chris..

Have you tried Frontline for the dog? Works very well. The ticks bite, and then they DIE! Ha, ha ha! I wish there was Frontline for people.

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What's the difference between deer and dog ticks? I looked at some pictures, but couldn't tell them apart.

 

After caching the other day, through some tall grass cause another path (probably would have had more ticks that way) was blocked, I found a tick crawling on me.... Was rather small, maybe 1/8" wide. I caught it before it bit, but didn't feel it walking.I hate these things, they disgust me.

 

Blue

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Surprised nobody has mentioned this.

Grandmaster Briansnat has posted a tick-be-gone method in at least a couple of different threads. Spray clothes and equipment with Permethrin (I got mine at REI), and exposed or potentiall exposed skin with a DEET bug spray. (I got the CVS house brand.) I didn't bother with this until one day through carelessness I got 4 tick bites in one day. Since then I've used this method (plus tucking my shirt in), I've found exactly one tick clinging to my jeans, and zero bites. I've bushwhacked through underbrush waist high. I suppose the chemicals may kill me but at least the ticks aren't getting any donations from me!

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This hasn't really been a problem in Northern Colorado, maybe I just don't notice them. Anyone else from the area having issues?

When I was working in Colorado quite a few years ago, we used to do tick checks after each session in the field.

 

One of our consultants who lived in Colorado came down with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It is a very debilitating and sometimes deadly illness.

 

I don't know how many Colorado ticks are infected with either the RMSF rickettsia or the Lyme disease bacteria, but ANY tick is a bad tick so follow all the suggested methods to avoid getting bit.

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