GAACK! Black flies are out Wicked!

[HawkinsHollow]

Thing is, tests for Lyme aren't accurate for at least a four weeks, if not longer.
However, once it's embedded, it takes ridiculous amounts of antibiotics to treat... but a quick run of antibiotics taken within 72h of the bite seem to keep it from sticking.

I got a tick in March, near the top of my thigh - surprised the heck out of me because work pants etc but I realized I'd had a cat on my lap when I was sitting just in boxers...
anyways the next day I had swollen lymph nodes right in the region of the bite so I got on antibiotics, something obviously was bothering the immune system.

Strange thing, a month later I got another tick, up on my shoulder, and while I didn't get any obvious lymph reaction from that I developed a hair-trigger motion sickness within a few hours. I couldn't walk around the house without feeling nauseous and I suddenly had a terrible sense of balance, but felt fine if I was lying down. More antibiotics and slept for most of four days, what else are you going to do when everything triggers it. Took two weeks to get mostly back to normal; not sure what happened (it wasn't BPPV, I have that and know how to "fix" it and this was completely different and didn't respond at all to the epley).

Man that is scary!!! I hate taking antibiotics. From the map it looks like your area has a pretty low incidence of Lyme Disease. My area definitely does and for that I am grateful.

I haven't gotten a tick bite in a year or 2 (knock on wood). I am rather hairy, so that is an advantage. I can feel one the second it starts crawling on me. Will wake my up from a dead sleep. My tick bites get really itchy.

 

[ning]

Man that is scary!!! I hate taking antibiotics. From the map it looks like your area has a pretty low incidence of Lyme Disease. My area definitely does and for that I am grateful.

I haven't gotten a tick bite in a year or 2 (knock on wood). I am rather hairy, so that is an advantage. I can feel one the second it starts crawling on me. Will wake my up from a dead sleep. My tick bites get really itchy.

Part of the "low incidence" is a lack of belief that Lyme even exists here in the medical world. People definitely get it, but it's sometimes years before they get properly diagnosed. There are doctors who will flat-out deny that there's lyme in California.

 

[ponytug]

Thing is, tests for Lyme aren't accurate for at least a four weeks, if not longer.
However, once it's embedded, it takes ridiculous amounts of antibiotics to treat... but a quick run of antibiotics taken within 72h of the bite seem to keep it from sticking.

I got a tick in March, near the top of my thigh - surprised the heck out of me because work pants etc but I realized I'd had a cat on my lap when I was sitting just in boxers...
anyways the next day I had swollen lymph nodes right in the region of the bite so I got on antibiotics, something obviously was bothering the immune system.

Strange thing, a month later I got another tick, up on my shoulder, and while I didn't get any obvious lymph reaction from that I developed a hair-trigger motion sickness within a few hours. I couldn't walk around the house without feeling nauseous and I suddenly had a terrible sense of balance, but felt fine if I was lying down. More antibiotics and slept for most of four days, what else are you going to do when everything triggers it. Took two weeks to get mostly back to normal; not sure what happened (it wasn't BPPV, I have that and know how to "fix" it and this was completely different and didn't respond at all to the epley).

That's a not an atypical tick reaction. Some folks develop an aversion to red meat, usually permanently.

Part of the "low incidence" is a lack of belief that Lyme even exists here in the medical world. People definitely get it, but it's sometimes years before they get properly diagnosed. There are doctors who will flat-out deny that there's lyme in California.

X10!

The doctors around here seem to think Lyme disease doesn't exist locally, based on blood draws from urban populations. To me that is a drunk searching for keys under the streetlight scenario. Personally, I can't count the number of "Bull's eye" responses to tick bites that I have had around here. The local vets are on a very different page to the doctors as the vets see positive Lyme tests routinely in dogs.

I'm going to go with Lyme disease is not only in California, but prevalent based on what I know.

I would point out that there are a number of tick borne diseases in the US, so there really aren't "safe" tick bites. About Ticks and Tickborne Disease
Red meat allergy from tick bites. (Alpha-gal syndrome)

The bad thing about some of the tick borne diseases is that the killed organism leaves behind cells and antigens that aren't cleared from the body well, or at all, and those dead cells continuously aggravate the immune system. So prompt treatment is a must to reduce the probability of long term chronic disease symptoms.

All the best,

Peter

 

[mjonesnh]

That's a not an atypical tick reaction. Some folks develop an aversion to red meat, usually permanently.

That is a bite from a Lonestar tick I believe. Ex-daughter-in-law was bitten in 2019. Couldn't eat beef or pork for 3-4 years. Slowly got over it till a steak or pork chops didn't bother her last year.

 

[ning]

That's a not an atypical tick reaction. Some folks develop an aversion to red meat, usually permanently.

Glad I only got the balance / motion sickness bit then. I can use a walking stick, but live without a ribeye?

 

[Jstpssng]

Is that what they are doing now? Every time you get a tick bite you have to take antibiotics as a prophylactic to lyme disease? That seems a little extreme.

We have a lot of nasty bugs here in the south, but black flies are not one of them. After reading this post I am VERY glad about that. They sound like dreadful creatures.

I sent the tick out for testing, and it was determined to carry Lyme's. I knew it had been on me for 24 hours, so opted for antibiotics.

 

[ning]

I sent the tick out for testing, and it was determined to carry Lyme's. I knew it had been on me for 24 hours, so opted for antibiotics.

They did that briefly around here but the last time I told the doc that I had kept the tick they were like "hmmmm yeah I don't know where we'd get that tested, we'll just Rx the a-b" ...

The antibiotics cost them a couple bucks probably. Testing the tick, probably a hundred or so.

 

[otlski]

I don't know how true or correlated all this is but local lore is that early on, the epicenter of Lyme disease in the world was in Old Lyme Connecticut. Old Lyme is just across from Plum Island in Long Island Sound. Plum Island was a US government biological research facility.

 

[CalG]

OK! OK!

I take back my mention of loathing black flies.

My wife just pulled the SECOND embedded wood tick off me today. (I couldn't reach back there ;-)
The first was a "regular sized" dog tick. This second one was no bigger than a fleck pf pepper. Itches like crazy, and I dosed it up with neosporen pain relief ointment. It must have some topical sensation suppression. I'll need to wait a bit for it to kick in.

I was out "in the brush" moving stone for a new retaining wall today. They must have jumped me!

Dang creatures!

 

[Jstpssng]

OK! OK!

I take back my mention of loathing black flies.

My wife just pulled the SECOND embedded wood tick off me today. (I couldn't reach back there ;-)
The first was a "regular sized" dog tick. This second one was no bigger than a fleck pf pepper. Itches like crazy, and I dosed it up with neosporen pain relief ointment. It must have some topical sensation suppression. I'll need to wait a bit for it to kick in.

I was out "in the brush" moving stone for a new retaining wall today. They must have jumped me!

Dang creatures!

Sounds like a deer tick.

That's the one I send out for testing.

 

[Oaktree]

Sounds like a deer tick.

That's the one I send out for testing.

Dumb question, but where would you send a tick to be tested?

 

[DarkBlack]

I don't know how true or correlated all this is but local lore is that early on, the epicenter of Lyme disease in the world was in Old Lyme Connecticut. Old Lyme is just across from Plum Island in Long Island Sound. Plum Island was a US government biological research facility.

 

[Jstpssng]

Dumb question, but where would you send a tick to be tested?

We can send it to the Cooperative Extension. It cost me 20 bucks.

 

[ponytug]

I don't know how true or correlated all this is but local lore is that early on, the epicenter of Lyme disease in the world was in Old Lyme Connecticut. Old Lyme is just across from Plum Island in Long Island Sound. Plum Island was a US government biological research facility.

Nice story, although actually Lyme disease has been found in 5,300 year old mummies; it just took the health professionals a while to work it out. (In the 1970s, due to a cluster of younger arthritic patients in Lyme, CT. The actual organism, Borrellia burgdorferi, wasn't discovered until the 1980s.)

Lyme became a nationally reportable disease in 2012, and has been found in 49 of 50 states, Hawaii remaining Lyme free. It is thought that more than half a million people a year in the US get Lyme disease.

History of Lyme Disease - Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Learn more about the history of Lyme disease, including information on the first reported cases and how our knowledge has evolved over the past few decades.

www.bayarealyme.org

It is worth mentioning again that the tests for the disease are less than accurate, and not everyone gets a "bull's eye" mark, but if you do get a "bull's eye" I would lean in on getting treatment for it.

All the best,

Peter

 

[DarkBlack]

Nice story, although actually Lyme disease has been found in 5,300 year old mummies; it just took the health professionals a while to work it out. (In the 1970s, due to a cluster of younger arthritic patients in Lyme, CT. The actual organism, Borrellia burgdorferi, wasn't discovered until the 1980s.)

Lyme became a nationally reportable disease in 2012, and has been found in 49 of 50 states, Hawaii remaining Lyme free. It is thought that more than half a million people a year in the US get Lyme disease.

History of Lyme Disease - Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Learn more about the history of Lyme disease, including information on the first reported cases and how our knowledge has evolved over the past few decades.

www.bayarealyme.org

It is worth mentioning again that the tests for the disease are less than accurate, and not everyone gets a "bull's eye" mark, but if you do get a "bull's eye" I would lean in on getting treatment for it.

All the best,

Peter

Your’s is also a nice story.
There’s plenty of evidence and testimony of military weaponizing Lyme and testing at the plum island animal disease laboratory during that period of time. Or do you just think it’s coincidence? Just like covid just coincidentally starting down the street from the laboratory working with covid. Just amazing coincidences

Book you can read regarding the subject

Amazon.com

 

[ponytug]

Me, no, I don't think it had anything to do with Plum Island or the research that may or may not have been done there.

Sure, sunspot rates, hemlines and the stock market gains or losses all correlate, but that doesn't make it a causal relationship. I enjoy fiction reading, just not when it comes to data, but that's me.

There is far too much evidence in the archaeological record for widespread prehistoric prevalence of Borrellia burgdorfori. I will stick to things that have causal relationships, unlike say miasma theories.


All the best,

Peter

 

[DarkBlack]

Logically, the “discovery “ of what is believed to be proof of a bacteria from 5,000 years ago, certainly doesn’t disprove our military experiments with weaponizing and modifying it.

Again, there’s documented statements of it happening.

 

[DarkBlack]

This book review does a decent job of summarizing the major highlights of the book:

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons - TheHumanist.com

BY KRIS NEWBY HARPER WAVE, 2019 336 PP.; $28.99 Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby adds significantly to our understanding of Lyme disease, while oddly seeming to avoid mention of what we already knew. Newby claims that if a scientist named Willy...

thehumanist.com