glennmac
Veteran Member
Anyone else have the dubious pleasure of getting one of these?
I got a case of Ehrlichiosis this summer. Like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, it comes from a tick bite. What a sneaky sucker. You don't even know you have anything until you feel like dying. This particular disease usually doesn't come with any bite mark or swelling pattern. The first symptom I noticed was that I was getting more and more tired and sluggish, until I literally did not have the energy to get out of bed or move from here to there. Finally, I realized I had a high fever. Didn't realize it at first because there were no cold or flu-like symptoms that I have always associated with a fever in my past experience.
Crawled to the doctor under great protest. (I hate going to doctors and rarely do. Nothing personal. Ah, you know.) They have a hard time diagnosing these tick-borne diseases, and discriminating one from the other, and they can never be sure it is really gone. But the basic treatment was simple and effective enough--21 days of antibiotic. The severe symptoms went away after about 2 days, but I still have never felt "myself" again. That is, although I no longer feel super crappy, I feel extra crappy instead of normally crappy.
I pay more attention to ticks now when I'm out tractoring. I used to not care. Dogs had ticks all the time. Shoot, I sleep with my dogs. I always figured bugs were part of the outdoors and have always just tried to ignore them. Now, I make sure I scrub myself after every journey into the field and segregate my clothes.
How tedious.
I got a case of Ehrlichiosis this summer. Like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, it comes from a tick bite. What a sneaky sucker. You don't even know you have anything until you feel like dying. This particular disease usually doesn't come with any bite mark or swelling pattern. The first symptom I noticed was that I was getting more and more tired and sluggish, until I literally did not have the energy to get out of bed or move from here to there. Finally, I realized I had a high fever. Didn't realize it at first because there were no cold or flu-like symptoms that I have always associated with a fever in my past experience.
Crawled to the doctor under great protest. (I hate going to doctors and rarely do. Nothing personal. Ah, you know.) They have a hard time diagnosing these tick-borne diseases, and discriminating one from the other, and they can never be sure it is really gone. But the basic treatment was simple and effective enough--21 days of antibiotic. The severe symptoms went away after about 2 days, but I still have never felt "myself" again. That is, although I no longer feel super crappy, I feel extra crappy instead of normally crappy.
I pay more attention to ticks now when I'm out tractoring. I used to not care. Dogs had ticks all the time. Shoot, I sleep with my dogs. I always figured bugs were part of the outdoors and have always just tried to ignore them. Now, I make sure I scrub myself after every journey into the field and segregate my clothes.
How tedious.