Friday night as I was getting ready for bed I noticed a deer tick on my tummy…UGH. Hubby tried to remove it but the head of it didn’t come with the body.
That meant this morning I was off to the doctor to have it removed. With all the hype of Lyme’s Disease, I was a little worried. The doctor wasn’t very worried at all. She removed the head and told me to watch the bite area for a couple days to make sure it didn’t get inflamed or look infected. I didn’t know that all ticks don’t carry Lyme’s Disease and that actually only a small amount do. If ticks are detected within three days of attachment, the risk of Lyme’s decreases too. We are guessing that I got my tick Wednesday while walking Ruby and Pepper up on the old abandoned railroad track area…that puts me under the three day window.
I had put the tick in a ziplock bag as I didn’t know if it would aid in diagnosis. The doctor ended up keeping the tick and will have it tested for Lyme’s. For now, I am not going to worry about it. With the information I have, I feel fairly confident that Lyme’s won’t come my way…
Jo I was bitten by a tick this summer and didn’t know about it – I thought that it was a bug bite as i had no previous experience with ticks. We never got them this far north before this summer much. So it did become inflamed and swollen and yuck! I got the blood work done and came up clear with follow-up blood work a month later. I still have a nasty scar that I am not sure will ever really go away :-( So watch it closely and keep it clean. Good luck!
I’m so glad you found it and got to the dr right away! It is bigger than I thought it might be. Praying for good news. Take care! Did you check Ruby?
try not to stress. you did everything you could and i would bet you have nothing to worry about! yes, check ruby also. we found a tick on our dog last month, which was unusual.
Ticks scare me — it’s not the fear of lyme disease, it’s the fear of having something burrowing its head under my skin. Ick! My sister got one on her neck when we were camping and I still remember Mom and Dad trying every trick under the sun to get that thing out of her neck, the whole time successfully convincing her that there was nothing wrong… If it had been me, I would’ve been passed out on the floor just from the thought of the thing.
Wow, I thought deer ticks would be smaller than that. Glad your doctor is looking out for you. My husband’s cousin has Lyme disease and has for a long time. He was only recently diagnosed though. They tested for it years ago but it was negative. He read that false negatives are common and wanted a retest, but the doctors insisted it was not a false negative and that he had MS so they treated him for that instead. Turned out he was right and now he’s got a lot of health problems from having Lyme disease for so long (at least 14 yrs I think). Stay on top of this!
You are the second person on the midwest to tell about “finding” a tick this week. I was surprised. Thought the overnight lows below freezing a few times would have taken care of them.
Keep us posted on how you are doing, ok? Keeping you in prayer!
If you found the thing I wouldn’t worry at all, they really have to be stuck on you for a while to make you sick. I live in tick central, everyone here gets Lyme disease. If detected early then Lyme is easily treated with a round of antibiotics. Been there, done that.
Don’t take the chance! I was diagnosed last year with Lyme Disease after 12 years of struggling to figure out what was wrong. I live in Canada and supposedly we don’t have Lyme here, all though I’m not sure why Health Canada thinks that, since it is not like the ticks have to have passports to cross the border. I have neurological issues including seizures, ticks and twitches. I suffer chronic pain, memory issues, cognitive impairment and incredible fatigue. I am no longer able to work. Treatment after a bite simply involves a two week dose of doxycycline. If you have any doubts get your hands on the documentary, Under Our Skin. Doctors are not well trained in this disease and the testing is incredibily inaccurate. Do the two week treatment and you are safe. If you wait, treatment is incredibly intense. In my specific case, I was undergoing treatment earlier this year and developing a potentially life threating reaction to the antibiotics. So, I now have Lyme for life. I have no idea if the neuroligical issues will get worse or if I will develop heart issues. Please, don’t take the chance. Simply demand treatment. I would be more than happy to give you more information. Just send me an email.