Lyme Disease II
Blog vol 4. 2. Lyme Disease II
I feel like I am Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) in the movie Stranger than Fiction. The only difference is that instead of Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson) doing the writing, it is me. Let me explain. Three weeks ago, I wrote about pink eye, and guess what? I got it real bad the next week. Then last week I wrote on deer ticks and Lyme Disease, and guess what... this past week we had two separate incidences of deer ticks in our house, though this time I’m not personally (bodily) involved, and no Lyme disease thankfully.
No doubt these topics are very relevant. On Saturday my grandson was changing into his pyjamas after dinner at the grandparents’ house. He noticed a black spot on his chest, a tick. We carefully removed it with tweezers and cleaned the site with rubbing alcohol (he was very brave). We have seen ticks before, usually dog ticks, but under the microscope this was a female adult deer tick. Unless you do regular tick checks, hard to tell how long this creature was embedded, and timing is important. So off he goes to his family doctor for a round of antibiotics.
This morning, round two, my daughter was doing her morning routine, and a black spot on her ankle, this time it was not the adult female but the much smaller nymph, about 1/3 of the adult’s size (poppy seed size). I removed it with tweezers and cleaned the site. This is where it gets disturbing, that nymph could be infectious, the problem is that it is a lot smaller and can easily go undetected. The nymph can infect within the 36-48 hour window, like the adult. Question remains- how long was that creature there? Regular checks are a great help. With my daughter, she knew that she was exposed for about 16 hours, so very little chance of infection.
REGULAR TICK CHECKS ARE A MUST. These two incidences were from completely different areas, ticks are out there. Lyme disease can be prevented. The tick needs to be infectious and attached for 36-48 hours, plenty of time to find it and remove it. If you have found a tick and are not sure about the timing see your GP for consultation. Take a real good look, those nymphs are small.
There is a spray called 0.5% permethrin that you can treat your clothes with and there are even clothes you can buy that are pretreated, but do not rely on these things, a quick check is the only really reliable prevention. (See here for preventative measures)
I need to be careful about that next blog topic….
‘til next week,
the good doctor
