ticks

[hawk]

Anyone have any experience with ticks? I was bitten by one a couple days ago.It took awhile to get it off. I got the head. It came away with skin attatched to it. About 12 hours later I began running a fever and my legs ache ,muscles,bones,joints. My feet hurt to stand on them/ I feel really tired. Nothing else hurts,no headache,no sore throat , no sinus no stomach....

[Mitra]

I don't have any tick experience, but I typed "tick fever" into google and there's a page on medline: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000675.htm

Symptoms

* abrupt onset of fever
* sweating, excessive
* severe muscle aches
* joint stiffness
* headache
* photophobia (sensitivity to light)
* nausea and vomiting
* generalized weakness
* occasional faint rash

...

Expectations (prognosis)

The disease is usually self-limiting and not dangerous.


Of course, I have no idea if this is what you have, or if it's prevalent in your part of the country.

I hope you feel better soon - and please go to see your doctor if you don't.

[cmcole]

Thankfully you got the head. I had to go to the walk-in clinic and have them remove the one I got.

Last summer we had to do tick check on each other after going out in the bush during Basic Training. They were prevalent there (as was poison ivy). Nice place for training, huh!!

[LisaS]

unfortunately there are many tick-born diseases, but most ticks don't carry them. Lyme disease, erlichiosis, rocky mtn spotted fever, etc.

What I know is that you should save any tick that you remove - and then if you do have symptoms or issues afterwards you can get the tick species identified and the tick itself tested. even so, if you didn't save it, you can probably remember what it looked like enough to identify the species from internet pictures and then at least know if there is a possibility that it was carrying something in your area.

also, just because you have a local reaction doesn't necessarily mean that the tick was carrying something - you might just have a bite reaction.

[Kathy]

Anyone have any experience with ticks? I was bitten by one a couple days ago.It took awhile to get it off. I got the head. It came away with skin attatched to it. About 12 hours later I began running a fever and my legs ache ,muscles,bones,joints. My feet hurt to stand on them/ I feel really tired. Nothing else hurts,no headache,no sore throat , no sinus no stomach....

PLEASE go get yourself tested for Lyme Disease ASAP and get on anti-biotics. If it is Lyme Disease, it is important to get treated immediately, or you could develop further complications.

It is not only the small deer tick that carries Lyme now, and there are other tick-borne diseases similar to Lyme. My sister had similar symptoms to you about six years ago, but she couldn't even recall getting bitten. She has full-fledged Lyme now, and her symptoms have gone from muscle aches and pains to full-fledged tremors, arthritis, and 'brain fog'. She is being treated currently. She is only 37 years old.

The bulls-eye rash mentioned as a common indicator of Lyme only occurs in 40% of those infected, and there is a lot of misinformation surrounding the disease. I don't mean to scare you, but PLEASE get tested ASAP.
Check out this link for more info:

http://www.lyme-disease-research-database.com/ (http://www.lyme-disease-research-database.com/)

Here is an excerpt from a page on that website:

Lyme Disease can be very difficult to diagnose. Symptoms vary widely, even the so-called “bulls-eye” rash is not necessarily a good indicator of Lyme. Some people do not develop the bulls-eye rash, but a different kind of skin lesion or ailment. Not all people develop the malaise or flu-like symptoms widely associated with LD. The list of symptoms is long and varied because the bacteria which causes the disease affects every bodily system. Typically, the elimination organs are invaded. These include the lungs, kidneys, bladder, liver, skin and lymph glands. Lyme disease also affects the cardiac system and the brain, causing arrhythmia, poor concentration, mood swings and depression.


Symptoms don’t always develop immediately after infection; Lyme bacteria may lie dormant. It is not yet known how long the bacteria can remain latent, but stress seems to make it become active. Some people who have been exposed may never develop symptoms. Another factor making LD hard to diagnose and cure is that negative clinical test results do not necessarily indicate that the patient is free of Lyme or its co-infections. The bacteria can change into two or more shapes and it appears to do so sometimes, in order to evade detection by the body’s immune system.


The inconvenience of difficult diagnoses is even further complicated because LD is a great mimic of many other illnesses. LD patients are often misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Epstein-Barr virus, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. Some LLMDs estimate that as many as half of t he patients who have been diagnosed with auto-immune diseases have LD. Whether cause or contribution, it adds to their suffering, especially when left undetected.


Lyme disease is caused by bacteria called spirochetes, which are pleomorphic. They are spiral-shaped, but are capable of changing into a round ball, then back into a spiral. LLMDs theorize that in this way the bacteria move through the tissues and bloodstreams of the body. The spirochetes’ pleomorphic nature tends to complicate testing and make it even more difficult for LD sufferers to find a cure.



Here is an article from the New Haven Register entitled 'Ticks Carry More Than Lyme Disease'. Unfortunately, you have to register to read it (don't you just hate that?), so I've included an excerpt:

http://www.nhregister.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=16879938&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=8&xb=zozev (http://www.nhregister.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=16879938&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=8&xb=zozev)

"The first study of its kind in Southern Connecticut has revealed that ticks may carry up to half a dozen disease-causing micro-organisms, which could explain why some people with Lyme disease continue to suffer mysterious symptoms for decades despite long-term treatment."

These tick-transported pathogens include Bartonella, Mycoplasma and the virus that causes Colorado tick fever. Bartonella causes cat scratch disease, and Mycoplasma is a bacteria-like organism associated with respiratory illness.

Researchers found that some ticks collected around Bridgeport and Hamden over the course of a year were infected with up to six different microorganisms.

"We always believed only one bacteria was present in the ticks, now we know that there are co-infections," Sapi said.

Multiple infections are very difficult to properly diagn ose and treat, she said. Patients with multiple infections have significantly more complicated symptoms and poorer outcomes because different infections require different treatments, Sapi said.

For example, antibiotics cannot be used if a patient is found to have a viral co-infection; anti-viral drugs must be used instead. If left untreated, the corkscrew-shaped Lyme disease spirochete can cause fever, arthritis, swollen lymph nodes, aches and pains, and sometimes, a bulls-eye rash. However, not all patients will have all the associated symptoms.

[Billie]

Hawk, you have gotten some good sound advice, tell us how you are doing?

[hawk]

I am being treated with an antibiotic for Rocky Mountain Spotted fever. My leg muscles are really hurting and I still have a fever. THE test for it takes too long and they treat it as a preventative. If they wait for the test results, it is too late . THe pharmacist and my doctor had to go through prescribing several meds because of my allergy to Yellow#5.

[Gaelen]

Hawk...what Kathy said, and what Billie said.
With your RSD, complications from either simple tick fever or Lyme will be an added burden (short term for simple tick fever, but a lot more serious if Lyme is added to the mix.)

This weather in the northeast US (hot, muggy, rainy) is prime tick development weather. Ticks here are less common than in NJ, but I still check Casey after every run because we have underbrush, pine trees and deer on our regular course. However, three years ago I took him with me to a week-long class at one of our NJ sites (near Princeton) and after a nice evening walk, I felt something crawling--ticks! I didn't get bitten, but Casey had picked up three passengers on that walk, and six more during the week we were there (although we stopped walking near ANYthing green) and there were even some passengers I had to remove in the week after we got home.

It had been so long since I'd had to remove a tick that I had to go online to one of the veterinary resource sites and refresh my memory for the best removal method.

It's definitely tick check time in the northeast US--everyone, be careful out there!

[hawk]

I'm taking doxyclycline. My doctor did not want to take chances. He also told me that the test take a while to come back and if it is Rocky Mountain Fever, then the disease is rapid and you need to treat it immediately. The pharmacist thought I had to worry more about Rocky than Lyme but lyme does have a telltale bullseye ring and I was biten on my jaw near my ear so that would show up with in a week. The rash from Rocky Mountain shows up about 2 weeks after being biten but by then there are other complications. I don't like antibiotics , but I am taking them for this. I'm really glad the pharmcist kept calling my doctor all day trying to find something with out yellow#5 that works for this. Why do they have to put color into tablets anyway??

[Gaelen]

I'm really glad the pharmcist kept calling my doctor all day trying to find something with out yellow#5 that works for this. Why do they have to put color into tablets anyway??

Hawk, the simple answer is "so people can tell them apart."
Seriously.
Think how confusing it would be for someone with failing eyesight, or someone working with the meds not in their original containers (like rescue personnel), to have to distinguish a blood-pressure pill like Topril, a nitroglycerin pill, a birth control pill, a valium pill, generic ibuprofen and a basic multi-vitamin if they didn't all have a different color (they can all be approximately the same sized little round pills.)

Manufacturers can only make pills in so many shapes, and emboss them with so many different symbols and numbers. The shapes are distinguishable, but the collections of numbers and symbols need a serious cheat sheet. Those things, plus color, help in medication ID--both for professionals trying to trace a drug that isn't in a proper container, and for the person at home picking the right pill from a medicine cabinet.

[hawk]

If I have just the amount of yellow dye on the tip of a tooth pick it will make my left eye blind and the left side of my face,left arm and left hand numb. I get blurred tunnel vision in the other eye ,hives in my mouth, the back of my neck feels like someone tried to chop off my head and failed. The right side of my head hurts beyond explaination. I cannot read or concentrate and my speech becomes garbled. I say the wrong words . I also cannot think fast and have to really decide where I am walking and why I am going there. If I'm driving forget it, I have to pull over and call someone to get me.After an hour of this I begin to throw up till I dehydrate. The next day feels like a hangover. My doctor and pharmacist where getting frustrated because most of the tetracycline group had yellow dye in them.
I can guess that people need to know if they took the purple pill or the green one. I can take no green,orange,yellow,reddish orange. They have to read every label. Yellow is a very common dye.
It is just frustrating for me too to read every label and not eat most of the stuff at family dinners because it either has MSG,Yellow,or nitrites. Also allergic to Batadyne. It is yellow. My gosh ,,,it swells me up so bad, it ripped the stitches out.
I wish they could take that one color off the market and find something safer.

My doctor called to check on me and told me I would have to be on this stuff for 21 days.