Did you know Lyme disease can actually be fatal? I did not know that until hubby

[GreenPartyVoter]

contracted it and got a partial heart block. Fortunately he is in the hospital getting treatment for it, he almost just dismissed the symptoms as overwork and stress!

[DFW]

1. I sure did!

So when my daughter got bitten by a tick and had the concentric rings where the bite was, we got her to a doctor immediately, who prescribed many weeks of heavy antibiotics to wipe it out. Once the initial phase of Lyme is over, the long term effects can be really evil, and difficult to treat--as well as sometimes impossible to reverse.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Hubby didn't get a rash, and our kids got atypical ones. What a pain this

this little bacterium is!

[DFW]

3. One very evil bacterium indeed.

It never used to show up this far north until about ten years ago. People down in Hungary got it a lot, parts of Austria, too, but only when it started warming up here did it become prevalent in our part of the Rheinland. But because we take our vacations in New England, we've known about it for a long time, and knew what to look for the second we saw the tick.

One of my wife's clients got it about ten years ago. The woman was originally from the Danube region, and couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, and nor could the local German doctors. My wife asked them to test for Lyme disease. The local doctors just laughed at her, called it a "tropical" disease, said no way, and said "who is the doctor here, you or me?" But the woman just got worse, and my wife (a social worker) insisted on a test for Lyme disease. The doctors finally acquiesced, and were amazed (but not apologetic) when it turned out she was right. The woman was put on a heavy antibiotic program, and recovered close to fully.

One friend of ours back in Massachusetts had it undiagnosed for almost a year, and some of the muscle and nerve damage was irreversible by the time she got it diagnosed and treated.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. I had an archaeology prof back in the early 90s who had it. His joints were all

messed up and he got headaches while teaching.

I guess the worst part is that you can miss it so easily, and then go on to be damaged by it. I am starting to feel like people in Lyme areas should just get tested a couple of times a year, just in case.

[DFW]

11. Awareness is everything

If there is even the slightest suspicion, you MUST get it checked, since permanent damage can result from non-treatment, or too late treatment.

Of course, if you don't know about it, you never look for it. But doctors are FAR more aware of its existence than they were 20 years ago, and it's not considered to be as exotic as it once was.

[JCMach1]

5. an old HS friend died of this just this last year

he suffered for about 6 long years...

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Oh, man. I am so sorry! Did he also have trouble with his heart?

[JCMach1]

12. His immune system just gave out...

He had mostly neuro symptomology... wheelchair bound, etc.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Oh, so sad. :( Wish they had a better way of dealing with this thing.

[handmade34]

6. Oh! Hope all turns out well...

our family (hikers all) have known of the danger for a long time... daily checks for ticks is a ritual... I found one in my hip a couple years back and couldn't reach it and my partner couldn't get the head out... spent $600 at the ER just to have the doc dig the head out and give me a big dose of preventative medicine...

I carry a tick puller with me in the woods... Lyme is serious stuff

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Hubby is an avid hiker. I will mention the tick puller to him!

[sarge43]

10. Another one worth keeping handy.

https://tickkey.com