I can't resist describing my encounter with Lyme disease.

I was in a wooded area loaded with deer near St. Louis in the
mid-1980s and got a tick on my thigh that I only noticed when I
showered the next morning.  It was about half the size of a
hungry dog tick, as I recall - it must have been engorged.  Later
that day or the next I got such a bad headache that it made me
nauseous, and I stayed in bed the whole day.  Had no idea what
was wrong.  I was OK the next day and thereafter.  I had been
taking an antibiotic (not doxycycline) for sinus infection for
days already, and I guess it stifled the Lyme and it went into
dormancy, but was not killed off.

I recall, years later, the same place on my thigh becoming
inflamed and a pinpoint spot like a mosquito bite, that I
scratched a lot.  Years after that, and more conscious of Lyme,
when it recurred again at the same spot, I went to the doctor and
got a blood test - negative.  He prescribed doxycycline anyway,
and give me a topical ointment for the spot as well - clindamycin
phosphate gel.  The inflammation went away fast, but there is now
an area about 6 inches in diameter on my thigh that is partly
numb on the surface all the time.  That was about 2-3 years ago.
No more symptoms, but the numbness is permanent.  I consider
myself lucky that nothing more serious ever developed.

Bill Ellis

-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Leslie Starr
Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 10:49 AM
To: 
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Lyme Disease Reminder PS PS


In a message dated 7/8/2006 9:38:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
 writes:

> So if a tick bites,
> maybe the best thing to do is assume the worst and get treated,
even if
> there are no symptoms.  (My tests haven't come back.)

Also, it can take a couple of months before your body has built
up enough
antibodies to cause a positive test result. I had mild flu
symptoms ten days
after a tick bite, but no rash and negative test results, so the
doctor refused to
give me antibiotics. I was sicker at eight weeks, but still
testing negative.
Finally tested positive and began treatment at ten weeks, by
which time the
disease was so well established that it took years to recover.

For a few years, I started antibiotics after a bite and sent the
tick for
analysis (U. Conn. - will send the info on request). Now that I'm
back out in the
woods more often, that seems impractical, and I am just
monitoring how I
feel, but still keeping the ticks (in a baggie with a wet paper
towel in the
fridge) in case I become ill and want to have them checked.

Leslie Starr
Baltimore & Port Republic