The falls at Minnewaska State Park, one of the best things about living in the mid-Hudson Valley. I took this picture during a beautiful hike a couple of weeks ago.
And one of the worst things: the deer tick. My husband just discovered one attached to his leg at about 12:45 a.m. today. We think it had been feasting since Saturday. He's on the phone with the doctor now.
I have really close friends that have Lyme disease, but it's really freaky when a tick strikes someone you love. Here's hoping he's okay ...
Oh, and to add flame to the fire, I spotted a deer walking in my backyard at about 7:30 a.m. (I live in the city of Kingston!)
Anyone have any advice for us?
Update: A reader suggested this link to the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society's Web site as a better source of information than the county site I provided.
5 comments:
Hi,
Yes, as someone who's had Lyme disease for the past 20 years, only diagnosed 3 years ago and for which I now have to take heavy-duty antibiotics possibly for the rest of my life - my advice is first of all to change the Lyme disease link from what is currently there (contains a lot of misinformation about all aspects of the disease) and replace it with the website for the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society's site at www.ilads.org
Contrary to what some would have you belive, Lyme is not hard to catch and easy to cure. Most people with recover with 30 days or less of antibiotics IF the disease is treated immediately. However a significant percentage of patients do not make a recovery. And, some that initially appeared to make a recovery on early treatment later relapse and become chronic.
For anyone who thinks or knows they have Lyme, I recommend checking out the Lyme Disease Association www.lymediseaseassociation.org
Also for an eye-opener check out these film trailers on Lyme:
www.lymediseasefilm.com by Open Eye Pictures
as well as a UK film in production here:
www.lymefilm.com
The politics of Lyme today are where AIDS was 25 years ago, a lot of the *real* info is being swept under the carpet about how serious and long-lasting and virtually impossible the infection is to get rid of for a lot of people.
Good luck to your friend, I hope he makes a full recovery with this early treatment. Egg.
Hi,
I thought you would find this Lyme book helpful:
http://www.defeatlyme.com
Good luck.
Thanks to you both. The doctor prescribed him a dose of doxycycline hyclate (antibiotic) as a precaution.
Hi Kathleen. I think if your husband gets treated promptly, as it sounds like he did, he should be fine. If you're concerned, ask your doctor for an extra course of antibiotics (30 days instead of 15) to make sure it's knocked out. Just because he was bitten, too, doesn't mean that the tick was carrying the bacteria that causes Lyme. And the fact that you got the tick off yourself is a good indication that it didn't have time enough to transmit any disease it was carrying (typically, when the tick "let's go" of the skin is when it sort of belches up the ugly stuff and infects; before then, the fluids are running in reverse.)
I think the tick pictured is a dog tick, not a deer tick, though. And I recommend this site - www.stopticks.org.
More importantly (ok, not really) for the hipster in exile, I see you've checked out Elephant in uptown Kingston. Write a post about this. I think this place is great, and I want to see it succeed. Great atmosphere with excellent hand-made and unique furnishings/decorations, and awesome food, not to mention the owners (friends of mine) ... I go every Saturday for brunch. Beet greens and ricotta frittata? It even sounds good...
Hi, well be sensible, well-all described
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