Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Tick Talk

 

Yesterday when I put my seat belt on I noticed my left side was sore, like it was bruised. I couldn’t remember injuring myself but figured it must have happened on our hike at Spring Creek Canyon since we did some rock scrambling. Last evening when I finally remembered to look I saw this horrible sight. Yes, that is a tick embedded in my skin. Yikes!

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Jim used tweezers to attempt to remove it but it was a stubborn fellow and broke off. Next came a needle to dig out the remaining parts. Luckily I could not feel the surgery, just as I couldn’t feel the tick. Here it is out of my body. Very gross.

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We are boondocked just south of Jacob Lake, Arizona, and this morning we drove the car 39 miles to the nearest medical clinic in Kanab, Utah. The doctor prescribed doxycycline since he said it looked infected and also said if I got the tick in Great Basin there was a risk for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. So all is well and we are heading off shortly to visit Gaelyn at the North Rim. I promise prettier photos in the next post. You can bet we will be even more diligent about checking each other for ticks from now on!

23 comments:

  1. Wow! I started checking myself after your photos. I hope you stay well.

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  2. Never a bad idea to have a tick bit checked out if it is irritated. I have had a few,. I didn't know about the Rocky Mt. fever danger.

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  3. OMG that gives me the creeps. In Kansas, my puppies and I got lots of those little buggers. I finally refused to walk on anything but concrete!!!

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  4. Good idea to know your own and each others freckles intimately. Glad Kanab Clinic treated you well.

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  5. OMG, that's creepy! I'm glad you went to the clinic and got some meds, just in case. EEEEEUUUUWWW.

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  6. EEwwwwwww!!! Nothing creeps me out like spiders and ticks!

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  7. Hope you stay well. When we were in Arkansas several years ago, I and we found several on me, never that dug in. Ticks like me, mosquitoes like John.

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  8. As a veteran health-care professional, all I can say is HOLY S*** !

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  9. We were just at Custer State Park near Mt. Rushmore and Greg had two ticks. We also found two additional ticks in our camper. Creeper me out! Sorry your bite was so bad. Hope there aren't any long term effects.

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  10. Allison got one of these nasty little buggers in the Czech Republic last year, YACK!! I had about as much luck as Jim did being a surgeon, try as I might I could not get all of it out. Hope the meds work!!

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  11. So glad you went to the doctor to get it checked out. Now I am itching and checking after today's hike in Rocky Mountain NP.

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  12. We have lint rollers for ourselves and doggie after walking through certain areas. Have seen others pull off several ticks before they can burrow under fur and clothing. A yucky but important post - thanks for the reminder!! Glad you got the meds, always smart :-)

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  13. So glad you were able to get all the parts out and got medical attention for that tick. I've had a lot of them over time living in the wooded mountains. They can be very dangerous so checking every time you are out and about is a good idea.. How wonderful that you are going to see Gaelyn. LUCKY YOU! Please give her a BIG hug from me.

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  14. Good thing you were putting your seat belt on, it could have been worse if you hadn't noticed it.

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  15. Oh good grief. That looks horrible. You didn't say there was any pain afterwards. Do you feel okay?

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  16. Good to know, so thank you for sharing. We got some doxycycline last time we were in Yuma/Mexico for when my husband gets an infected sore throat (usually when we are travelling and can't get to a doctor) & smallest bottle was 100 tablets!, so good to know it has multiply uses.

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  17. Vaseline works on them as they back out when applied?

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    1. Never tried it but according to the CDC website neither petroleum jelly nor fingernail polish works.

      Jim

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    2. I know from experience this method works: Light a match, blow it out, apply the hot match head to the body of the tick. It will relinquish its hold.

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    3. We used the match method with tweezers to grab it after the hot match head got the little bugger to let go.

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  18. So glad you got to the doctor. Terry had three ticks bites that were infected when we were in the Carolinas. He thought he probably had them on him for three days. He had the bull's eye around one of them. Ticks are certainly nothing to mess with!

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  19. I'm talking about ticks on my blog constantly and ranting about the abundance of them in Wisconsin, I would have thought you'd be safe climbing red rocks in Utah! Good to know I'll have to continue my tick checks even when out of the Midwest at this time of year.

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