Lyme Disease - scary

http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com/did-you-know-getting-bit-by-a-tick-could-paralyze-your-1702431456/+alissawalker

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A few days to a month after being bitten by an infected tick, a red rash will begin expanding around that site. In 70 to 80 percent of cases, this rash begins to look like a bullseye and can expand up to 12 inches in diameter. This rash won’t itch or burn, but don’t be fooled. While it’s growing, you’ll also start experiencing fatigue and fever, intense headaches will occur and your muscles and joints will also grow sore.

At this point, most people seek treatment. If allowed to continue, the infection becomes much worse.

You may experience additional rashes on other, unbitten parts of your body. Some people lose control of their facial muscles, causing one side of their face to slump, a condition known as Bell’s palsy. Your headaches will grow worse and your neck will become stiff as bacteria infects your spinal fluid. Your joints will begin to swell. Shooting headaches will prevent sleep. And, last but not least, you’ll begin to experience heart palpitations as the bacteria infects your heart tissue and begins to block the electrical signals between the heart’s upper and lower chambers.

Not everyone gets all the symptoms; if you think you may be experiencing Lyme disease, get your ass to a doctor.

If untreated, long term Lyme disease infection and cause arthritis; the CDC says 60 percent of untreated patients report this. 5 percent report chronic neurologic symptoms like shooting pain, numbness, tingling and the loss of short-term memory. Fatigue will also become a constant in your life.

And, these symptoms may not stop with treatment. Lyme disease is thought to trigger an autoimmune response in your body. The 10 to 20 percent of patients who experience Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome have their immune system continue to try and fight the disease after it’s gone, damaging their tissue. There is no known treatment for joint pain, neurological symptoms and fatigue that accompany PTLDS.

Your dog can also be infected by Lyme disease, with many of the same symptoms. Infection rates are currently unknown, but likely widespread.

How You Get Lyme Disease

Well, you get bit by an infected tick. But, the story’s a bit more complicated than that.

Lyme disease is exclusively spread by common deer ticks here in the US. Those are also called blacklegged ticks or, if you’re a scientist, either Ixodes scapularis (eastern states) or Ixodes pacificus (western states). They get it by feeding on the blood of infected rodents; the bacteria enters their gut, then takes up residence in their salivary glands. That’s how it gets to you.

How To Avoid Lyme Disease

Carefully check yourself over after spending time in the outdoors and during any multi-day trips. Find and remove any ticks. Do the same for your dogs and kids, in that order.

You need to get that tick off there pronto, so don’t “paint” it with vaseline or nail polish then wait for it to drop off. But, you do need to be careful with the extraction so that you’re certain you get all parts of the the head and mouth, which are currently lodged in your skin. Using a pair of tweezers, grab the tick as close to your tender flesh as possible, then pull straight outwards gently and evenly. Don’t twist or jerk it, this can separate parts of the tick, leaving them behind. You should be able to feel and see the tick sliding out of your skin. Flush that little guy down the toilet. If you’re camping, wadding it up in some very tacky tape works. Don’t burst the tick with your fingers; remember you’re dealing with a bacterial infection here. Clean the bite area with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, iodine or soap and water. Don’t “dig” out any bits of the head you may have left behind, your body will force those out as the bite heals.

If you’ve never done this before, it’s a little gross but doesn’t hurt. If you’ve done it a million times, you’ll have it down pat and probably dont’ need the tweezers anymore; I don’t.

The CDC recommends that you use a DEET-based bug spray and permethrin treated clothing. As we learned in that article about mosquitos, 50 percent DEET gives you the best duration of protection; it’s what you should be using.

LL Bean has a great range of permethrin-treated outdoor clothes, the chemical is retained through 70 machine washes. You can also buy that chemical as a spray; it takes 4oz to treat an outfit and that then lasts six to seven washes. Spraying down your backpack, camp chair, socks, boots, tent, etc is also a good way to keep ticks (and other bugs) off.

It is present in NW Florida, but obviously, it is more prevalent in the Nawth-East, ehyah.

It was created in a government lab.