It was OptiMisTic who said to her children "concrete is your friend". I have to believe this is true, not only in northern CA, where I live, but in the mountains of Southern CA, where I grew up, hiked, camped, etc.I was "so stupid" a year and a half ago, when I went to a barn dance in my home town. Now, I knew there were ticks right out my back door (we live on an acre in a "rural residential" neighborhood, and this barn was located a few miles from my house, in a much more densely forested place in this town (think John Muir).
I was VERY CAUTIOUS in checking out this barn and it's surroundings when I pulled up in my truck, and I thought since all of the festivities were taking place in the arena area (no tall grass near the actual covered arena) that I was "safe". Well, think again. I did not walk thru tall grass to get to this arena, but I did walk under huge oak trees along the dirt path from the parking area.
And lo and behold, about an hour after I got home, I felt something crawling on my stomach, and YUP YOU GUESSED IT!! I found a live tick-not embedded, just crusing around on my tummy.
I freaked like I hadn't freaked out ever, because I have not found a tick crawling or embedded on my body since 1987. Yes, folks, that was, um, lets see, 17 YEARS since I had my one and only tick bite. And what I was so majorly freaking about was----was this tick that I found crawling on my stomach just getting ready to bite, or had he already bit me hours before and had just backed out and was heading for the hills?
I got back on doxy within 5 minutes of killing this tick. I was so angry at myself for letting my guard down. I'd been off all abx for 6 months at that point, and now here I was again back on the abx merry-ro-round.
That's why when I posed under ArtistDi's query about letting her daughter go on a nature trip thru school, I knew what I was talking about. It doesn't matter how old you are, if you let your guard down for a second, let your mind rationalize thru your doubts that you have about going into a KNOWN TICK AREA, you are screwed.
Doesn't mean it will happen that time, or the next, but maybe the next?
I took this crawling live tick on my stomach as my major wakeup call, and have changed our lifestyle accordingly. I thought I was careful before I found this tick, but now I know better.
I truly believe how you react to this "I won't let it change my life" attitude about not camping/hiking/going into forested areas (even sprayed up the wazoo with tick repellent)depends on exactly what place in your life you are on the tick/Lyme treating journey.
Some of us have so been there done that with the whole getting treatment/spending gajillions of dollars out of pocket in treatment/watching and treating your kids with lyme/ etc., that we have head knowledge that leads us to believe that all of that outdoor fun naturey-type activities are over.
Like OpTiMisTic said, you just know.
Or, I think she said that, if she didn't, well, then I said it. You just know. And you change accordingly.
Frontline does not keep the ticks off the animals, I have found embedded ticks on my outdoor only cats every year. I use Frontline year round, and I still find ticks every month. I learned that if you pull an embedded tick off before it's been attached for 2 days, then the tick is not dead yet, and yes, can crawl off our tweezers or whatever you used to pull it out with, and get away, to crawl onto you at some point. I only remove ticks off the cats when I'm outside, have a white paper towel at the ready, and can see the damn thing clearly, then I dump it into a mason jar filled with alcohol, and screw that lid on tight. I leave that outside in the garage until I have a few floating around in there, and then I put it in my trash can on trash pickup day, because if the damn thing broke in the trash can by accident, and one of those @#$% ticks happened to still be alive (yet pickled in the alcohol having one damn swingin party) then he could get out and find me, because if there was ever a major tick magnet, it's me!!!
Crazy making thinking, but then I've had 5 yrs to think up all this stuff, and changing my life to fit this scenario.
4 yrs ago, or so,right after getting the Lyme diagnosis for myself and my 2 kids, I did not have any of this type mindset. I might even have still hopped on the trail that encircles my neighborood to go to Starbucks for a latte. I think I only walked on that trail when the green grass was really low, like in December. But, a year ago,4 years into the nightmare that is Lyme disease, when I found that #$%^ tick on my stomach, it was January. No time of the year is "safe" in California!
In Northern CA, there are ticks year round, wherever you go.
Julie
[This message has been edited by Just Julie (edited 23 May 2005).]
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic