My Encounter With A Tick Of The Bad Kind

The first thing you need to understand is that I'm a dog person. Pretty much always have been. Right now I have two friendly and happy canines. One is an old (going on 17) Beagle and the other is an energetic clown of a Brittany. I've always leashed my dogs. This has more to do with my inability to train any them to stay in an area or to come when called than anything else. The Brittany however likes to and needs to run, so I've got one of those retractable leads that allows him to do his thing as we take our regular walks. His 'thing' is hilarious to watch and be a part of. He winds himself up and runs at full speed back and forth. At some point in the process he begins to spin and tumble, doing actual summersaults close by. There is always a point where he wraps himself in a ball and comes at me at full speed and crashes against my legs. More than once he's actually knocked me off balance. His intention isn't to hurt but to involve me in his play. It's a little bit like bowling but I'm the only pin. At night, he finds a cozy spot next to me on my (his) bed. And so it goes.

Both dogs are medicated for tick prevention and control and I've never really seen ticks on them. All of this is background to a story about my recent encounter with a tick and potential exposure to Lyme Disease.

In late October I decided to attend a conference and meeting in Albany, NY. I drove up, got a room at a hotel and attended a number of meetings at the conference that was held at a different hotel. Late in the evening, after dinner, I returned to my hotel room. It was in fact Halloween. As I took off my shirt I happened to be standing in front of a mirror. I noticed something black and red on my left bicep. As I looked more closely I could see something that looked a bit like a mole or flesh in the center of a very hard red spot with a circle around it. In the back of my mind I was pretty sure what this was but figured someone should check it out. Now that I noticed it, I also felt pain in my arm and some throbbing.

I worked my way to the front desk encountering all sorts of costumes and characters along the way. I asked the young clerk with makeup all over his face where the nearest hospital was. He wrote down the address for Albany Medical Center. I got to my car, put the address in my GPS and was off. Driving through downtown Albany I noticed an increase in the throbbing and a pretty serious pain going up my arm. I was also feeling flushed. Arriving at the Albany Medical Center finally came but now what. The GPS got me to the physical address but how do I find my way around? Turns out there was lots of construction and pretty confusing signage. After my third drive around the facility, through various restricted parking areas, I finally parked the car and walked to what seemed to be the main entrance with a sign for the Emergency Room.  The main entrance was locked (it was close to midnight at this point). I asked some newly arriving employees where the emergency room entrance was and they pointed the way. A nice lady in green with sparkley tentacles on her head took me through the admissions process. A nurse took my vitals and was very concerned about my now sky rocketing blood pressure. She indicated they needed to find me a bed. I explained as calmly as possible why I was there and why after circling the hospital three times and parking my car in a restricted parking area my blood pressure was probably high.

I ended up being seen by two emergency room physicians who confirmed that a tick was embedded in my arm. They were very concerned about the appearance of the area and believed it was probably an indication of Lyme, indicating that there was a great deal of it in the area. After removal of the tick I was given an antibiotic and a prescription for a 21 day course of doxycycline . The doctors indicated that they believed the tick was found soon enough and that the antibiotic would take care of the potential infection with Lyme. They did indicate that the antibiotic came with its own issues. I was instructed to get a blood test in a week or two and to see my local health care provider. It was well past 1am at this point and my next quest was to find a 24hr pharmacy. I found a CVS and filled the prescription, got a few hours of sleep, went to some meetings that morning and headed back home with symptoms from either the antibiotic, Lyme Disease as well as lack of sleep kicking in.

Over the next few months I've learned a lot about Lyme Disease. It seems my area of the Finger Lakes is expieriencing something of an epidemic. I've also learned that different doctors and emergency rooms are treating people differently relative to doses and types of antibiotics. I've followed stories of serious cardiac symptoms and issues. All of this has convinced me that I need to continue to educate myself and that people in general do need more information and discussion about Lyme Disease.

I've had one blood test that was negative and will receive the results of another within the next week or so. Turns out things change with this disease and sometimes there are false negatives so things do have to be monitored. I certainly did expierience symptoms of fatigue and flu over the course of Nov. and Dec. There was joint soreness as well. I've also encountered and spoken to more and more people impacted by Lyme.

In the meantime the dogs are well and healthy. They and I get checked for ticks much more regularly even in this cold weather. I've almost convinced myself that the tick that got me was from Albany, in one of the hotels I visited. Maybe, maybe not. All I know is that we're much more careful in this house.