Gloves in the mail

After being bit again (4/20/10) I was almost afraid to garden and still had not planted my favorite flowers. These gloves miraculosly arrived in the mail from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on Friday June 11, 2010. The gloves were enclosed as a symbol of our shared goal of helping patients grow healthier as they overcome their diagnosis of cancer. They were my symbol to start planting and that I have done!! I will buy more flowers in the next few days and keep planting. Thank you Memorial Sloan Kettering for your gift and I will send a gift in the mail to you too!!

Lyme is no joke

It amazes me how SO many people seem to think Lyme is a Joke.... I was talking to a neighbor earlier today.... He said he found a few ticks on his body, was given abx and tested negative, no big deal. He said he thought Lyme was concocted by the drug companies. A doctor I use to work for said he gets bit all the time, removes the ticks and treats himself, no big deal...



For some reason Lyme is not taken as seriously as it should be. I know several people around here that wound up in the hospital and almost died from Lyme .... Check out http://www.lymememorial.org/



There are also many famous people that have or had Lyme... Check out WWW.bada-uk.org/wordpress/?p=284

Lyme cases on the rise

Pennsylvania had the most reported cases of Lyme disease in the US for 2009 (4950). There were 3818 reported cases in 2008 for Pennsylvania. For every case reported there may be as many as 10 cases that were not reported.

Ticks attach to warm moist places

The tick can attach almost anywhere but prefer warm, moist areas. Most commonly the groin, armpits, behind the knee, woman's underside of breast and neck(hairline).. Generally you don't feel the tick bite so it's important to check your body after being outside. Some experts think you can be infected almost immediately after the tick attaches to your skin while others think it takes 36 hours or more.

Pictures of tick and my stomach

These are pictures of the tick that bit me last week and my stomach...I took preventive antibiotics and monitoring the area.

Close encounter of the tick kind....

I was outside yesterday picking up branches and doing yard work for a few hours. Came inside and found an adult female blacklegged deer tick on my stomach... It was engorged and already started feeding on my blood. I removed it with tweezers, kept the tick and will update further. Going to take preventive antibiotics and monitor the area on my stomach...

Rash that occured a year later

This is a picture of a rash that developed almost a year later. This picture was taken in May of 09 and the rash was in the same spot as one of the inital rashes on my left leg. This rash vanished after a few days but I found it interesting the way it appeared and disappeared. The oval and rounded rashes I initially had were very similar to those on the CDC and Canadian Lyme sites and lasted for 4-6 weeks.

According to http://www.jemsekspecialty.com/ "A little recognized fact about the EM rash
is that it can recur, usually in the original site with or without abx therapy in ~ 5 -10% of patients."