tick, tock… what a shock!
Oh the horror!!!
Some people have phobias about spiders and snakes. Not me. I like spiders. I once lived a whole winter with a huge wolf spider hanging out in the corner of my bedroom. I called her ‘Charlotte’. We had good talks. I like snakes–they’re so sensuous and magically graceful and gorgeous. I enjoy slugs, I call them ‘the slime people’. Very little in the animal or insect world has the power to give me the creeping heebie jeebies.
But one thing does. Ticks make me freak in a most amusing (from an outsider perspective) and dangerous manner. There was the time I saw one diving into my foot on the freeway–I wasn’t even driving and I nearly caused an accident. Peter had to pull over (not easy with me spastically flailing and shrieking like that) and pull it out.
Fortunately, he’s good with ticks and calm under pressure. Unfortunately, he’s not here. I woke up this morning and, brushing my hand across my upper back in the process of getting dressed, I felt what I thought was a giant zit or boil. Sore and lumpy. I looked in the mirror and
FREEEAAAKKKK!!!!!
It was a tick. Its swollen little (gulp) body, legs waving, poked out of my skin, buried headfirst. In. My. Flesh.
Red emergency lights flashed in my brain and I kicked into ‘get it out of me NOW’ overdrive; took a pair of tweezers and very carefully (amazing, considering the level of insanity I was experiencing) pulled it off me. In pieces. One piece of which stayed there, and is still there right now.
The good news is, my healer / acupuncturist / herbalist friend will handle it for me when I see him later on. Pull it out, clean it up, do what is needful.
At least it wasn’t one of those yogurt-raisin types that dogs get. I can’t bear those. Of course, I didn’t bear this very well either. What is it about ticks?? I cannot get over this. Now I’m scared to walk in the woods. And I keep feeling things crawling on me. Sheesh.
I think my adrenals are awake now. Hoo boy.
June 16th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Hi this is a hug not a poke! ( ) from Mom
I’ve never been ticked but have always been wary – they can -or the littler bugs that respose on them- cause some really bad after-effects and I would hope you’d go to the doctor and get some anti-biotics. People up here have ended up with Lymme’s Disease and at Forest Grove a little kid became temporarily paralyzed.
Leon has heard if you put Vaseline over a tick bite the little critters can’t breath and will back out on thier own.
Please see a doctor and get those antibiotics as soon as possible….
Here is another hug! ( ) love mom
June 18th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Hi Mom–yes, I’m aware of the issues with Lyme’s disease, I’ve been doing some research. As I understand it, antibiotics are not a cure or treatment for Lyme’s, just for infection, so I’m not going to do that.
I really needed to go to the doctor with the tick still in me and let them deal with it, so they could test it on the spot. But I didn’t do that. Once the tick is gone, they have no way to test for the disease and can only wait for symptoms. I am well aware of what to watch for (fever and bull’s-eye rashes in the area of the bite); I will be careful. So far, no problems.
Thanks for caring