When you thought coronavirus was bad... we have ticks in our region now

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Spacehead

Lifer
Jun 2, 2002
13,067
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Couple years ago my dad was diagnosed with Lyme. I had heard about a vaccine for Lyme & I asked my doctor . He said it sounded like a good idea but it was pretty much ineffective. He gave my a script for some antibiotics(2 pills i think) to keep on hand in case i found a tick that i was unsure how long it had been on me.
I'll have to check if those pills are expired by now.

Next time you go to the doctor ask him/her if they know much about the vaccine or if you can get some antibiotics to keep on hand.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
31,441
9,343
136
But those are low risk. Lyme is an immediate danger if you want to spend any time in the bush. Bears are also big, which means you can see and avoid them ahead of time.

Imagine if every time you drive, if you touch a line, you get into an accident, would you still feel safe driving? You can try to avoid them all you want but eventually you'll miss one and end up touching it.
How many serious cases of Lyme disease have been in your location? How many of those cases had chronic, life changing outcomes?
I assume you have answers to both those questions as you've already decided that everything else is low risk compared to it?
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,457
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www.anyf.ca
Couple years ago my dad was diagnosed with Lyme. I had heard about a vaccine for Lyme & I asked my doctor . He said it sounded like a good idea but it was pretty much ineffective. He gave my a script for some antibiotics(2 pills i think) to keep on hand in case i found a tick that i was unsure how long it had been on me.
I'll have to check if those pills are expired by now.

Next time you go to the doctor ask him/her if they know much about the vaccine or if you can get some antibiotics to keep on hand.

Yeah I was reading up on if there is a vaccine, but turns out it caused arthritis... which is what you're trying to avoid by not getting lyme disease lol. So hopefully it's something they can refine though. I do wonder if there is something like an epi pen or even just something I inject manually that I could carry if I do get bit, will definitly ask my doctor.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,457
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www.anyf.ca
How many serious cases of Lyme disease have been in your location? How many of those cases had chronic, life changing outcomes?
I assume you have answers to both those questions as you've already decided that everything else is low risk compared to it?
This is still new, my fear is that it becomes the new norm and that they end up everywhere. The risk might be lower right now but does not mean it will always be. There has only been a few cases so far. You can't just go by number of cases though, this is something that affects people who spend time in the outdoors. Chances are if you live in the city you're probably ok. I want to eventually live off grid this will affect me 100% and maybe even ruin those plans if it gets bad here.
 

FaaR

Golden Member
Dec 28, 2007
1,056
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It is definitely something you want to treat as an emergency as you'll want to get treated ASAP and be put on antibiotics.
Speaking as someone who had lyme disease undiagnosed for around five months (of which three of those were about the most god awful horrible of my entire life); DON'T start taking medication against a disease you've not been confirmed to actually have!

Ever heard of antibiotics resistance? Well, this kind of hysteria is exactly how that stuff develops, and then we no longer have a working treatment for those who actually DO catch this terrible disease. Let's all be logical and rational here, mkay? :)

For those interested, lyme disease is one evil mother effer of a bug, and this is no joke. I got it in the summer of 1995, never noticed it happening. For upwards of two months after catching that damn disease I didn't feel a thing. Then the muscle ache started setting in in my legs, more in one than the other. It progressively got worse and worse over a few weeks until it was so bad I couldn't sit still, couldn't walk, couldn't lie down, couldn't sleep. In parallel I was also losing muscle strength in my legs, making moving around more and more difficult, particularly up and down stairs, but just kneeling to tie my shoe laces was a PITA.

Meanwhile the GP Doc I was seeing was convinced I had muscle inflammation and prescribed me voltaren... Jeeesh. What a maroon, you don't go almost completely lame in your legs because of muscle inflammation! But in the 1990s, many in the medical profession did not know of or understand lyme disease around where I live, much less knew how to diagnose it properly. So I had to go to the emergency room of the city hospital, and they took me up to the neuro ward almost immediately where I then spent three friggin weeks in a hospital bed! Ugh.

And it took me until mid-december that year until they let me out, although I had started feeling better after just a few days of antibiotics. Took me until march the following year before my legs were back to full strength again.

What really bugs me though? ONE!!! time that summer I was out in tall grass, and that friggin' tick still got me! Raaarrrlll! *mad* And now a quarter century later I'm wondering if the infection did more to me than just what I felt back then, the temporary pain and the physical weakness. These days I sometimes feel as if my brain's been dulled, I often can't find words I'm searching for, I'm very forgetful. I have to think hard to do simple stuff like arithmatics in my head. And I'm not that old, I'm not 50 yet for chrissakes. :p

So, yeah. It's no fun, lyme disease. Take this shit seriously, I implore you. But don't start eating antibiotics unless it's confirmed you actually need it! That is really important.
 
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Spacehead

Lifer
Jun 2, 2002
13,067
9,858
136
Lyme is an immediate danger if you want to spend any time in the bush now that there's ticks.
Um, there were never any ticks in your area till fairly recently?
I'm not positive but i think not all ticks carry Lyme. I know here all i hear about are deer ticks with regards to Lyme.
It's not like you're going to be swarmed by ticks every time you step outside.

 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,457
12,611
126
www.anyf.ca
No this is new. At least the lyme carring variety I don't really know about the others but never even heard of ticks until a few years ago. They showed up in past few years maybe but mostly last year. Was hoping it would be a 1 time thing but I have a feeling it won't be given there's already been a case in Sudbury. Before that we had nothing dangerous to worry about here and it's one of the beauties of living here. No venomous bugs or crazy diseases or anything of that nature. Well other than giant hogweed plants which are also fairly new, maybe as of 10-15 years ago? But they are easy enough to spot. Climate change is about to fuck us up royally by allowing for crap like this to live here.

And yeah there is a gray area about taking antibiotics. Hopefully they really come up with a better solution but right now that's what they do if you get bit, and it sure as hell beats getting lyme disease.

One big part of the issue is that lot of the symptoms are similar to other things so some doctors are dismissive about it too as I guess it's hard to test for, that does not help. I think it will just come down to not going in the bush in summer and only going in winter, really. Best to be safe. Still blows to have something this dangerous that completely alters our way of enjoying the outdoors though.