I lived here at least 30 years without a tick bite (that I know of). We removed the occasional tick from our dogs, but never saw nor heard of deer ticks. But
for the past 10 years or so, deer ticks have been almost as common a topic of
conversation as the weather.
So many have been affected, and yet there’s still no
consensus about treatment. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control
dictates statistics and treatment, and they’re so far off base on tick-borne
illness that it’s a joke. Except it isn’t funny. I’ve been infected with
babesia, a Lyme co-infection so expensive to test for that it’s impossible for
the Red Cross to screen blood donors. As a result, the public blood supply is
contaminated with it. I wrote an article about this when I worked for the
newspaper. That was years ago, and I doubt the situation has improved. If
anything, it’s probably gotten worse.
Because there’s no standard of treatment, doctors’ responses
to tick bites depend on whatever reading they’ve done on their own—or what they
had for breakfast. I’m lucky that my doctor gives me whatever I ask for. Some
will prescribe only two doxycycline pills; others go for a 7- or 10-day course
of treatment. Going back a bunch of years, I asked my doctor for a 30-day
supply, and got it. But then my veterinarian said, “Only one month? We treat
dogs for two months.” So I upped it
to two months.
In the beginning I didn’t know the importance of taking a
good probiotic when you’re taking antibiotics, and the effects linger. With
chronic Lyme and babesiosis, I try to keep symptoms to a minimum without antibiotics
these days. The two biggest helps are juicing vegetables and getting lots of
rest. And I learned the hard way this month to steer clear of online arguments,
no matter how passionately I feel about the topic. Stress makes everything
worse.
