Thanks so much, Traveler!! I've talked to you before.....have not been here in a long while...so have questions too, pertaining to me...but those, later....think I will get the HW addy! my friend really needs contact info, and soon.
I have done lots of reading, research, in the past year (even OTHER vector bugs, UGG that surfaced here, I'd never seen)....I have concluded it is very likely my whole family has had Lyme, possibly generationally..backwards on both sides to the 1850s!! it was lot's And lot's of clues, falling into place but especially one's backwards history, and health history and WHAT you were exposed to, WHERE you lived and worked, what HOBBIES and OCCUPATION.......all that makes the puzzle "come together".....
Doctors never truly do this--it is so important the overall picture (perhaps LLMDs do delve, i don't know)
my 90 year old pa, tick exposed when only a toddler in Eastern Oregon, in the mid 1930s..he filled in lot's of family history orally for me.., his own recent (69 to now) health history supplied many clues, too. Sadly his symptoms none of which were ever related to possibility of Lyme--he would forgo antibiotics at his age...system very delicate,..we eat garlic, stay home. Non of us tested, as yet --him, me, my Brother. Just survivin', but with some knowledge, now---knowledge is good. So sad my mom suffered all her life with a cough, likely related to her exposure, leading to underlying immunity issue/allergies. My Pa is still very sharp for his age, mentally----we are somehow, blessed with serious yet not too debilitating health issues. (functioning, chronic)
Tragic loss of kitty cat last summer means no more pets for me now, both flea and tick issues....we had a HUGE number of ticks last year--they were plentiful!!.it was mind boggling...and no more garden for me either...attracts deer--last year the loss of cat made me so sad, I let the well established garden go to the deer, --loss was monetary, too....:-( ...(garden needed a taller fence around, I had no heart to remedy it, went into mourning over the cat) I'd rather buy organic local veggies, and not invite the critters to dinner
, I will have to pet other peoples cats....I'm 54, never been without a cat, for very long. We have old growth trees all around us, expensive to fall, so they must stay, I'm not squirrel or bird friendly any longer (they are HERE, but no longer encouraged with feeders, or water sources) I no longer dry clothes on the line....last tick I spotted? on a pillowcase, a nymph..I ALMOST folded it up and imported inside--thot, hmmm, I'd better check that speck...... Ah rural life.....
Def still an unfolding story, Lyme!
again--thanks!
CA Kid