SPRINGTIME TICKS
Dorcas Annette Walker
Springtime is when the horrible creatures called ticks come
out targeting any human body they can latch onto. One red, swollen, hot itchy tick bite is very
irritable; more than one is pure misery.
When you discover a tick embedded in your skin your first
reaction is to panic, “Oh no! Not
again!” feeling horror at seeing the tiny crawly black insect sucking out your
life’s blood.
Then you go into denial trying to put an optimistic spin on
it saying to yourself, “surely this time I will get lucky and not have a
reaction”, but the red rash spreads and becomes very itchy. It drives you crazy trying not to itch the
bite while putting stuff on it to keep it cool and heal up, especially as the
bites are usually located in a most inconvenient spot like on your buttocks,
breast or groin area. I’ve even had a tick
bite right in the middle of two fingers causing both to swell. Tick bites are uncomfortable to say the
least.
Next you start dragging, having a sick headache, and feeling
like you are coming down with the flu.
Since it is the spring season you try to reason that your sinuses are
acting up or you just caught the flu bug while deep inside you know it is your
Lyme’s flaring up again. You play mind games
like weighing your options, “Surely this time my body can override the Lyme’s
virus. What is worse: battling the virus
or suffering through the reaction of the antibiotic?” even though you already
know the answer.
You procrastinate.
“I’ll just wait a couple of days to see if I don’t feel better. You don’t.
You just feel worse. You can
sense the virus slowly surely taking over your body. You fight the feeling of
losing control, but know that you will have to get back on antibiotics to stop
the virus even though you dread the thought of what the med is going to do to
your system knowing from past experience that the longer you put it off the
worse it will become.
You finally give in and go to the doctor. The tick bites are small red spots now that
occasionally flare up almost unnoticeable- something you could put out of your
head if the rest of your symptoms would only disappear. You go to the drugstore, fill your
prescription, and begin popping pills.
