Ticked Off

            “Oh my! You have Lyme disease! You might die!” the Austrian doctor shouted at me. Well, maybe it wasn’t shouting, but spoken German, for some reason, almost always gives the impression of shouting. Anyway, I was stunned when I heard those words. The only thing I knew about Lyme’s disease was that you could get it from ticks, and, at that moment in a small clinic in the hills of Vienna, I learned that it was supposedly fatal. Three weeks previously, I had noticed a small, angry red dot on my back that hurt, but thought that it was just an insignificant bug bite. That day I visited the doctor the dot had expanded out into a pinkish, two-foot-wide ring that had me slightly concerned. And apparently for good reason.

            Now, for the record, Lyme disease is not as lethal as my Austrian doctor would have me believe. Also, if you are a doctor, take it from a guy who has been improperly informed of his imminent death: don’t tell your patients that they might die, unless you really know what you’re talking about. After getting a second opinion from a team of noticeably less panicked doctors at the Vienna General Hospital, I found out that my Lyme disease was still treatable and that death was actually the least of my worries. More often than not, untreated Lyme disease affects the body in a number of undesirable ways, such as paralysis, palsy, and cognitive issues, among others.

            It has been almost ten years since that day in the park when a small tick found its way down my shirt and plunged its disease-ridden mouth into my soft, vulnerable skin, injecting bacteria into my body. The microscopic organisms quickly multiplied, amassing a small, yet potent army in order to launch an all-out attack on my central nervous system. Well, they never made it, thanks to the help some antibiotics, and my stubborn will to live.

            Ticks freak me out. The idea of a small animal that likes to try and burrow into a person’s skin is completely horrific. I only tell you this so you’ll be extra careful and watchful during tick season, which happens to be right now until the end of June. Ticks love any place with lots of brush and vegetation, but what they love even more are warm, dark places, like armpits or skin folds. The best way to prevent a tick from making you its personal blood bank and potential disease host is by dressing in a long-sleeved shirt and pants that adequately cover your legs while walking in dense vegetation.

            Here in Utah, the chances of contracting Lyme disease are not as high as in other parts of the world, but there are plenty of other frightening maladies that ticks can carry. Should you find a tick on your person, don’t panic and try pulling it off with your bare fingers. You should pull the head and body out with a pair of tweezers, and carefully, because if the head or any mouthparts are left behind, it’s possible that any bacteria the tick was carrying could enter the small wound from the tick’s bite. Make sure to wash and disinfect the bite area thoroughly, and, just in case any unusual symptoms occur, keep the tick to give to a doctor. Good luck dodging those little blood-sucking fiends this year and remember to check yourself well after traveling through brush and thick vegetation.