May 14, 2008 5:07 PM
More than I wanted to know about ticks - but I guess we need to - *sigh*
I got a call from Daniel's teacher today because they found a tick behind his left ear.
They wanted to let me know that they were sending it home in a ziploc bag inside a jar (now that's thorough!) and I should get it tested to see if it was carrying Lyme Disease so I could avoid treatment for Daniel.
Okay, so I'm starting from scratch here. We've picked ticks off our kids now and then and I never had a tick tested. But what do I know? Maybe I truly AM the negligent mother in my worst moments I think I am.
So I call my doctor to find out where I get a tick tested and what to do about my son. The nurse says, "Circle today on your calendar. If he develops a fever anytime in the next 12 days, call us." She also says there is no place they know of to test a tick.
Okay, but the school is involved, and so I have to cover all bases.
I call the Loudoun County Health Department - environmental health division - and leave a message. Praying they will call me back today so I don't have to send Daniel back with a cloud over his head. Remember, when it comes to school and Daniel's health, there've been issues :)
In the meantime, the tick comes home in Daniel's backpack, wrapped in a manner to make Hazmat proud.
I look at the tick. The tick looks at me. Daniel kicks off his shoes and socks, oblivious to the drama. The phone rings.
The nicest man in the world – well, you know what I mean with that easy-go-lucky Loudoun guy accent - begins to reassure me that there's really not much to worry about. Which is good because he said there just aren't many places to test a tick. And that if I happened to find one it would cost 75.
And I don't think our health plan - rightly or wrongly - would consider the tick as a dependent.
But I'm a writer and Douglas Hubbard is a guy who knows everything about ticks, so by the time I got off the phone, I knew enough to qualify as an etymologist myself.
So here’s the scoop for all the moms like me – and the mom I was hanging with at Justin’s soccer practice Tuesday who’d picked five off her toddlers when they came in for dinner the night before:
There are different kinds of ticks. Only the black-legged tick – which we now call the deer tick - carries Lyme disease.
Mr. Hubbard took me on a tour of several sites to look at pictures of ticks. Here is the one he liked the best:
We teleconferenced on the tick in the baggie. I got my magnifying glass and determined that Daniel had had a skirmish with a plain old dog tick. Mr. H. said that meant no Lyme disease.
Also, the tick was tiny and flat, which indicated that it couldn’t have been on Daniel very long. Ticks are S-L-O-W feeders and according to Mr. H, a tick would need to be attached for 30 hours to transmit the dreaded Lyme.
I liked this guy, who was making me feel not only more informed, but safer by the minute. More equipped to send Daniel back to school with a note that covered all bases.
I asked Mr Hubbard if there were more ticks this year than usual – which is what all the moms at soccer were saying Tuesday.
Yep, he said. Last year’s dry summer followed by a mild winter had resulted in a higher population of fleas. “Life is good,” he concluded – I assume he meant from a flea’s point of view.
I asked how long he’d been keeping track of fleas for Loudoun County: “Probably longer than you’ve been alive.” Heh. Little did he know I also have grandchildren Daniel’s age :)
We wrapped up our conversation with this advice: Write the date on the plastic bag and save the tick. Watch for the characteristic bullseye rash – but keeping in mind that only 50% of tick victims get it.
If Daniel gets flu-like symptoms in a week to 14 days, “Take the tick and the child to the doctor.”
That’s just in case I read the diagram wrong and the tick in the ziplock bag in the hermetically sealed jar sitting by my computer keyboard is the dreaded deer tick.
Which I’m sure it isn’t.
But why am I itching all over?
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Comments
Haha, you gave me a laugh ...much needed! Hope there are no symptoms and that you win the tick-staring contest. :)
Posted by: Leilani | May 15, 2008 12:09 AM
I have picked three ticks off of one daughter in the past two weeks. One bit in deep, had been feeding (it was well into her hair), one just "there", and the last one had bit, but not been there long--was still flat, like Daniel's. I did check her out, and she appeared to have a rash from the first bite, but because it was deep on her scalp, it was hard to tell.
We just moved here to OK from NC last month, so I didn't know that Lyme is not the problem here that it is in the eastern US--here, it is Rocky Mth Spotted Fever. A whole new thing for me to learn about...but I took her to the dr anyway. And kept the tick, just in case they wanted to test it (now I know not to bother. Thanks!).
Living in the country does have its downsides, that's for sure!
Hope Daniel is fine and has no problems from this.
Posted by: Rachel | May 15, 2008 12:59 AM
Rachel -
I am supposed to save the tick in case Daniel develops symptoms. Then I guess they send it out for tick-testing.
Why did God make thee horrible creatures anyway?
just a rhetorical question....
Posted by: barbara | May 15, 2008 5:31 AM
Barbara,
I have fished out 2 from my son in the last week. Your article has made me chuckle. His first tick, it took me 45 minutes to fish the head out of his neck. Needless to say, when we found the second one yesterday, he was NOT happy. It came out much easier. They are awful!
Posted by: Sarah | May 15, 2008 8:25 AM
An awesome summary which gave me a much-needed laugh. We've been to the doctor once already for a tick bite - thankfully the horrid reaction our daughter was having was allergenic and not Lymes or any of the other scary tick diseases.
I've been asking the same kind of question of God...
I've never seen so many ticks!
Posted by: Kari | May 15, 2008 9:57 AM
Where I live, you can bring a tick to the county Mosquito Commission to be tested. Cost -- $25. You must bring it in person. Two of my little boys had tick bites last December.
Posted by: SueB | May 15, 2008 11:30 AM
I remember rushing my eldest son to the doctors after he developed a rash and high temperature the day after coming home from a forest walk with three ticks on his abdomen.
Being as we live in the UK, the tick I saved was tested for free, it was a deer tick ,but ,fortunately no Lyme Disease, little David had just gone down with tonsilitis.
Hope Daniel continues to do well and has no problems from this....must say I found out the area we were walking in was renowned for being "ticky" so we've avoided it ever since!
Posted by: Sue | May 15, 2008 5:13 PM
