Poopy. We only have a lemon...and it's old! ha ha haaaaa! I used it anyways.
I remember being quite young and hearing about Lyme disease. Either through my parents watching the news, seeing headlines on the newspapers, and half listening to adults around me talk about it. Only half listening, because as a kid you are not REALLY listening to what the adults are even talking about. You hear select words in between the imaginary world you are, at that particular moment in. Well...I for one was always pretending to be somewhere else than where I was. I had a fantastic imagination as a child...I lived all over the world and at times even visited so many cool places in Outer Space. Sometimes some of my memories are so vivid of places I've seen and things I've done...almost as if I really did live in Africa. Like the time I lived in Antarctica for a few months (spending hours in my big snow drift fort home in the backyard...playing with my handmade snow toys and building proper nooks and "shelves" on which to place my household possessions) with my sled dog Anika. Anika was a great dog...Alaskan Malamute. She came from a dude who had a sled team...but she was more interested in socializing than being a sled dog. So we got her...oh beautiful Anika. Anyhow...Lyme disease. Which,back then, I believed was "Lime Disease". I think that I just thought it was spelled funny because it was now inside your actual bloody body. The whole thing just made me not like limes. I was pretty much grossed out by them. I would just say they were too sour for me. I didn't even realize that they aren't really that sour. Keep the lime away from me I felt. Yet, I could eat lemons any old day. The lemon I currently am drinking in my club soda tastes gross. I think it is a bit too old...kind of an almost rotty lemon taste. Not so nice. Okay...Lyme disease. I found out later, in my teens that it was a disease caused by Deer Ticks. And, that you can die from a tick bite. Well for quite a few years after that I was afraid when I was at the lake or in a park, that I would get a tick on me. I remembered how I once did find a tick on my thigh when I was about 8 years old. That tick got on me from walking through tall grass. I never got a bite from it...no evidence of one. So I was convinced that I would be okay. Still, I was leery of ticks for a few years back then.
Last week, my girlfriend told me that the mother of her good friend from growing up is dying from Lyme disease. First time I have heard about the disease in a VERY long time. And a horrible new introduction to it. How sad is that? She gets a tick bite in the Nanaimo region and now is dying from Lyme disease. Terrible. So...last night I am flipping through the TV channels and see a documentary about Lyme Disease. Wow is all I can say. There are a ton of people who are infected and subsequently affected by it. Here is the "Wikipedia" definition of Lyme Disease...
"Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. Borrelia is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected ticks belonging to a few species of the genus Ixodes ("hard ticks").[5] Early symptoms may include fever, headache, fatigue, depression, and a characteristic circular skin rash called erythema migrans. Left untreated, later symptoms may involve the joints, heart, and central nervous system. In most cases, the infection and its symptoms are eliminated by antibiotics, especially if the illness is treated early.[6] Delayed or inadequate treatment can lead to the more serious symptoms, which can be disabling and difficult to treat.[7] Lyme disease is a biosafety level 2 disease."It is named after the town of Lyme, Connecticut where the first of many cases were identified back in 1975. It's not a real old disease. So you got to wonder about that. Did we (humans) create it somehow?? Many people actually suffer from it...chronically. There has been a very recent finding that the Borrelia parasite sometimes can birth a like super charged virus inside your body and can not be gotten rid of by the common anti-bacterial meds that infected persons are put on. And when you get it that bad it just takes your life from you. There was a teen aged girl who was a ballerina her whole life. And suddenly one day she couldn't properly walk. She just started to almost shrivel up. She was bound to a wheelchair...had to be fed by her parents...couldn't dress herself. She looked to me like someone who suffers from very severe cerebral palsy...not an infected tick bite. But, she was lucky enough to see a specialist in Lyme disease that got her on the right meds. The last clip they showed of her she was walking down a sunny hall...she was smiling. That was so beautiful to see. The most horrible part of this documentary to me was the fact that these wonderful Dr's, who do specialize in Lyme Disease and have the methods to give someone their life back...these Dr's are being sued by the American Medical Assoc and going bankrupt having to shut their doors. The AMA have not believed in Lyme Disease as a chronic one. They think the patients are making up their symptoms...they call them psychosomatic cases. Mean while...these "patients" are slowly dying with a parasite that is taking over the function of their bodies. How is it in your mind when you lose function of your appendages, bowels, nervous system, sight, inability to swallow or breathe...everything that allows us to live.
I don't know. The doc made me feel very sad. And again...frightened of ticks. The new evidence supporting chronic Lyme Disease hopefully gets the Dr's their licences back and helps the others win their cases to be allowed to continue treating the people affected...the "patients" that they truly do care for. The one guy had a photo of each of his patients on his wall. There were probably about 200 photos. What amazing Dr's they all are. Still continuing to help while going through hell in the court system because of their need to help others get well. We live in such a crazy world. And even crazier...I saw a headline today about Lyme Disease. I think it was in the National Post. Anyways...I think even more that I have to make sure I don't get bit by a tick. And I will have to be more careful when pulling ticks out of dogs. Something I actually enjoy doing...I know...gross. So...do animals get Lyme Disease?? Yikes!
Enough of talk about ticks. It is just on my mind today so I felt the need to write about it to get it out of my head. ;o) Anyways...the clock is a 'tick'ing and I need to get off the comp. May you be tick free!
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