Tick Talk

I like to change into my pajamas after work. As I do most evenings, I got home, did a few chores, and went upstairs to clad myself in flannel. Except I wasn't alone. Apparently I've attraced a little buddy. You might know him as a tick. At first I thought I had the world's most disgusting skin tag, but no, it was a big fat tick. Attached to my back. I had to call downstairs to Brooke. "Um, honey? Can you please turn off the stove (hey, just because I have a parasite feasting on me, I'm not going to throw safety out the window) and come upstairs?"

I proceeded to clean the tweezers with alcohol (don't want to give the tick an infection!) and then Brooke went to work getting the stubborn bastard out. The only problem was that there's a little bit of the tick head or something still in there. She tried digging around (about as much fun as it sounds) but it just seemed to go deeper. I didn't know if leaving a little piece of tick in there was bad. Would it work its way out? How should I know?

I went online to see if my HMO had one of those services where you can call and talk to a nurse to see if the situation can wait until morning, or if it would resolve itself. Apparently my particular HMO does not offer this service. They had a link to WebMD, which tells you how to remove a tick, but not what to do if you don't remove all of the tick. Okay. So I call my doctor's office (which is closed by now, of course). I just want to know if this needs to get right out to avoid infection, or if I can just wait. The message instructs me to call this number to talk to the physician on call. I call the number and am told that my doctor is the one on call, and that she will call me back. I think that was about 2 hours ago. Maybe she's busy sewing limbs back on a patient, and can't be bothered with the Tick Without a Face. Or maybe she's up in the doctor's lounge smoking crack. Well, probably not. Being that my back hasn't fallen off, I think I'll just wait until morning. I think a good hour of Grey's Anatomy will take my mind off things...who is that hot new doctor? Can she remove my tick?


Special Tick Update:
I got in to see my doctor at 11:45 am. This happened to coincide with my gym schedule, so instead of going to the gym, I decided to ride my bike to the doctor's office (it's about 4 miles roundtrip from where I work). Even after a slightly sketchy ride across a bridge under construction, my blood pressure was at a nice 114/70. Hooray! But I was not there for a blood pressure checkup, so no gold star for me.

As it turns out, the type of tick I was bitten by was not the bad, Lyme-disease ridden tick (deer tick = bad). She said to slap some Neosporin on it and call her if it swells or gets redder than it is.

I find it interesting that our dogs have been tick-free this season (knock on wood veneer), but I'm the one who ends up with one stuck in my back.

FYI, for those who are interested... I've read folks saying to burn the tick out or twist it. According to many lyme-related sites (as well as poison control sites), burning a tick, smearing it with Vaseline, and "unscrewing it" are old-fashioned methods and can do more harm than good. The risk with those methods are that they often cause the tick's mouthparts (which can contain disease) to be left in the skin. The other danger is that the tick will likely vomit (especially with the burning and the jelly assault tactics) right into your skin, and the tick vomit will go right on into your bloodstream. So if you don't want tick puke, resist the urge to smear. Or light on fire. Or light on fire and smear. Whatever your preference.