Tick Bite

[katbuad]

Was out hiking (actually geocaching) this past weekend. Despite the OFF! that we sprayed all over we brought home a lot of ticks. Immediately after taking off hiking close discovered one attached to shoulder. The next morning discovered another attached to the very back of my scalp in my hair. Since removing the ticks both areas have become red and ugly.

Yesterday woke up with a sore neck. (I don't feel bad, just a sore neck.) By lunch time all the lymp nodes along the back of my neck (not the ones in front of the artery) were all swollen and bumpy. Went to the Employee Health Clinic (oh what a Godsend!). The dr said that there has been no cases, yet, of Lyme Disease from a TN tick. He said that it was way too early, yet, to worry about Spotty Mountian Disease that it would take 6-8 weeks for flu like symptons from that to develope. He said that ticks carry lots of bacteria but that it usually takes 24hr or more of being attached to actually spread anything. He said that this is just a plan old bacterial infection. Wrote me a script for anitbotics, Cephalexin 500 mg 4x a day for 10 days.

The ticks are going to be really bad this year, in the south. My dogs are using Frontline and I haven't seen any on them. Wish I could use Frontline, too! Anybody have any tick bite information? Anything I should be looking out for? And what the heck can I use (better than OFF!) to use when we go hiking or camping?