It's official. I have Lyme disease, I'm being treated for it. After a month of having a swollen knee that wasn't being healed by rest, ice, and elevation, the diagnosis came as a shock, but being able to treat it calms me down quite a bit. I'll have to avoid the sun and drink lots of water however, but it'll be worth it in the long run to be able to bend my knee again.
But for those of you wondering what Lyme disease is, you've come to the right place. Lyme disease was first discovered in Old Lyme, Connecticut in the 1970s and has since spread to much of the Eastern seaboard with the majority of the cases coming from the mid Atlantic states and southern New England. A key indicator of Lyme's presence can often be tied to the number of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) living in the area. Around Pennington, NJ, it can be said that there is an overabundance of deer with people being able to spot them almost nightly basis. Everywhere you go, their sign can be found ranging from scat, tracks, trails, and even their carcasses from a bad winter or coyote attack in the past. The deer themselves don't spread Lyme disease, but a parasite that targets them does.
Any outdoors lover will have heard of and interacted with ticks at some point. The most likely way people get Lyme disease is by being bitten by a deer tick (Ixodes scapularis). The best way to prevent this is to be vigilant and cautious. If you really don't want to be marauded by ticks, don't walk through tall grass or in areas with high deer numbers. However since most of the eastern seaboard has an overabundance of deer brought on by a lack of apex predators, an unwilling generation of children wanting to become hunters, and the continued "Bambification" of the American mindset towards wildlife (I've exaggerated the last one, but you hear it enough when you talk to city folk), the tactics change up a bit. The best way to avoid getting bitten is to give yourself regular tick checks after going through tick country. This will ensure that you find them crawling rather than imbedded and give you more time to remove them before they become a problem. While small, they are generally distinguished from freckles by the fact that they move and possess eight legs (they are arachnids after all). If you find them crawling, flicking them back into the grass is the best policy. However, if you feel the need to cripple them by removing the head with pliers or taking off their legs, be my guest.
The ecological part of me recognizes the importance of ticks in the environment. They provide food for other animals and spread disease that helps to manage populations of large ungulates. However, as an annoyed sufferer of Lyme, I instead wish them a harsh death and while I'm willing to compromise in that I'll put them back, they might not go back in one piece.
I realize this is more of a rant than a coherent argument put forth to protect oneself from Lyme disease, but to be honest, I'm annoyed that I wasn't able to get this over with quicker and be able to run at 100% again. I can at least feel thankful that I now have the meds to fight the bacterium spread by the biting freckles of the grass and woods. I'm just about done with it though and hope that things clear up for the better and I can get back to business as usual.
Have a great week everyone and enjoy the sunshine if you can. And if not sun, then rainshine will do just as well.
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