I may be preaching to the converted but I thought I would post my recent experiences as food for thought for the coming summer weather and one of the few dangers we face in "getting out there".
A year or so ago a good friend of mine from Dartmoor (Ivan) contracted Lymes disease from a not-so-friendly tick. Whilst it bowled him off his feet at the time, he was the first person I had known to be hit by it and thankfully he recovered well.
This year it was my turn.
Several weeks back I noticed two large lumps between my shoulder blades which were a little bruised and looked to my wife like some sort of insect bites. I wasn't aware of being bitten at any point and duly ignored them.
Some 10 days later I came down with what I thought was Flu (man flu as the wife thought at the time). I managed to work through it for two days but on the third day I was incapacitated by debilitating head pains.
After spending a full night in agony which pain killers didn't touch, I made an emergency quacks appointment the following morning and was sent straight to hospital.
Whilst being drained of blood for testing and undergoing a CT scan, no amount of Morphine or analgesics dulled the pain and a Lumber Puncture soon followed.
Long story short is that I had/have contracted Lymes disease which resulted in Meningitis and has been an experience I don't want to repeat in a hurry.
As with many here, I have tick removers in my FAK but what I didn't have was a mirror of any sorts or did I ever bother to check myself for ticks on my back or nether regions whilst out.
I know not all ticks carry Lymes and for the ticks we can see it's not too difficult to remove them.
Mine were out of view and no doubt I squashed the critters when I sat back in the car to drive home.
I've learned a valuable lesson both for myself and my two girls when I take them out on camp.
Worth highlighting to people here anyway. Pack some tick removers and a mirror and make a periodic inspection of those hard to reach places on yourself and your kids.
Whilst I have many good bushcrafting buddies, I've no plans on asking them to check my derriere is free from ticks!
A year or so ago a good friend of mine from Dartmoor (Ivan) contracted Lymes disease from a not-so-friendly tick. Whilst it bowled him off his feet at the time, he was the first person I had known to be hit by it and thankfully he recovered well.
This year it was my turn.
Several weeks back I noticed two large lumps between my shoulder blades which were a little bruised and looked to my wife like some sort of insect bites. I wasn't aware of being bitten at any point and duly ignored them.
Some 10 days later I came down with what I thought was Flu (man flu as the wife thought at the time). I managed to work through it for two days but on the third day I was incapacitated by debilitating head pains.
After spending a full night in agony which pain killers didn't touch, I made an emergency quacks appointment the following morning and was sent straight to hospital.
Whilst being drained of blood for testing and undergoing a CT scan, no amount of Morphine or analgesics dulled the pain and a Lumber Puncture soon followed.
Long story short is that I had/have contracted Lymes disease which resulted in Meningitis and has been an experience I don't want to repeat in a hurry.
As with many here, I have tick removers in my FAK but what I didn't have was a mirror of any sorts or did I ever bother to check myself for ticks on my back or nether regions whilst out.
I know not all ticks carry Lymes and for the ticks we can see it's not too difficult to remove them.
Mine were out of view and no doubt I squashed the critters when I sat back in the car to drive home.
I've learned a valuable lesson both for myself and my two girls when I take them out on camp.
Worth highlighting to people here anyway. Pack some tick removers and a mirror and make a periodic inspection of those hard to reach places on yourself and your kids.
Whilst I have many good bushcrafting buddies, I've no plans on asking them to check my derriere is free from ticks!
