May is Tick Awareness Month

[dado potato]

Tick Awareness month has only 4 days to go!

Fun Fact: some ticks that carry disease are the size of poppy seeds.

http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/index.html

[iris lilies]

I’m aware of Ticks I’ve already had two this year.

edited to make sense!!!

[Alan]

I’m aware of Texas I’ve already had two this year.

Texas is pretty big, where do you keep it all?

[Tybee]

I really hate ticks. Along with mosquitos, they are the bane of summer existence. My husband got an alphagal protein allergy from a tick bite. He almost died eating a hamburger.

[iris lilies]

Texas is pretty big, where do you keep it all?

oh yeesh, endless typos.

And even when I typed out carefully “yeesh” the software wrote “eyeshadow”

I need smarter software.

[JaneV2.0]

That's it! No more yard work for me!

[Tybee]

Oh, eyeshadow! That is such a great expletive.

[catherine]

My daughter wound up with tick paralysis when she was only 3. We had been to party at a friend's house, which was surrounded by woods. The next day, she called to me, "Mom, help me get dressed." So I asked her "Why can you get dressed yourself?" (Reference birth order thread--I fully expected my youngest--a 3-year old-- to pick out her outfit and dress herself).

Her nonchalant answer, "I can't walk."

I grabbed her and her legs were like jelly. I called my DH who called the doctor right away. Before we left, I thought to brush her hair into a pony tail and in the process found a tick. I asked DH if we should remove it and he said, no, let's just show the doctor.

Long story short, the doctor said the tick had nothing to do with it, it was ataxia. He removed the tick and admitted her to the hospital.

When she started regaining strength in her legs, the neurologist determined that the paralysis was from a rare neurotoxin transmitted by that tick.

I have always thought, what would have happened if I hadn't brushed her hair into a pony tail?? From what I read, the neurotoxin causes progressive paralysis and ultimately death.

[Teacher Terry]

So lucky Catherine.

[iris lilies]

catherine, wow! Scary indeed.

I found another tick on my stomach yesterday. It didn’t even have blood in it. I can’t believe I got it here in the city but we have ticks all over Hermann. I wonder when it hitched the ride and how long has it been hanging there because I’ve been home a few days.