Tick, tick, tick and we’re not talking about clocks

I was at the big box store the other day. I usually send Joe to get stuff there, but today I had to do my own dirty work. While I was there, Joe wanted me to get him a 24 pack of pop that was on sale. At first, I thought they were out but finally saw it and, of course, it was on the lowest possible shelf, there were only two boxes left and they were way in the back.

A nice woman noticed my distress, as I sighed and wondered out loud how I was going to get that pop. She offered to get it for me. But no, I wanted to do it myself. She stuck around to spot me as I dropped down and figured out if I moved a smaller box of pop in front of the pop I wanted, I could gently drop the big box on top of the smaller one and scoot it to the edge of the shelf.

I got the pop and ungracefully made my way up from the floor and back to the cart.

“This was easier before I got bit by a tick,” I commented on the way up. “I have been having trouble since spring.”

Ticks are small, blood-sucking arachnids, in the same family as spiders and scorpions, that are mostly found in grassy, wooded or brush-filled areas, but they can be anywhere. A pet might bring them into your house too. Some ticks carry diseases and while feeding on your blood can transmit those diseases to you. They are sneaky and can be difficult to spot.

The woman looked alarmed. This was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and she had just skillfully pulled an embedded tick off her husband the day before.

I was shocked because by now, I would have hoped those evil ticks had mostly vanished for the cold weather season.

I gave her a brief overview of what happened to me. I have been wanting to write this column for a while but wanted to wait until I was cured. That has not happened yet.

I found a tick crawling on my arm one night in late April. It wasn’t the tick that got me though; I never saw that tick. A few days later, I was sick enough to head to the doctor’s office, we didn’t talk “tick” while I was there. Never gave it a thought, there was a virus going around. I did end up on antibiotics that seemed to help.

Fast forward to mid-June. I started to get what felt like arthritis in my legs. By mid-July it had spread to every muscle. I changed an over-the-counter medication I was taking with that possible side effect and hoped it would go away.

Then I noticed these strange Pac-Man like shapes were going across my eyes and a short time afterward, I would get the start of a headache then it would immediately go away. Time to call the doctor.

I took a 10-day course of antibiotics, after which I was good for a week. Then I took a 21-day course of antibiotics, after which I was great for a week.

More recently at yoga class, I discovered I could no longer do a few of the poses I had been able to do. Now, I’m on a 30-day course of antibiotics and will be taking a couple other things this time around that reportedly work well for kicking long-term tick-related illnesses.

I’ll give you another update/warning in the spring, but for now just in time for this joyful holiday season, I’m going to spread some hatred – I hate ticks.