(Apologies to all those on Twitter, who’ve already heard all this 🙂 )
Short and sweet this one, folks.
On Tuesday this week, despite the fact that winter is supposed to be here, Geoff was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. He has a very beautiful rash covering half of his left leg, and is now on antibiotics (with no alcohol at all!) for two weeks.
We do not remember him having a tick bite, but there has obviously been one. You can still see the mark from the bite in the middle of the rash, in fact. However, this obviously points to the fact that it could have been fairly recently, which in turn hints to the fact that ticks are still active and have not gone off to hibernate – or whatever it is they do in the winter. So, be aware!
Geoff had been having a few random, nondescript symptoms that could have been anything – headaches for example – but it wasn’t until the rash appeared that all the pieces fell into place. If you are interested, go to google images for what the rash looks like, it’s fairly unmistakable.
There is also another blogger who has done a post about his experiences with Lyme Disease, which is well worth a read. See here. Amongst other things, this article tells us that ticks can still be active in temperatures as low as 3.5C.
Anyway, just thought I’d bring it to your attention – forewarned is forearmed as they say – so take care out there!
PS
James has requested a photo but we haven’t got a good one of Geoff’s rash. However, it was just like this only the outer circle got much bigger. It maybe had a diameter of about 20cm and was so large it wrapped right around his leg:
Dixie 
Thanks for the heads up on that Chrissie. It is something I would not even have considered at this time of the year.
Hope that Geoff makes a full recovery.
No booze for a fortnight! Does that mean that you have to drink his share of it????
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Hi Dawn, no we wouldn’t have though of it at this time of year either. In fact, we only tend to Frontline the dogs against ticks from March to October.
Thanks for your good wishes. Thankfully, he doesn’t really seem to be suffering and hopefully it can only improve anyway, now he’s taking the drugs.
Never thought of me drinking all his booze, as I don’t drink anyway! (Well, very rarely….!) It would be a great excuse though if I did 😀
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Thanks for sharing this Chrissie. Geoff is in some ways lucky he developed a rash. A friend of mine got this disease and she did not have a rash at all. She knew something was up and suspected Lyme disease, but she had quite a time getting a doctor to listen. It was only when she developed much more severe symptoms of the illness (headaches and extreme fatigue, coupled with swollen glands in her groin) that she insisted on a test which came back positive.
I suspect the warm autumn means ticks will have been active for longer than usual.
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No problem David.
We were already aware that a fair percentage of people don’t develop the rash and have said ourselves that in a funny kind of way Geoff was lucky to get it! It’s a shame your friend had such a hard time getting a doctor to take notice. Our GP is very switched on, and he did once give me the necessary antibiotics some years back when there was a possibility I might have had it – even though I didn’t have a rash and even though I had been tested and it came back negative. That’s the other thing that’s worth mentioning I suppose, that the test is apparently notoriously unreliable, so if you’ve got circumstantial ‘evidence’ and symptoms, you still might have it even with a negative result!
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Sorry to hear about Geoff. Send him my regards. Missed the stuff on Twitter as racing around on last minute work things. Ticks obviously can be active in quite cool weather by the looks of it. Terry Abraham picked up a tick when we were up in Scotland together despite waking up to snow ( wild camp) at the end of the winter a few years ago. So people be aware.
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Thanks Mark, I’ll pass your regards on 🙂
It’s funny, but we normally have quite a selection of ticks on the dogs over the summer months, but this year we’ve had hardly any – and then this happens!
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Nasty! Like everyone else I thpugh ticks were a summer pest. Horrid little beasties
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They are disgusting, aren’t they?
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Only realized a few months that they are arachnids, same family as spiders. That explains a lot!
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You didn’t have to tell me that; that’s made them ten times worse!
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They’re a real hazard here at home, but, like you, we tend to think of them as a summer problem. I suppose the extra clothing we wear in the colder months probably makes it harder to get in to bite.
Sorry to hear about Geoff, hope he makes a swift recovery.
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Thanks Mark 🙂 I suppose Geoff might now think about his predisposition to wearing shorts at every available opportunity 😀
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OMG! That’s awful Chrissie – I hope he makes a full recovery too. It’s a good job he got the rash though and it was caught early – I think that makes all the difference. Not a great time for him not to be able to drink for 2 weeks though is it?
Carol.
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Thanks Carol 🙂 Yes, the rash is so distinctive and such a good indicator, you do actually want to get it if you’ve picked up the lurgy!
And poor Geoff, we had to spend time looking at all the different flavours of Schloer and other soft drinks in Tesco yesterday! I don’t think he was particularly impressed by the idea of drinking any of them………
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All the Schloers are really nice
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We’ve just had a Rose Schloer tonight – I’m looking forward to trying the Elderflower one 😀
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Thanks for sharing this and the link to Peak Rambler. We cannot have too much information on this subject. I will mention Permethrin here for any readers to check out. I don’t think it has been mentioned within any of the articles. Hope Geoff recovers without any problems.
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No problem, Alan 🙂 I think you’re right, we all need to be armed with as much information as possible about the disease. We’ve not used Permethrin at all although I was aware of it. I know that James at backpackingbongos has though.
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I picked up a tick a couple of years ago in Scotland in Feb so they are obviously still a risk. Hope Geoff makes a good recovery. Any photos of the rash?
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Haven’t got a good one of Geoff’s rash, but I’ve just added one to the end of the post that is just like it, only smaller.
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