Today’s guest blog is from one of our regulars, Danny Myers of Maryland, and it’s a must read:
I’ve always been relatively healthy. I would get a couple sinus infections every year, but other than that I almost never got sick.
This past March while at one of my daughter’s volleyball tournaments I got a dizzy spell out of nowhere. I thought it came from not eating breakfast so I grabbed one of her sports drinks with a snack and didn’t think too much of it.
I got a bad headache afterwards and asked my wife to drive me home. The headache continued for about 2 weeks and was similar to a sinus infection, so I went to an Urgent Care, got an antibiotic and thought I would get better.
About a month later I ended up back at Urgent Care, and then my wife encouraged me to go to my regular doctor. They did some blood tests and everything came back normal. (Including the third Lyme test I’d had since March). The doctor wrote it off as allergies and told me to add another allergy medication.
Another month and by this time I could barely climb out of bed. I was extremely dizzy, had horrible headaches, zero energy, every joint hurt in my body and I couldn’t sleep at night. Not to mention that I was stress eating along with no exercise and gained about 30 pounds.
My sister recommended a specialist in Lancaster, Pa. and thank God she did. After 4 months of pure hell I finally have some answers. She diagnosed me with Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
In the last 4 months these diseases have caused my Thyroid to almost stop working, my eyesight has diminished to the point I now need reading glasses and I have 5 or 6 other viruses/infections throughout my body. Even with all of this the specialist said I should consider myself lucky. I am now taking 20 pills per day to try and rid my body of all that is going on.
The thing is, I never found a tick on me. I never saw the bulls-eye rash you hear about. I never thought this type of thing would happen to me. I got complacent and stopped checking for ticks.
So to all my fellow hunters out there…. NEVER stop checking for ticks! If you find a tick stuck on you, go get the antibiotics ASAP. You don’t want the symptoms that occur if it goes untreated. And, if you do develop symptoms make sure you find a tick-borne specialist in your area. Family doctors aren’t knowledgeable on how to treat this disease. They are only trained to treat the symptoms not the disease itself.
I still have a long road ahead of me. But hopefully by September I’ll be able to take Lexi out for bow season to try and knock down another big buck.—Danny
If this doesn’t jolt you into rebooting your tick precaution routine, I don’t know what will. I’m been complacent about it this summer, but more.
Thanks, Danny, for the important message. Here’s to a speedy and full recovery.
