Sometimes the rash is atypical in appear- ance. An atypical rash will usually oc- cur around the place you were bitten and will often expand over time. Know that the rash, bulls-eye or atypical, if you get one, may be in an area on your body that you can’t see.
10. As many as half of people who get Lyme disease do not recall being bitten by a tick and do not recall a rash.
If you are infected, initial symptoms ap- pear anywhere from 2 to 30 days after you were bitten. Early symptoms are fl u-like (fatigue, aches, fever, etc.)
11. In the U.S., Lyme has been reported in all 50 states, though it’s most preva- lent in the North-east, Northwest, and Great Lakes area. If a person or doctor tells you that you can’t have Lyme because of the location that you are in, they are wrong. Also, deer ticks are active even during the winter. Black- legged ticks decrease activity only when the temperature drops below 35 degrees, or when the ground is snow- covered. For freezing temperatures to actually kill ticks, there must be a sustained number of days below 10 degrees F.
12. Pets can bring infected ticks into the home. They can also get Lyme disease.
13. If you fi nd a tick on your body, or on someone else, remove it properly and save the tick. A natural reaction of disgust is to toss it to the ground with the desire to squash it into oblivion. Don’t do that. When it comes to removal - think of a tick as a little germ-fi lled sack. Squeeze it too hard on its swollen back end, and all the germs get pushed out the mouthpart, which is embedded in your body (by the way, the part that is buried in your skin is not technically a head - ticks don’t actually have heads - what’s embedded is a barbed feeding tube). Using really pointy tweezers, grab the tick as close to your skin/tick’s mouth- part as you can, then pull directly out with steady pressure. Don’t use a hot match or Vaseline. Put the tick in a sealed plastic bag with a lightly water- dampened cotton ball. Testing the tick is way easier (and way more accurate) than testing your blood for signs of infection. One example is a product called TIC-KIT (
www.tic-kit.com) - it’s
affordable and easy to use. You should test any tick you fi nd on yourself or your family members.
14. A good recommendation is to carry a small, portable tick fi rst-aid kit with you. Included in this kit: pointy twee- zers, a small plastic bag, a few Band- Aids, a little container of green clay, and tincture of Andrographis panicu- lata. After removing the tick properly and placing in a plastic bag, apply a few drops of andrographis tincture at the site of the bite. Wet a small amount of green clay or bentonite clay with water and apply this paste to the bite. Wrap to hold in place. Keep in place for 12-24 hours. There is a decent amount of anecdotal evidence that this may decrease chances of becoming infected. When you get home, deposit the tick in the TIC-KIT and send in. Results are typically back in about 7 days. If you test positive for Lyme or a common co-infection, seek out a Lyme-literate practitioner.
15. Inform yourself about Lyme before seeing any practitioner. Advocate for yourself and your loved ones to get the best treatment.
Lauren Breau, MAcOM,
L.Ac, specializes in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Herbal Medi-cine at the Wildwood Health Center in Portland, Maine. She believes that the
practice of (good) medicine involves ac- knowledging inequity and fi ghting for social justice, and her desire to in-crease acces- sibility to acupuncture and herbal medicine lead her to help open Wildwood Com-mu- nity Acupuncture. For more information, visit:
www.wildwoodmedicine.com
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