why i sleep with my underwear on.....

i woke up yesterday to a horrific pain in the back of my leg. 

when i reached down to touch the area that was screaming, my hand grazed over something small and hard. my first thought was that i must have been bitten by a spider and what i was feeling was perhaps a dried scab. the pain became worse while my fingers were investigating, so i jumped out of bed and grabbed a mirror. what i saw horrified me. i had a large mottled red area above the back of knee and in the center of it was a deer tick. 

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deer ticks are tiny. 

tiny, about the size of a dot, with black legs. i quickly grabbed my tweezers and removed him while reeling in pain. instantly, after cleaning the area with rubbing alcohol,  i was on my computer searching everything under "deer tick/tick bites/lyme disease." 

the number of pages with information overwhelmed me.

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amazingly some people get deer tick bites and never feel a thing. i'm not one of those people. 

i also read that finding a deer tick on you that's only been visiting and found in the 24 hour range makes a huge difference compared to those that aren't found for 48 to 72 hours.

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as soon as my doctor's office was open, i ran there. with my tick in an envelope.

unfortunately, as if my day wasn't bad enough already,

a police officer caught me "running there" and slapped me with a speeding ticket.

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{let's take a moment here so i can tell you that i have been driving for thirty one years and that that speeding ticket is the ONLY ticket i have ever gotten. no parking tickets, no failure to yield tickets, no inattentive driving tickets...etc. nada, nothing. no tickets for me. except for now}

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once my doctor took a look, she gave me a heavy one day dose of doxycycline. 

that's the antibiotic they give you when battling lyme disease. 

she thinks i'm in the clear because of the 24 hour ruling, 

but i have to watch myself and keep notes. in six weeks, even if i have absolutely no symptoms of lyme disease, they recommend a blood test.

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my leg continued to hurt all day yesterday. 

by last night the bite area had the true bullseye look to it and was finally feeling a bit better. this morning, the bullseye is gone, but the area {the size of a nickel} is strawberry red and is still tender.

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so now this is where i back up just a bit. 

sunday i was in the woods. 

taking photos of the wild violets that grow on the hills behind our cottage.

i had on jean capris with a rolled cuff {wrong} and my all around slip on mesh trek shoes {wrong} because i was out there to clean, not hike. 

but with the warm weather, everything is "early" this year including the violets and i wanted to get up there and welcome them like i usually do.

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i wasn't thinking. usually if i'm in the woods, i'm in tick mode. 

long pants. socks. my hiking boots. bug spray. 

and then a full body check and a shower when i'm done. 

unfortunately i did none of those things. my mind just wasn't in the right mind set. it's only march.

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they say ticks like warm and soft areas, including the groin.

all i know, from what i read, is that my tiny deer tick used my body as it's own personal landscape, 

taking all day to decide where to settle down, 

and since he didn't decide on a spot until i was sound asleep,

well thank god i had my underwear on.

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