North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>]

Tuesday night found tick embedded on my shoulder, small tick.  Neighbor
had a go with tweezers pulling out the mouth left in, couldn't get it out.

18 months ago got an embedded tick on November 1, clearly was sick after finding the tick embedded 36 hrs., did antibiotic, don't want to do doxycycline antibiotic again if can avoid.  Antibiotic took lots of energy away from me I haven't regained yet.  Or, maybe it was whichever disease the tick then carried.

Now I read Lyme has 28-day cycle and any antibiotic administered less than 28 days will fail.  The tick 18 mos. ago had a clear "halo" circle around the bite, the first I'd ever seen, but this one now is just red from the bite out, without the "halo".  I don't feel good, but no fever, no terrible aches, slept well last night

I sent the tick to Imugen, Inc.
220 Norwood Park
Norwood, MA 02062
1-800-246-8436
$75/tick for species identification and testing for the bacteria that cause Lyme disease,

and I have the option of having my M.D. try to pull out what remains of the tick in my shoulder, but since its healed over I don't see the big advantage in that.

Obviously its time to adopt a lyme strategy, which for me is:
buy a better tick extractor   tickremover.com
Watch for symptoms
If rash appears, take antibiotic
If tick tests positive, take antibiotic

Have you thought out your strategy if you get a tick embedded more than 24 hours? [They say tick has to be embeeded at least 24 hrs. to transmit, and the lab tells me still only deer ticks carry lyme]

Charlie Paradise
Massachusetts