sluggo 40 #1 Posted August 8, 2016 Here is my wild story: I got a bite by a tick around May 1, 2014. Never saw the bite, don't remember getting bit. Collapsed twice, spent five days in ICU, with complete heart block, bradycardia with a pulse rate of 35 beats per minute. In the ER they put AED pads on me IV antibotics seemed to fix the heart block, got back to work for four hours, starting having the most intense chills of my life, back to hospital, spent another week in quarantine, diagonosed with lyme, ehrchliosis and the flu. Lost twenty pounds. Returned to work and started having heart block again, I don't think I could walk more than fifty feet at a time, so the doctor put in a pacemaker on July 17, 2014. Feel great now. Pretty wild huh? All from a FN tick. Bath in bug spray, folks. Ciao. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DougC 2,641 #2 Posted August 8, 2016 Glad you got to the feel great now stage sluggo. We are fighting Legionnaires disease in my neck of the woods here in Iowa. You never know what's coming for ya these days. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
roadapples 6,983 #3 Posted September 1, 2016 Didn`t see this before, hope you`re doing well. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DennisThornton 4,769 #4 Posted September 1, 2016 Good lord man! Lyme can present in SO many ways! We've had dogs with it so I know it's around. Even thought I had it once but the test was negative. Got bit twice this spring but no further issues... Hope you get rid if it and all the symptoms! Very scary disease! 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sluggo 40 #5 Posted September 2, 2016 Thanks, guys. It was crazy. Lyme is a plague in SW Virginia. I am lucky, the pacemaker is the only lasting issue for me. My buddy has had major memory issues, my boss's daughter can no longer work and almost everyone I meet has a family member that has been affected. I am infection free and also had an angioplasty a year ago, so I feel better than I have in ten years. Funny thing is, that my Lyme test came back negative. The epidemiologist and cardiologist determined it was Lyme because my dogs had ticks, the docs worked with previous cases of Lyme carditis, so my symptoms were consistent with those previous cases. Had I dropped dead, the doctors would have assumed that I was a 50 year old man who had a heart attack, and as an organ donor, I could have infected another dozen people. That part is what disturbs me the most. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ACman 7,618 #6 Posted September 2, 2016 (edited) @sluggo glad you're feeling better , hope you can get pass the pasemaker issue . Ticks are no joke . When my daughter was 4 or 5 she came down with a super high fever and broke out in a red rash . When we took her to the hospital the rash and fever were gone . This happened three times in a row (they started thinking we were crazy) , they ran all sorts of tests . At one point they said mono . Finally got a picture of the rash (before camera phones) . Wife started searching internet and came across this article on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever , and the symptoms fit the bill . Went back to hospital and demanded a test . They told us no it cost to much and there's not many cases in the whole country , let alone a case in Michigan . We told them we were in Wyoming two weeks before this started happening . Well they ended up running the test and it came back positive . This is caused by bacteria infected tick . If not caught within like 5 days of symptoms , can be fatal . It's treatable with a strong antibiotics . Thank god for the wife , being the way she is . Edited September 3, 2016 by ACman 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
