Omg...i Might Be On To Something

[Rachel--24]

  rinne said:

I think your new avatar shows that you have matured to the point of safely exercising lunacy. Congratulations.

[happygirl]

x

[CarlaB]

Rachel, I like the avatar.

[Rachel--24]

Laura,

Thanks for the explanation about eos.

I went to the mailbox...there was a big fat envelope from Igenix ...OMG...I was suprised by how fast I tore it open.

It was only the stuff I need to send to insurance...no test results.

  CarlaB said:

Rachel, I like the avatar.

Do you think I could have put myself at risk like this though??

[CarlaB]

  Rachel--24 said:

Do you think I could have put myself at risk like this though??

Uh, I think just where you were put you at risk ... now you've got me thinking ... all my step-father's family lived out in the country ... so did we for a while, and that's when I got lots and lots of ticks ... but one of his relatives had a "pet" deer!!! It actually lived inside the house when it was small!!! After it grew, it lived outside in a pen. I think he rescued it. I was going to say I had never fed a deer, but I have!

[Rachel--24]

Oh...my friend tells everyone at my work that I got Lyme Disease because I was petting deer and one of them bit me.

Thats NOT what happened though.

[AndreaB]

  Rachel--24 said:

I'm gonna take a walk to the mailbox later...maybe there will be some Igenix results in there. My blood was drawn on the 4th....so its been over 2 weeks now.

I'm gonna call you in awhile ok??

My first comment you answered below.

Been there done that.....phone call.

  Rachel--24 said:

What do you guys think of my new avatar??

This is when I started getting sick...BUT....I had the dental work done this same week...a few days before my camping trip. 3 months after this picture...I was on disability.

There was a CRAZY amount of deer at our campsite. They came before I started feeding them....people must have already been feeding them so they knew what they wanted.

I have more pics...will put up another one later....you will be shocked.

Maybe I got bit again and got another infection......maybe it tipped the scales??

Love it. Deer are sooooo cute. Just wish they didn't carry those ticks around everywhere.

  Rachel--24 said:

It was only the stuff I need to send to insurance...no test results.

Do you think I could have put myself at risk like this though??

Bummer.

I don't know if the ticks would jump that far. Didn't you say the bite was on your shoulder? If the deer were around the area so much then the larvae etc could have been all around. That seems highly likely. Of course I'm waiting to be shocked by the next picture. Did you give a deer a hug or something?

Off to watch some more of Oz.

[Rachel--24]

  CarlaB said:

Uh, I think just where you were put you at risk ... now you've got me thinking ... all my step-father's family lived out in the country ... so did we for a while, and that's when I got lots and lots of ticks ... but one of his relatives had a "pet" deer!!! It actually lived inside the house when it was small!!! After it grew, it lived outside in a pen. I think he rescued it. I was going to say I had never fed a deer, but I have!

Whenever I tried to find out about Lyme cases in this area...I couldnt find much...so thats another reason I kind of gave up on Lyme. I dont think I'm in a "hot spot" for Lyme or anything.....heck I've never even *seen* a tick. There are sooo many times I could've been at risk though. I've camped my entire life...probably since I was like 3 years old. I've always been in environments like whats in the picture.

Two of my friends got poison oak on this camping trip...I was feeling pretty darn lucky that I didnt have poison oak...it did NOT look fun. Looks like I got something way worse though.

I'm sure I had it before this camping trip though...who knows....maybe I've been exposed more than once.

[dlp252]

  jerseyangel said:

Hi Donna Hugs back to you!

I can relate to the antibiotics/prednisone and the "sinus infections" Are we really sure we didn't have the same doctor? You know, maybe a bi-coastal one

I've often thought that we all must see the same doctors, they really do start to sound so similar!

  AndreaB said:

Donna,

I am so glad to hear that your sinus problems got better going gluten/casein free. I would have hated to be on meds that much.

Hugs and

It was awful! They had lost track of how much I'd taken them because my file was so thick it was hard to go back (kind of like this thread, lol). I had to compile a list of all the dates he prescribed (or his nurse gave me) the meds...when he saw the list he said "that's too much." Uh, yah. Now, I must say that I LOVED this doctor because he at least tried to help me figure out what was going on...he's the one who had me try the candida diet and did a clinical trial with me for thyroid meds and candida meds (I know, it sounds odd, but he really was trying to help). He finally had to admit he didn't know why I was still getting so sick...he thought that my allergies were driving all the sinus issues, but after 3 years on allergy shots I wasn't getting any better and we were never able to reduce the number of shots I was getting.

[CarlaB]

Never seen a tick ... that is soooo far beyond my comprehension!

I have gotten poison oak, it's terrible, much worse than poison ivy! With poison ivy I just get a little rash, but every time I get poison oak it seems to be a systemic infection as I get it everywhere! If it was from scratching, that would happen with poison ivy ... I don't know what happens, but it's horrible. When we lived in the country the past few years (till this past June), I didn't get off the driveway except to go to the pond because every time I did, I got poison oak, even in January!

But, you're right, I'd rather have poison oak than Lyme.

[dlp252]

  Rachel--24 said:

I wonder about the co-infection test?? If I *have* co-infections...does this prove Lyme Disease? Can I have co-infections and *not* have Lyme?? Obviously my Dr. would know....but I dont wanna wait till Dec 4th.

No, no, you must know before December 1st, lol. I'll be gone on Dec. 4th. My friend has cruised so often with this line that she gets free INternet access, but I still don't think I'll have enough time to check in very often...there's always a huge amount of people wanting to use the computers...but I'll try to check on around the 4th just in case.

  Rachel--24 said:

What do you guys think of my new avatar??

This is when I started getting sick...BUT....I had the dental work done this same week...a few days before my camping trip. 3 months after this picture...I was on disability.

There was a CRAZY amount of deer at our campsite. They came before I started feeding them....people must have already been feeding them so they knew what they wanted.

I have more pics...will put up another one later....you will be shocked.

Maybe I got bit again and got another infection......maybe it tipped the scales??

Wahhhh!!! I can't see the new picture...I've tried refresh and I still have the jet ski here at home. My computer at work will show the new one...why does that happen, lol.?

[Rachel--24]

  AndreaB said:

I don't know if the ticks would jump that far. Didn't you say the bite was on your shoulder?

The bite that I had and the flu-like symptoms didnt occur after this camping trip....it was two years before this trip that I had those symptoms. But it was after THIS trip that I started getting sick. There was no bite or flulike symptoms after this trip. However there WAS the dental work...probably a couple days before this picture was taken I had gotten the amalgams removed.

I dont know if the amalgam removal triggered something or if I got another bite that caused more infection but was never "noticed" on my body.

[DingoGirl]

Rachel love the new avatar. And no, agreeing w/ Carla, it was your location, feeding the deer wouldn't have put you any more at risk, I think.....not ALL the ticks are on the deer, many are just floating around. Remember, we hiked all the time in Garrapata, no deer on those trails (too steep) but tons of ticks. Of course, those were dog ticks and not deer ticks.....oops.... maybe I don't know what I'm talking about here.....

  CarlaB said:

I have gotten poison oak, it's terrible, much worse than poison ivy! With poison ivy I just get a little rash, but every time I get poison oak it seems to be a systemic infection as I get it everywhere! If it was from scratching, that would happen with poison ivy ... I don't know what happens, but it's horrible. When we lived in the country the past few years (till this past June), I didn't get off the driveway except to go to the pond because every time I did, I got poison oak, even in January!

Um, I thought poison oak and poison ivy were the same thing, but called different things depending on locale (east coast - poison ivy, west coast - oak)???

[Rachel--24]

  dlp252 said:

Wahhhh!!! I can't see the new picture...I've tried refresh and I still have the jet ski here at home. My computer at work will show the new one...why does that happen, lol.?

Donna....you have to hit F5. That should do it.

[CarlaB]

  DingoGirl said:

Um, I thought poison oak and poison ivy were the same thing, but called different things depending on locale (east coast - poison ivy, west coast - oak)???

No, they're different ... poison oak rashes are like lines of bumps, I get lines all over my body when I get it. But it seems it does vary somewhat based on location.

Here's what I found at a website:

Poison Oak

In the West, this plant may grow as a vine but usually is a shrub. In the East, it grows as a shrub. It has three leaflets to form its leaves.

Poison Ivy

Grows as a vine in the East, Midwest and South, it grows as a vine. In the far Northern and Western United States, Canada and around the Great Lakes, it grows as a shrub. Each leaf has three leaflets.

Poison Sumac

Grows in standing water in peat bogs in the Northeast and Midwest and in swampy areas in parts of the Southeast. Each leaf has seven to 13 leaflets.

[Rachel--24]

  DingoGirl said:

Rachel love the new avatar. And no, agreeing w/ Carla, it was your location, feeding the deer wouldn't have put you any more at risk, I think.....not ALL the ticks are on the deer, many are just floating around.

Yeah...I think the ticks hang out in tall grass...waiting to hop onto someone....or deer or rodents. They hang out in other places....like logs too. So yeah....they're just floating around...but wouldn't the presence of deer mean more ticks and possibly ticks that are carrying Lyme??

You would not believe how many deer were at my campsite...like a whole herd of them. It got to be annoying...I had to keep chasing them into the hills.

Dog ticks are different...I think they are bigger and more noticeable....plus I think they are less likely to carry Lyme.

[dlp252]

  Rachel--24 said:

Donna....you have to hit F5. That should do it.

That's what I was doing but it kept opening a new web window...I had to redefine the key...had to press it three times and hop on 1 foot (okay the 1 foot thing is a joke), it finally worked! Phew! I have a wireless multimedia keyboard and seems like some of the keys are defined strangely, lol.

[DingoGirl]

well...I don't know what we have here, oak or ivy, whatever it is puts me in the emergency room, I won't go into the details of the Poison Oak Debacle of '03 but.....right after that is when I got C. Diff. harumph. but the whole thing was really my fault because....didn't I already tell this story here? I applied the leaf directly to my arm, after Annie had eaten eat, to answer the famous "what would happen if" question and also the question "did my new stray dog just actually eat poison oak" which BTW required a trip to the ER vet for HER at midnight, as she was gagging and choking.

Dog ticks are quite noticeable Rachel, you are right. And really disgusting when you have to pull them off your dog.

[jerseyangel]

Rachel--I can not believe the new picture.

Donna--How exciting about your cruise! I'm glad you're going to get some much-needed R&R--after what's been going on at your work lately.

I had poison ivy a couple summers ago. It was horrible. Every day, I would see more new blisters, and those would spread. I had it all over my arms and on my face. I pulled ONE "weed" from under my deck--and had to deal with it for almost two months I wear gardening gloves now, no matter what!

I took a notion from Rachel this afternoon and danced around my family room for a while. I put some music in the Bose--everything from The Jackson 5 to The Music Man and let er rip! I felt really energized afterwards, too

Laura--Thanks for your nice words. How are you feeling--you didn't say

[CarlaB]

  jerseyangel said:

I had poison ivy a couple summers ago. It was horrible. Every day, I would see more new blisters, and those would spread. I had it all over my arms and on my face. I pulled ONE "weed" from under my deck--and had to deal with it for almost two months I wear gardening gloves now, no matter what!

I kept getting poison ivy on my face and couldn't figure out why. I would pull weeds, wipe the sweat off my nose, later I'd go in the house and wash my hands ... so I'd get it on my face, but not my hands. When I figured it out, I bought Round-Up and haven't pulled a weed since!

I just read that deer ticks, CAN get on pets ... they prefer deer, but they will get on pets and humans. Usually by the time we found tick on our dogs they had gotten pretty engorged, so they didn't look the same as the ones we got. But, yeah, we got them all the time. I lived in a low-risk area, but with deer around and so many ticks, I find that hard to believe.

Susan, I remember that story ... not one of your brighter moments.

[Rachel--24]

  jerseyangel said:

I took a notion from Rachel this afternoon and danced around my family room for a while. I put some music in the Bose--everything from The Jackson 5 to The Music Man and let er rip! I felt really energized afterwards, too

YAY for dancing!!

Its better than any medicine...thats for sure...it makes me feel really good to dance around the kitchen. Of course....I'd rather be at a club with friends but I'm just making sure I dont *forget* how to dance in the meantime.

[AndreaB]

  dlp252 said:

Wahhhh!!! I can't see the new picture...I've tried refresh and I still have the jet ski here at home. My computer at work will show the new one...why does that happen, lol.?

After reading further I see you got this fixed.

We'll miss you when you are gone. Have much fun though.

  Rachel--24 said:

The bite that I had and the flu-like symptoms didnt occur after this camping trip....it was two years before this trip that I had those symptoms. But it was after THIS trip that I started getting sick. There was no bite or flulike symptoms after this trip. However there WAS the dental work...probably a couple days before this picture was taken I had gotten the amalgams removed.

I dont know if the amalgam removal triggered something or if I got another bite that caused more infection but was never "noticed" on my body.

I would pretty much think the reaction between the "metals" triggered the gluten intolerance as well as lyme swinging into action.

  Rachel--24 said:

Yeah...I think the ticks hang out in tall grass...waiting to hop onto someone....or deer or rodents. They hang out in other places....like logs too. So yeah....they're just floating around...but wouldn't the presence of deer mean more ticks and possibly ticks that are carrying Lyme??

You would not believe how many deer were at my campsite...like a whole herd of them. It got to be annoying...I had to keep chasing them into the hills.

I would think the presence of deer in a place would make it highly likely to be a tick breeding ground or area.

Patti,

So glad you had some fun today.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

  AndreaB said:

I would think the presence of deer in a place would make it highly likely to be a tick breeding ground or area.

The Pittsburgh zoo has a petting area for the children, with lots of deer.

[AndreaB]

  Fiddle-Faddle said:

The Pittsburgh zoo has a petting area for the children, with lots of deer.

That reminds me of a wildlife park/petting zoo in Oregon that has deer and goats running free. I wonder if the captive deer would be different since they aren't out in the wild. Hubby and I went down there 8 years ago. Hmmmm.

[Rachel--24]

  Fiddle-Faddle said:

The Pittsburgh zoo has a petting area for the children, with lots of deer.

I thought about this too....since I used to go to ALL of the zoos. I love zoos...also all of the fairs I've been to and all of the petting zoos. I have about a million pictures of me petting all kinds of farm animals.

Anyways, I was thinking these animals would likely be well taken care of, bathed and all of that. They probably dont have ticks all over them like the ones in the wild. Like the ones in my pic.