LOCKDOWN DAY 37 – COVID-19

I had a pretty bad morning to say the least. I didn't have a good night's sleep at all and was tossing and turning, when I was suddenly aware of something that felt like a very small bobble just above my elbow. I panicked – I instinctively knew what it was..... a tick. Flew downstairs at 4am and on route cut the top of my right foot, under a sharp corner of furniture, which bled enough for me to have to apply a large plaster and it was very painful!!! I then tried to investigate my elbow area with my high powered torch and my Led Loupe (also high powered) magnifier, but it was in a difficult spot and I couldn't really see and obviously there was no one else in the house to look for me. Somehow I managed to pull away whatever it was and placed the minuscule object into a piece of white paper. Looked through my magnifier and and was horrified to see what was clearly a tick!!! I have been nowhere apart from work, since visiting Dersingham Bog, so this is obviously where I picked this up from. I realised how stupid I had been, like really stupid.... I had sat by the pond under bushes with cattle sitting behind me in the pine trees on a reserve, which known to have ticks and I had completely forgotten that at the time. At my age, I should know better! I had been wearing a long sleeved top, which makes it even more of a mystery, but I suppose ticks can crawl anywhere.

Phoned my GP practice straight away, and a doctor (working from home) phoned me back fairly promptly whilst I was at work this morning. Because of Covid-19 they were not seeing patients, except in an emergency and the doctor asked me to drop off the tick in an envelope for 'Annette' to decide if it was a Lyme Disease type tick or not and she would discuss with doctor, who would then send me a text with her diagnosis. Later on...... I received a text saying the following "Dear Miss Clarke, Thank you for dropping off your tick. We think it is a larval stage tick, and would suggest holding off on antibiotics unless you develop flue-like symptoms or a red rash around the site of the bite....." I didn't know what they meant by a larval stage tick, so phoned the surgery back again and the doctor called me again to say it was much smaller than the ticks they are used to seeing, but she would send an antibiotics prescription to the adjoining surgery's chemist for me to pick up IF I needed them eg if the bite area gets redder or I develop flue-like symptoms. The doctor said it wasn't a good time to be in this situation, as Covid-19 also gives you flue-like symptoms and lethargy as does Lyme's disease!!!

So far, this evening, the bite area has not become any redder, but apparently it can take up to 4 weeks to develop! The tick had been feeding off me for approximately 63 hours I worked out, which is not good at all. I will just have to keep my fingers crossed! I won't be sitting by that pond at Dersingham Bog ever again and its put me off going there again for a very long time!

You may think I'm being a bit a drama queen, but not when I personally know of two Norfolk birders who have suffered from Lyme disease within the last couple of years. Untreated it can be very dangerous and can affect you for years and possibly for life.

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