When we first moved to Pound Ridge, NY my high school friends’ greatest fear was me getting shot or mugged in NYC. My greatest fear was starting at a new high school given that I was not the most outgoing or confident person there ever was. My parent’s greatest fear for me was being bitten by a tick. What on earth?! Who has ever heard of not being able to go out in their own backyard to play without a care in the world?! Apparently Quest Diagnostics has, because they are partnering with me to give you a little update on the world of ticks, tick bites and Lyme disease.
I had never heard of a tick before, and my parents telling me I needed to wear socks over my jeans if I went out to play sounded like a bit of insanity. My parents were never even close to helicopter parents. I remember climbing through active electric fences on hikes in the alps when I was 6 years old. We played in rubber dinghy’s in white water along the rivers in Canada without any life jackets. This craze over a tiny tick seemed a little odd. Now in my teen years, all of a sudden my parents were afraid of me getting bitten by some tiny little bug?
I was almost afraid to go outside. Luckily we had a large deck, paving stones and a pool, so I just avoided the grassy areas until I could figure out what this was all about. I still don’t really know the how or the why of it all, but I do know it has something to do with Deer and mice. I also know that ticks are in most abundance on my favourite island of Nantucket. I still make my husband do all the tick checks since he grew up in Pound Ridge and knows what to look for. What I didn’t really realise is that there is an actual test that will help you know if you have Lyme disease or not.
Especially for me, the symptoms of Lyme’s disease seem a lot like the symptoms of motherhood and old age. How am I supposed to know what’s going on?! Well now I know, you take a blood test and then you can find out a little more about what the root of all the aches, pains, and lack of energy is.
