The box has been ticked…

Another naff pun in the title and another post on my tick exploits!

Good news though, folks. I did have to return to the doctors last week as the localised infection was spreading around my leg rather alarmingly.

Another doctor took a look and didn’t like what he saw. Sadly, I had to take antibiotics to fight this (something I like to avoid, if possible) but the bite area is clearing up at last.

All this stuff is worrying, no doubt , so it pays to get it checked. Different folk react to bites in different ways. The local infection area around my bite was about the size of a side plate at its worse… it was hot and itched.

Let’s hope that’s now the end of it.

That said, I’m in Scotland again in September so I’ll try to avoid the little so-and-sos this time.

Still ticked off…

Again, apologies that posting has been a little slow of late.

I still have some Scotland excursions to write up and some thoughts on yet another footwear option, which I have been having some success with.

All that must wait, though, as I continue to be worried by the tick bite I picked up at the end of the Highland trip.

After seemingly getting worse, I went to the doctors to put my mind at ease more than anything. Somewhat frustratingly, the doctor admitted that he didn’t know too much about tick bites and quickly shook the Internet to see if anything helpful fell out (he used Google, would you believe?)

Taking a look at the location of the bite, he was pretty sure that the it was not displaying the spreading ring pattern or ‘bullseye’ characteristics that suggest nasty infection, namely Lyme Disease. He gave a scrip for Fucidin cream to help clean up the tick bite site, as I did have a localised infection.

Over a fortnight after finding the tick, I still have a large mark resembling a nasty bruise where the tiny critter munched down on me, and the cream does not appear to be helping.

Despite feeling in pretty good health, I fear I will be going back for a second opinion…

Ticked off

I’ve always been very careful about ticks.

After a horse-riding trip in the Mexican Sierra Madre left me with one these blighters burrowed into my leg, I’ve always covered up and checked myself carefully after trips in the countryside.

I was more than a little annoyed, therefore, to find one taking residence at the back of my knee on the drive home from Scotland. I’d been on a walk on the fringes of Glen Nevis the day before but had checked myself carefully in the shower.

Could it have been lurking in my trousers???

Anyway, stopping at the Westmorland services, I removed the little blighter carefully with a purpose-designed tool that my other half had purchased for me in jest.

Ticks are no joke, though. I am now monitoring my health for the next few weeks hoping that I will avoid the nasties that these creatures can carry and pass onto to their unwitting hosts.