To all who have wished me a speedy recovery: Thank You! I am feeling steadily better (1 month out), and expect to be back to full strength shortly. @Alisande, If you think you may have babeseosis at the moment, then insist on being tested. Same with anaplasmosis, both are less-difficult than Lyme to diagnose from blood smears, I believe. (The issue with the blood supply, aside from the traditional head-in-the-sand attitude of the blood industry, and of course the cost, is that there is no rapid-enough test for babeseosis -or possibly the other tick-borne diseases -to work with the need for fresh blood.) But as I mentioned, anaplasmosis has distinct, characteristic, changes in routine blood work that are almost diagnostic. I can check next time I am in the medical library if there are specific changes in the case of babeseosis. I may have that info for erlichiosis, if you'd like to know it. Anaplasmosis has distinctive mullberry shaped artifacts (morullae) in the disease-specific blood smears (as does erlichiosis, I believe). Babeseosis is different but unless you, like I, have had malaria it's pretty distinctive in the blood test for it. The tests aren't inexpensive (the unadjusted street price for them is $500-$1,000 -each- but my insurance company whacked both of them down considerably. Since you're on Medicare, you'd only pay a percentage of the CMS-negotiated cost which is likely to be as aggressively moderated as that of my own insurance company's contractual rate. Since all three are bacterial, not spirochete, -caused it doesn't require the complex analysis of PCR bands that Lyme does. But frankly if I was on my second continuous month of Lyme I would have pretty awful constitutional symptoms from that lengthy treatment alone. I can barely make it out the 30 days of a single course before I have disturbed sleep, night sweats, muscle aches and pains, etc. Part of my fierceness about discovering ticks early is to avoid the need for the lengthy course of anti-Lyme doxy. Since doxy won't really do anything for babeseosis - and other drugs will - why keep taking what may be the wrong cure? I don't think you would experience symptoms from babeseosis or anaplasmosis (or even Lyme) infection before locating the tick. The incubation time needed to get sick from a still-attached tick would have resulted in a deer tick as big as a green pea, a nasty pearly-grey tight blob. It's hard to imagine you wouldn't have noticed it well before getting sick if it was still attached. Don't you itch like mad when you have a tick attached for more than a few hours, not to mention days? I'd be wild! BTW, the tick-hours-of-bite measurement has a built in problem: the aging relies on analysis of stomach digestive contents. But that assumes, and it is not always true, that the bite the tick was discovered making is the only bite, not a second one. Also you mentioned you squashed the critter in removing it. You might want to consider beginning more intensive searches for ticks on your body twice a day in order to not miss one. I have hair so long I can sit on it so I do realize it can be hard to check your scalp and hair. I have also found attached ticks under my breasts, in my belly button, on various unmentionable parts of my bottom, and even larval ones between my toes and fingers. I usually keep my long hair tied up in pigtail outdoors. I tuck the pigtail down the back of my shirt to minimize the likelihood of ticks getting caught in my hair. Of course I always have a hat on outside for sun protection, so my head and scalp are less-common tick areas. I do tick-checks at least twice every day of the year, unless I am away from home overnight in the city. It's just like brushing your teeth. I'm not convinced that Lyme "lurks in your body" but given that it is caused by spirochete I suppose it's possible. (Another spirochete-caused illness, syphillis, has a proven habit of lingering on and re-occurring, often despite treatment.) I know, for certain, that I have had Lyme (from clearly positive blood tests), been treated successfuly and subsequently had lengthy periods of profound physiological, and mental stress, without Lyme popping back up and adding to the problems. And I still have one band for Lyme on the latest PCR, which indicates an old, resolved infection, so there's no question it's still visible in my blood, but not thankfully making a pest of itself. I also still have serological evidence of malaria in my blood and I haven't had any illness from it in more than fifty years! But the bacterial diseases (anaplasmosis, babeseosis and erlichiosis) seem extremely unlikely lurkers and later-pouncers, especially if treated. What I definitely think they can do, however, is damage other organs and systems resulting in consequential, long-term problems (like the poor fellow described above who lost his spleen as a result of a babeseosis infection.) Your description of high fevers, muscle aches and pains, etc., sound much more like anaplasmosis than Lyme. Did you have any "regular" blood tests done at the time? The average time from bite to onset of symptoms with anaplasmosis is 8 days. I could look that time up for erlichiosis and babseosis, if needed. I don't know enough about Fibro, but aren't night sweats and aches and pains part of that, too? You may not need to go to any doctor more specialized than your primary care doc to check for the bacterial tick-borne illnesses. And then you'll be able to know, and treat, any that are there. I didn't get any hint that the tests for them lead to confusing, or contradictory results, as I know the Lyme test can, because it is a different, and more complicated test.. If you test negative for them, including having normal routine blood results, you can cross them off your list of worries and look elsewhere. (And get off the wretched doxy!) HTH, L.

Patty_cakes has a good point: My hand-eczema worsen when I drink citrus juice, esp. Orange/pinapple/strawberries. There are so many pesticides on strawberries that can set off a rash. I have no problems with cranberry juice (no pesticide & no need for citric acid since it's so sour). What's worse, they add citric acid to juice. Citric acid is made commercially from a genetically-modified black mold, rather than from citrus fruits. Lots of people are allergic to that. I can tolerate juice WITHOUT chemical citric acid .. much better than juice with citric acid added. Also find that applying Milk of Magnesium STOP THE ITCH better than other remedies, be it hydroxide peroxide, calamine lotion, iodine, or apple vinegar cider. Milk of Magnesium works because magnesium relaxes the tissue, thus help in calming the itch. With my 3 years of eczema & itching right hand, I have tried all remedies possible.

This worked for my Aussie lass. She had ACE as a sedative for spay surgery. The 2nd time I gave it to her as an oral sedative, prescribed, for extreme dures riding in the car. Fortunately I gave her only 1/2 dose. Still, we nearly lost her! She became non-responsive and stopped breathing repeatedly. I had to apply gentle percussion and intermittently shake her awake. It was a weekend, we were traveling and 3 hours from emergency care. When we arrived home we took turns monitoring her, awakening her when needed, and applying percussis. She was only 1.5 years old! We never gave her ACE again. Instead we worked with behavior modification using short rides with reward; visiting our Aunt, 2 houses down, via the vehicle. It took many trips before she got over her extreme fear of the automobile. Also, her son, 1/2 Aussie and 1/2 German Shepherd had a pre-sedation for dental cleaning; although I PUT ON FORM IN ALL CAPS NO ACE! The vet administered it to him right in front of me. It took 2 1/2 weeks for him to return to normal. Now I know to give them 1 teaspoon of Activated Charcoal powder in diluted chicken broth IMMEDIATELY. It is tasteless and odorless. Within 20 minutes symptoms subside. It has saved a neighbor's dog that was poisoned. Now they are both sedated with special anesthesia used for Sight hounds. Of course I have only sedated each one time since then, both were total emergencies. I also keep Benadryl

Revolution is a good flea treatment for cats. Fleas have developed resistance to both Frontline and Advantage, so the vets I use have been going to Revolution. You need a prescription. One big advantage of Revolution is that it also treats ear mites, some intestinal parasites, and heart worm in cats. A semi-socialized feral I have would have been untreatable for her ear mites (those ear drops...), but Revolution, which is applied like Advantage, etc., cleared them right up, along with her fleas and, apparently, intestinal parasites (she was skinny for all her first 11 years, but has put on a lot of weight since using Revolution). For feral cats that cannot be handled at all, I've given Capstar in food. It can be given as often as once a day (see here and here), but you generally shouldn't need to -- once or twice a month is usually fine (flea life cycle roughly 3 weeks).