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I was both.
Got the TIA polo shirt in the post from Matt, was well involved. Then I had a spat with Chung in the Mods sub forum…went a bit sour then and Matt did a clean up and my services were no longer required.
I was banned three times.
Once by @ISMF ( no need for apology, you were working off incorrect information that I had two accounts. I remember Dublin Red (?) being very vocal in my defence…)
Twice by Dragonshadow…Egotistical man to be fair…
Ubermick reinstated me once and I came back as DogsatDorans for a short while.
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Asking with bated breath here… but have you banned the Slovakian Beauty yet…? We all want to know :0)
Only for posters of the year.
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I miss Scot Jones.
Where’s @Noo_Noo?
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I had a few suspensions from TIA. I could get quite unruly back then. Mentally I wasn’t anywhere near as stable as I am now. I had Lime disease and was going through some really bad times. My kids have some real wild stories of my behaviour from back then. A real angry old man type syndrome.
I’m glad I held it together enough to remain a member and cross over to here.
Still I miss some posters who have since disappeared Cynicaloldgit and Scott-Jones particularly.
Again where’s @Noo_Noo 
?
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Yeah
Most of us miss Scott Jones
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How were you treated for Lyme disease? We live in a forest, and tick bites are a bit of a hazard. I had a bullseye rash at one point, but it turned out to be eczema.
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Getting Lyme disease treated is nigh on impossible. The medical laboratory tests are useless the blot test 1st to be done gives 75% false negatives and the 2nd test 50% false negatives.
The good news is that it’s the nymphs that carry it manly and then only about 15% in infested regions. So generally you need to be ‘bitten’ by a fair few to have the unfortitude of developing Lyme disease. I was bitten by hundreds of nymphs. Also in Western Europe there’s essentially only one type of tick the dog or sheep tick.
The most effective prevention is clothing. Socks over long trousers and tuck your shirt in. They will then need to climb all the way up to your arm pits, ears or eyes to find somewhere they like (humidity and temperature). If it’s dry they will ‘fall’ off to find humidity if your lucky. They are mainly found in ground nests of birds and rodents, so moorland can be worst than forests. Europe is different from the US where the disease was discovered (the deer ticks they talk about don’t exist in Europe).
Spring and autumn are in general the times to be particularly cautious due to temperature and humidity. They also like climbing tall grass during the morning when is more humide.
I ended up treating myself, which was a pain in the arse getting antibiotics from India.
The only really viable diagnosis is a simple blood sample under a microscope (some preparation is necessary) the thing here is it’s similar to the syphilis bacteria but 10 times smaller. It forms ‘clusters’ on hemoglobin so needs to be dissociated (salt solution and mechanical force can do this).
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There is meant to be a Lyme disease vaccine in the pipeline. I get one for Tick-Bourne Encephalitis. We are one of the few areas in Northern Germany that is a high risk for that.
That’s the virus that’s common in Austria isn’t it?
Vaccines for viruses is one thing for bacterial diseases I’m not so certain about. I’d put it down as pie in the sky. Also there’s different variants of Lyme disease. What ‘we’ get in Europe is very different (and more varieties) than in the US or Africa. The African strains are highly disabling which makes clinical diagnosis easier however this in turn gives false information about what cases in Europe should manifest. The main problem is the American variant dominated initial thoughts over diagnosis and even there it’s a mess when being diagnosed.
Avril Lavigne had it and describes the problems she had.
Most countries refuse to treat it with long term antibiotics which is an enormous problem if it isn’t diagnosed in the early stages.
If you find ticks on you take photos and see a doctor as soon as the rash appears. Dating everything. Penicillin is next to useless try to get a something like tetracycline like Doxycycline or minocycline these allow relatively low doses yet concentration in the blood increased due to long half life. If the bacteria reaches your brain long-term antibiotics are necessary with high antibiotic concentration in the blood. Start on low doses and augment (opposite to general medical use) as there’s known ‘reaction’ when you start antibiotics with Lyme disease as the bacteria liberates it’s toxins on being killed. It’s the Toxins that cause the symptoms. Beware of heart conditions, myocardia, dilated heart and vegetation on the heart outlets. Due to the clustering of the bacteria ‘false’ stroke type attacks can occur.
Many of the symptoms are described as false or pseudo. Pseudo rheumatoid arthritis for example which is highly disabling as the pain in all your joints (back particularly) mean you can not run, hop over puddles or perform normally walking down hill becomes painful and you feel extremely weak. I had so many symptoms I couldn’t keep track however they were moderate not severe in general some have it real rough particularly with African strains.
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@RedWhippet apparently the vaccine against Lyme Disease seems quite effective about 73% success rate. So if you go out in woods with clearings or on moorland a lot when it is cleared for use it might well be worth considering.
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I got tick-bite fever in Africa when I was 10. Nearly died.
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I have been thinking about this. I hope you were prescribed at least 2 weeks of amoxicillin for this.
If you saw the tick and the rash was centred around where it bit then these days it should be automatic.
If you didn’t see the tick, it being just one do adult, it’s unlikely as an adult would remain 3 days and become enormous. It would be hard to miss, except if it it found some special place like the ear, it would itch and you’d scratch, so if in the ear you could burst it and just wonder what the fuck it was. There’s also the back where it could take more time to notice.
I presume as you saw the rash it was somewhere accessible and you wouldn’t miss an adult. A nymph you could, it would look like a freckle however there would more likely be lots of them. It would itch and when you scratch the ‘freckle’ you’d notice that it’s not like a normal freckle. There would be some movement and eventually you’d realise you can pick one end up. With time they will turn darker and darker. Nymphs you won’t see/notice all of them to remove them you’ll need a magnifying glass so very difficult to do yourself.
To remove any ticks use tweezers and grab them as close to your skin as possible and lever them off steadily. Do not crush them. I actually used a product for nits (same type of beast). I had a black stream of them running with the water to the plug hole. As I was ignorant of the possibility of Lyme Disease I didn’t go to a doctor soon enough, not that that would have helped officially the disease didn’t exist in my region according to French health guidelines back then (probably hasn’t changed and in anycase these days you can not get a doctor’s appointment under 2 weeks which would mean the disease would be well established by the time you get to see a doctor so tough luck too late).
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It was on my leg and I hadn’t seen a tick there. Hydrocortisone cleared it up, so I’m pretty sure it was eczema.
When I have had ticks attached, we have a tool that we can use for removing them from cats and dogs, so we use that, and keep an eye out for any rash.
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If you ever get nymphs the tool is too big. Often had to take adults off the dog back in England.
Yes if you didn’t see a tick there’s not much to worry about.
It’s good to be aware and we’ve covered much of the signs and prevention.
Larvaes are not usually infected and in anycase tend to feed off small animals and birds near to where the eggs were laid by the adult. Your not likely to get bitten by one. Btw the larvae, nymphs and adults are all exactly the same except for size.
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Cliques, not tiques.
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It’s a clique on diseases. In short, Diques.
I’m probably not the only one getting ticked off with this. 
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I’m afraid some are a bit thick.