Ticks help!

[Marvin]

Having caught up with this thread last week, I bought some O'Tom Tick Twisters just in case. How timely was that???????? After a weekend of training for the Three Peaks Yacht Race in the Lakes and Scotland, I found a tick on my bum. Mrs Marvin kindly used the device to safely remove it from my nether regions....... and Ian, we put the wriggling creature in a plastic bag in the freezer - maybe I'll start a collection.

Mrs Marvin is a bit of a dab hand with a camera, so here is the evidence! Not for the squeemish.

[IanDarkpeak]

Having caught up with this thread last week, I bought some O'Tom Tick Twisters just in case. How timely was that???????? After a weekend of training for the Three Peaks Yacht Race in the Lakes and Scotland, I found a tick on my bum. Mrs Marvin kindly used the device to safely remove it from my nether regions....... and Ian, we put the wriggling creature in a plastic bag in the freezer - maybe I'll start a collection.

Mrs Marvin is a bit of a dab hand with a camera, so here is the evidence! Not for the squeemish.

thats the worst case of constipation I've ever seen

[southernsoftie]

Just had an email from Gordon Brown in response:

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page19583

[janeho]

Many fellrunners will know that LD is a threat - I have a friend who's sister is now seriously disabled as a result of a single tick bite in Wales - can happen to any of us. There is a petition on the No 10 website to petition the Prime Minister to put in place Clinical Guidelines, SPECIFIC to the United Kingdom, for the diagnosis and treatment of all patients, including children, who have acquired Lyme disease or associated Tick-borne diseases. These guidelines should be part of a national strategy to combat this increasingly common threat to health in the United Kingdom and should address the UK presentation of Lyme disease and other emerging Tick-borne Diseases.

The E-Petition will run until 7th April 2009. Anyone living in the UK can sign, so your friends, relations and colleagues can do it too!

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Lyme-guidelines/#detail

The gov have posted a response to the petition
lyme- guidelines e petition response
Basically get stuffed we are too busy fiddling our expenses to do anything useful... OK so I paraphrase a little

[skennaugh]

Jane, your link is broken

[Epocian]

Try this link
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page19583

[hopey]

I was bitten by a tick, I didn't notice as my legs were covered in mud, and scrubbed my legs and only noticed it once I'd scrubbed it off, I'm now left with a little red mark and I'm not sure if there's some of it still in there?

Do i get it checked out?

[emmilou]

I was bitten by a tick, I didn't notice as my legs were covered in mud, and scrubbed my legs and only noticed it once I'd scrubbed it off, I'm now left with a little red mark and I'm not sure if there's some of it still in there?

Do i get it checked out?

I would Adrian, they can be as small as a pin head. The head burrows into the skin and the body remains on the outside, scrubbing it may have just de-capitated it The dog gets them alot, must admit we were all worried yesterday trolloping through the high ferns and grasses and we were only talking about ticks yesterday.

[Starsky]

Only recently joined the forum but wish I'd been on here when this thread originally started.

My Mum has been suffering from Lyme's disease for a long time, however it was only recently diagnosed. About 15years ago she was bitten by a tick and shortly after was taken ill (similar symptoms to those listed by someone previously) and was actually tested for Lyme’s disease at the time. The test came back negative, however what they failed to tell her at the time was that the test the NHS use (or at least used then) wasn't actually very reliable!

She was subsequently diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (aka M.E.) for which she never really received any useful treatment and after a year or two had to retire on medical grounds and has been ill ever since, including several spells where she has been pretty much house / bed bound. It's becoming apparent though that CFS is often used as a catch all diagnosis for the symptoms which could be caused by a number of things which the NHS haven't been able to identify and last year she was tested again for Lyme's disease through a private hospital who specialise in CFS. They sent her samples to the U.S. where they use a more accurate test and it confirmed she had Lyme's. She has since received treatment through this hospital (it's not cheap mind!) and is doing better than she was but is still far from 100%. The NHS still fails to recognise her as having Lyme's because she wasn't diagnosed using their test!

I know this is only one persons experience of Lyme's but from our perspective the way it's dealt with (or not dealt with!) in the U.K. and the head in the sand approach from the NHS that we've seen has been extremely frustrating and disappointing. I've lost track of the number of times that she and others have been told by G.P's that "we don't have Lyme's in the U.K."!

Like others said the key is early diagnosis / treatment and hopefully increased visibility through campaigning and articles like those that have been posted here will help to achieve this and we can all keep enjoying our running without having to worry about picking up anything from those nasty little blighters!

Incidentally I picked up a couple of ticks when out running recently and am currently taking antibiotics as a preventative measure!

[Starsky]

p.s. apologies for the war & peace post!