Anaplasmosis can be serious, or fatal, in babies, toddlers, elderly people and those with a compromised immune system. If you get a fever, and think you might have come into contact with a tick, contact your doctor or a health professional. If you do get a tick bite, pay attention to symptoms if they occur. For specific prevention and treatment information, visit . Apparently, in cases of people contracting Anaplasmosis, they often don’t remember getting a tick bite, and there is no tell-tale bull’s eye mark. The main “prevention” is to reduce exposure to ticks by wearing appropriate clothing and checking clothes and skin for ticks. The same is not true for those who might have contracted Anaplasmosis. When a person suspects that a tick bite has left that tell-tale sign, a bull’s eye shaped bite, that person has an option of getting an anti-biotic to prevent the onset of Lyme Disease. The reality is that Anaplasmosis is treated differently than that of Lyme Disease. Since then, I’ve done some research on how to prevent this from happening again. See fact sheets, prevention info and notices to Maine residents from the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention here. (This is highly unusual for me, since I have an almost superhuman immune system.) It was frightening, too. Even after the fever came down on Wednesday, I couldn’t walk for a few days my relatives came to take care of me, since I was bedridden. The EMTs found me delirious from the fever. The body aches were so severe that I had to crawl down the stairs to let the EMTs into my house (rather than let them bust in the door). It felt like my organs had seized up and everything hurt. On Tuesday night, I called 911 and the EMTs came to my house, since I was convinced I was dying of some kind of poison, tetanus or some other ill fate. (I wrote about the algae bloom in my Adventures of Fen Fatale series.) At the time, I was working for ASWM and I started to feel sick on a Monday–sweaty, coming down with a fever, nausea. Images of globs of algae clung to me as I suffered through a fever of 102 degrees for two days. In June 2012, I thought I’d eaten a bad avocado, or been exposed to the bad kind of an algae bloom while swimming in the lake. Symptoms of Anaplasmosis include fever, headache, malaise, severe body aches, cough, joint pain, stiff neck and confusion. In my case, it was most likely Anaplasmosis, since I walk through the woods often and come into contact with areas known to inhabit ticks. Even in summer 2012, hospitals misdiagnosed people with “the flu,” when in some cases, it was actually this Anaplasmosis. Previously, it was rare for someone to contract this illness from a tick bite in the Pine Tree State. The alert explained that cases of Anaplasmosis are on the rise in Maine. Last summer, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention sent out an alert about Anaplasmosis. It’s a tick-borne illness caused by a tick bite from a tick infected with the germ called Anaplasma phagocytophilum. It did worry me.Ī year ago this month, I came down with a terrible flu-like illness called Anaplasmosis. After disposing of the tick, which is unwise to flush into the toilet I’ve learned, but to burn the tick with a match (carefully in the sink), I applied witch hazel and hydrogen peroxide onto the bites, along with a dab of antibacterial ointment. I pulled it off and noticed two bite marks. I made the mistake of wearing sandals though and by the time I got home, I unstrapped the sandals to find a fat tick stuck to the top of my foot. I wear it, too, and slathered it on that day, like any other day. In addition to treating her with Frontline, I pat her down with a natural bug repellant called Skeeter Skedaddle™ – the kind that’s dog-friendly. This time of year, we’re more mindful of ticks. (She’s black and white.) At the edge of the pond, she sniffed the water and it turned her pointy black nose into a clownish canary blotch. If I had let the dog wade in the water, she would have come out looking more like a yellow lab, albeit a weirdly shaped one. Lately, a thick mustard yellow froth of pollen coats the surface of the pond. We like to walk along a pine-needled path from my woods down to the pond and back. First, my land is rich in wetlands: a black ash seep, which I call “Fern Gully,” a vernal pool with wood frogs and sallies, and a perennial stream that flows into Raymond Pond. My trusty dog, Sophie-Bea, a dachshund-pointer, and I frequently walk through wetlands.
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