Ticks, Lyme disease in NH (Manchester, Conway: homes, neighborhood, camping)

[Scribbilyr]

Originally Posted by WannaComeHome

Hi Scribbilyr-
Welcome to the Forum (or at least our corner of it)! For previous threads with bunches of info, check out http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-h...mendation.html which talks a bit about how to find a dr for lyme disease should you need one, http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-h...s-lyme-nh.html has some great info - and some names you might recognize

There's also some threads in the CT and VT forums. I just did a search on 'lyme new hampshire' and it pulled up quite a few - not necessarily in NH

I read through the ticks/lyme/nh forum and found it very helpful. Thank you. This is a great site and it's good to know I am not the only one concerned about it. My mother-in-law thinks I am crazy (and my husband did too, until he saw the tick crawling across the map inside the car) and I haven't found anyone here who seems to think it's a problem, even though according to the CDC there were like 4,000 cases of Lyme in NY last year.

We spent a week in Rye Beach over the summer and our innkeeper was just finishing his course of antibiotics; he said he never knew he'd been bitten. Stories like his are why I am so paranoid about it. He said drool just started coming out of his mouth.

There was a very interesting article in Yankee magazine more than a year ago that addressed the mystery surrounding Lyme disease and the problems associated with insurance companies, diagnosis, everything. Especially interesting were the details surrounding its appearance in Lyme, CT. I think the author was from Gilford but I'm not 100-percent sure.

Thank you all for your help.

[NH2008]

I did read that article too and it scared the life out of me but when I asked around, I found that the kind of chronic, uncurable Lyme that the article made sound quite common are really exceptional. I would definitely keep Lyme in your mind as a common thing and take precautions, but i would also think of it as a treatable condition.

[MidCityBrady]

Hello everyone -
I spend the summers up in Maine and my friends use Damminix Tick Tubes to reduce the amount of Lyme-carrying ticks on their property. It's just one of the suggestions that the University of Rhode Island provides for protecting your yard and making it a safer place for your family to enjoy.

Tick Encounter Resource Center - Prevention

[maestramommy]

Originally Posted by MidCityBrady

Hello everyone -
I spend the summers up in Maine and my friends use Damminix Tick Tubes to reduce the amount of Lyme-carrying ticks on their property. It's just one of the suggestions that the University of Rhode Island provides for protecting your yard and making it a safer place for your family to enjoy.

Tick Encounter Resource Center - Prevention

How cool! This sounds like a much more desirable option than spraying!

[renlouis]

Awesome resource - Thanks MidCityBrady!!

[MtnFlyer]

Hi Scribbilyr:

If you weren't a business owner you may not have known about this, but Washington does have a wicked Business Occupation Tax. Businesses are taxed on their gross revenues not net, so you could have lost money for the year and still owed a big tax bill. I'm not defending NY's taxes though. Their lawmakers aren't wired right!

As for the front yard, we used to live in an area that had a bit of a tick problem, but I nuked the yard regularly. Neither us nor the dog ever brought another one in the house. I guess they all ran next door.

[grimstuff]

Not to diminish any chronic Lyme Disease sufferers, but I think that our modern era as greatly exaggerated the chances of getting the disease. Not only that, but the plethora of self-diagnoses by people who have very general symptoms (tiredness, pain in joints, etc.) has increased the salience of this issue beyond what it merits. I grew up in the country and encountered ticks all the time, even in a "high risk" area, had them attached to my neck as a kid, never a long term problem.

I think just as fewer parents are not as worried about the over-blown risks of vaccinations back in the 80s and 90s as they are today, so the Lyme's Disease scare will fade away.

[Valerie C]

As the parent of a teenager who has Chronic Lyme Disease, I've seen first hand how devastating this illness can be. We went for MONTHS without a diagnosis (but lots of xrays, blood tests, visits to multiple specialists, rheumatologists, orthopods, etc) and were told "maybe lupus, maybe MS, maybe fibromyalgia, maybe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, maybe maybe maybe...) and when a Lyme test was finally done, we were just happy to finally have an answer. Unfortunately we were not aware of just how long this fight would be.

Now in the 5th year of on-and-off antibiotics, we've watched a child with so much academic (95th to 99th percentile in standardized testing) and physical promise (excelling in Chinese Martial Arts, dance and other performing arts) sort of fade to someone who can barely keep up with classes, constant fatigue, ADHD-like symptoms... And yes, back on antibiotics again

Unfortunately Lyme Disease IS out there...

Did anyone see the Chronicle article a month or two back on Lyme Disease?

I do have to say grimstuff, that self-diagnosing ANY illness is an obvious problem. Part of the problem is that 'some' doctors will NOT diagnose an illness as Lyme without a positive Elisa. There is an extremely high percentage of false negatives with this test, but is unfortunataly still the first tool in use according to CDC guidelines... and with Lyme Literate Dr's medical licenses at risk, it's getting more and more difficult to get treatment. Very scary times! I also grew up in the country and pulled dozens of ticks off myself. There is SOMETHING different that we just didn't have as kids...

Hopefully the Lyme Disease "scare" will eventually be taken seriously by the medical profession and CDD...

[MtnFlyer]

I wish there was something more I could say than I'm so sorry Valerie. No parent should have to watch helplessly as their child goes through something like that. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you offer to people with children in the NH area to try to protect them?

[Valerie C]

Thanks MtnFlyer, I appreciate it

I guess all I can say is to do tick checks each and every time people (not just kids) come in from enjoying the outdoors. I still garden, still have a dog, still hike, etc. We're just more cautious, and I do tick checks every day. I wish we could have chickens (chickens LOVE to eat ticks!!!)