The Year of Ticks

I haven't had the nerve to post this picture and story, but recently I have heard of some other little boys having some nasty tick bites too. This is Josiah. We have all had ticks on us this year. In April and May it seemed we found a tick on someone just about every day. Recently we have not seen as many.

I removed this tick from Josiah about a week before Easter. That would have been about mid-April. There were 2 bites and the head of the tick broke off and I couldn't remove it. The bites were horribly itchy for Josiah. He would wake up crying and just claw himself when he woke up and throughout the day. I couldn't tell what was the bite and what was irritated from all the itching.

Looking at it now I'm sure I should have taken him to the Doctor much sooner, but on this particular morning the bull's eye was clear to me and I made an appointment immediately. The nurse practitioner looked at it and then called the Doctor and the student with her in to take a look at it. They presumed it was Lyme and saw no need to get blood work done. Josiah took Amoxicillin for 21 days and we put Bactriban ointment on the area until it cleared up.

It is completely healed now and he has not had any other symptoms.