You've been bit—now what?

*Originally published 8/11/20*

It has been a crazy few months. Between the heartbreaking coronavirus pandemic and amazing social justice movements, it has been hard to focus on anything else—including Lyme disease. That doesn’t mean that other things aren’t still out there though.

In fact, I can’t count how many people have contacted my family members or myself in the past few months because they–or someone they know—had found a tick on them. The ticks are out there, and boy oh boy are they hungry!

So, I thought I would share this post on what to do if you find a tick!

It’s always important to remember the best defense against Lyme disease is prevention. Now you may be thinking “what exactly is prevention?”

Prevention is staying clear of places ticks like to hang out—they love tall grasses, woods, bushes, leaf piles and any wet, moist areas. Prevention is wearing light colored clothing (so you could potentially see a tick crawling on you), long sleeves, hats, pants and long socks with your pants tucked into your socks—it may not be the most fashionable, but it is better than ending up in Lyme hell.

Prevention also includes wearing tick repellent—your normal bug sprays don’t repel the ticks. I recommend this spray for your skin and then Permethrin for your clothes and shoes. Permethrin is a chemical that you DO NOT put on your skin, but you can treat your clothes in it. You can either spray your clothes down, or wash them in it, and your clothes are now safe from ticks for a few weeks.

The most important step in prevention is daily tick checks. When you come in from outside, immediately put your clothes in the dryer (to kill off any ticks that could have climbed on) and then hop in a shower and do your tick check. Check out this video to find out how!

Now , let’s say you took all the precautions yet still find a tick during your check—what now?!. It’s important to not panic and to follow The LEAF Program’s TICKS steps.

T is for tweezers. You want to get tweezers with a flat bottom that make it easy to slide across the skin, under the tick.

Next you will—I—insert the tweezers underneath the belly of the tick. It is important to grab the tick by the nose (the hypostome) and not the belly. If you grab it by the belly, there is a chance the tick could regurgitate any bacteria into you.

Once you have inserted tweezers under the belly, you should pull straight up with—C—constant pressure. There are tools out there that want you to twist and turn the tick—do not do this. You want to pull straight up in one swift motion to ensure you get the entire tick out.

Now the next 2 steps are probably new for some people but they are KEY here. You want to Keep the tick. Yes you read that right. Do not burn the tick. Do not squish the tick. Do not put vaseline on it. Do not flush it down the toilet. “But Cassidy, why not?”

Well 1. Ticks have been proven to live in water for several days so if you flush it, that thing may not die and could crawl up the drain and go after it’s next meal. 2. We do not want to destroy the ticks because we need to then—S—send the tick off for tick testing.

I have gone on and on here over the years about how inaccurate the Lyme disease tests are—heck I helped get the law passed in MD that ensures doctors inform patients that they can still have Lyme disease even if they get a negative test result. Yet, there are places out there that will test your tick for you and find out what bacteria it could have been carrying so you are better equipped so that when you—bonus S—see a doctor, you guys have a course of action. And yes, it is vital that you see a doctor no matter if you are showing symptoms or not. Ask them to put you on preliminary antibiotics (for western medicine) or preliminary herbs (for eastern medicine).

Disclaimer: you should still perform the K and S steps even if the tick was not attached to you. Sometimes people may find a tick crawling down them, or on their pillow or wherever and think nothing of it. However, that tick could have been attached to you and just dislodged and is finding its way out. You can never be too cautious.

I hope you never find a tick on you or a loved one, but if you do, hopefully these tips will help!

Stay safe everyone.