Scattered Thoughts . . .

T oday is Day 10 of my antibiotic for my tick bite that occurred about 15 days ago.  Hmmm...  yeah...  I guess it was two weeks ago last night that I pulled that tick off me.  I still have another four days of this antibiotic and, so far, I seem to be recovering.  I'm exhausted but I'm not feeling any of the symptoms that were very prevalent for a week or two after I pulled the big tick off me. As luck ( my luck...  which is rarely good) would have it, when I awoke from my long afternoon nap today (almost four hours), I headed to the bathroom so I could shower before starting on cooking dinner.  The moment I removed my shirt, I noticed a new bite on the inside of my left arm just above my elbow and there already appears to be a small bullseye developing around it.  Other than going to the grocery store with Sheila last night, I really have not been outside in a couple of days.  Well, I did walk out to get the mail around lunchtime both yesterday and today.  For the most part,

I 've been laying low while I continue to recover from my tick bite.  I'm still fever-free which I think is now the start of the third day of no fever so that is good.  I don't want to overdo it so I've been laying low inside the house.  While I'm laying low indoors,  I decided to start on a long-planned model railroading project. The particular trains I've been working on with this project are my largest trains...  narrow gauge F scale trains that run on G scale track.  These trains are quite large so are best suited for an outdoor garden layout unless you have a basketball court-sized building just sitting around unused.  We don't have that kind of real estate so we'll be setting up a small garden railroad in our backyard. About eight years ago, I found a beat-up freight set with a big 4-6-0 steam locomotive that was reported as "not running" at a small train show.  The guy was asking for $40 for the whole set so I jumped on it.  I figured th

I t is still only 7pm but, so far, today is the first day that I don't have a fever since being bitten by a tick.  I have been in much need of some good news so not having a fever is quite a relief.  For 11 days, my health got progressively worse.  The worst days were the 10th and 11th days after finding the tick on me and those were quite bad days. Right after pulling the tick off me, I was given a single mega-dose of antibiotic.  Unfortunately, that wasn't enough and my health worsened over the long Memorial Day weekend that immediately followed the tick bite.  After the weekend, I was called back into my doctor's office and they started me on the longest "at home" oral antibiotic treatment immediately.  So, those worst days at days 10 and 11 were only the 5th and 6th days on the long antibiotic treatment.   Those 10th and 11th days were miserable and that was clearly indicated by my mood.  I don't remember the last time I was in such a miserable mood.  It s

I didn't accomplish much of anything today.  I'm still dealing with fevers coming and going throughout each day since my tick bite.  My fever(s) never got above 100 degrees today so that is sort of good.   I'm still generally feeling quite lousy and  I also had difficulty focusing on any one task so I ended up bouncing from one thing to another within minutes, never really accomplishing anything.    I'm still in quite a bit of pain which certainly affects my ability to focus...  although the pain isn't as bad as yesterday but I'm still in pain.  My joints and my muscles hurt.  I have a bit of a headache too.   I stayed indoors today with the exception of wandering outside first thing this morning to water the flowers.  The first thing this morning the temperature outside was already up near 80 degrees!  Other than that, I was indoors all day long.  The weather was in the 90s again today and I don't do well in this type of heat even on a "good" hea

I know it is only Day 5 of this latest antibiotic but, still, I feel the need to mention that I feel like crap.  This second course of antibiotics will be for 14 days so I'm still fairly early in this second round of treatment.  I'm not all that confident in its effectiveness though.  I'm still getting fevers every night.  My abdomen hurts.  My joints hurt.  My muscles ache.  I still have a headache.  And, I just generally feel like crap. What compounds this tick bite and whatever illness has been transmitted to me is the fact that I was still struggling with long-COVID when I found the tick on me.  So, between my mast cell symptoms, my long-COVID symptoms and now these tick illness symptoms, I'm not sure which thing is causing which symptoms.  There is no doubt that a few things suddenly came on and/or worsened after the tick bite so I'm fairly certain what is due to the tick bite.  Then again, the tick bite could be causing a worsening of my mast cell disease sin