I didn't sleep well last night. My rashes were itching like crazy and I just felt aweful. By morning, they had expanded even more, with the tick-bite rash at 3-inches in diameter. Every muscle in my body aches. I'm feeling worse by the hour. I showered, put on a dressy sweater top and running shorts and packed a pair of dress pants into my briefcase. After taking Kyra to school I went to the doctor's office. He looked at my rashes and I relayed my story. I told him that I had run a 10K trail race through the woods at Georgia International Horse park on Saturday, 9 days ago. The day after I did a good bit of yard work. On Monday I noticed an itchy spot on my right thigh. I later noticed a tiny dot in the middle of that dime-sized area and just thought I had scratched it raw and it had formed a scab. The red area grew in size and the itching continued off and on. By Wednesday evening, the red area was redder, much larger, and what I had originally thought of as a scab had grown too. It hit me at that point that it might be a tick so I purposely removed it. And sadly, it was a tick, not a scab. I had hoped after that that the redness was just irritation from the tick and that it would improve. But unfortunately, it just got bigger and bigger, a new rash appeared on my other leg, and I feel fatigued, achy, weak. He said the expanding rash around the bite is a distinctive feature of Lyme Disease. An infected tick can only transmit infections after being attached for more than 36 hours and mine was attached for 3-4 days. The symptoms I'm having are all associated with Lyme Disease too, although the second rash on my left leg is a bit odd. He started me on an antibiotic, doxycycline. He said since it was caught early, treatment with antibiotics should result in complete recovery. However, it may take a week or more before I start feeling better.
I stopped by Publix and picked up the prescription antibiotic as well as benadryl cream. Then I drove to work, since this isn't contagious. I parked in the parking deck, walked about 30 yards to the elevator, walked another 100 yards to another elevator, then walked another 30 yards to my desk and was completely wiped out! I sat down and put my head down on my desk. Why did I think I could do this? I had a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m., but I didn't even have the energy to go into the bathroom to change from my shorts to pants! So, after resting for about 15 minutes, I went to my supervisor and explained my situation. She told me to go home and rest and that she would post-pone the meeting for me until next week.
Tonight is book club night and we're discussing the book that I had selected. We had to cancel last month because of people's schedules and I just didn't want to let the group down tonight. And Kyra had really been looking forward to having Madelyne babysit. I went to book club and stayed pretty mellow. I ate a little, but didn't have much of an appetite. When it came to the discussion we moved to the living room. I made the mistake of sitting on the couch between Karolin and Connie. The mistake was that I had to turn my head back and forth to look at each person as they spoke. My neck HURTS to turn and is stiff! I left early and came home to a happy Kyra but a filthy house. It has rained for days and Tasha and Riley had come in covered in mud. I didn't have the energy to deal with it...
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