Redtree Times

Rest Stop— At West End Gallery

As I stand over the insect crawling amid the pine needles on the forest floor, and endeavoring to conceal itself from my sight, and ask myself why it will cherish those humble thoughts, and hide its head from me who might, perhaps, be its benefactor, and impart to its race some cheering information, I am reminded of the greater Benefactor and Intelligence that stands over me the human insect.

–Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)

I live and work in the woods, every day trudging a path through the forest several times to my studio. For me it is ideal, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It makes me feel apart from people and closer to what is wild, both in nature and in ourselves. It is sanctuary and classroom.

It is home.

Of course, there are some drawbacks in even the most seemingly idyllic setting. Every paradise has its own perils just to let you know that life is all about balance. Everything good is on a seesaw with something bad.

Here in my forest paradise, it is not the bear, coyote, or even the mountain lion that sometimes is rumored to be lurking. Or Bigfoot. No, here it is the deer tick.

I have mentioned a number of times over the past several weeks that I was feeling under the weather. It has been a rough ride marked by a persistent and odd sort of headache, fever and chills, dizziness, night sweats, foggy mindedness, and a tremendous feeling of fatigue. In recent days I have felt like my batteries were running at about 10% of their capacity. It’s insidious in that the loss of vigor creeps up on you gradually, making you believe that each downward step is just how you naturally feel.

Over the past five weeks I have seen my doctors a number of times and have had numerous blood tests along with several scans and x-rays. It has been a slow slog eliminating possible causes. Fortunately, my sister mentioned that my nephew had very similar symptoms in recent years that were caused by tick-borne illnesses.

Now, I had mentioned Lyme disease to one of my doctors as deer ticks are well known to me. I have been bit numerous times over the years and have had the telltale bulls-eye rings around some of the bites. Several years ago, Lyme was detected in one of the bands that are tested but it was not sufficient to be deemed Lyme disease. I still have three small scars on my thigh from two years ago when a single tick bit me before I realized he was there. For those of you who don’t know, you don’t feel their bite since they first inject a sort of anesthesia before they begin to feed.

I get tested for Lyme every year and each time I have to practically beg to be tested, describing in vivid detail that my existence has me in constant intimate contact with the verdant world of the deer tick. The doctors almost roll their eyes before begrudgingly consenting to order the test.

My mistake was in being ignorant of other tick-borne illnesses. My ignorance doesn’t excuse these doctors for not at least considering or mentioning the possibility of these other illnesses, especially after I have described the environment in which I live and work.

After speaking with my sister and nephew, I messaged my doctor and asked if they would at least consider the possibility that it might be a tick-borne illness other than Lyme disease. I specifically mentioned anaplasmosis in my message since its symptoms perfectly echoed my own.

A tick panel was finally ordered this past Monday and on Friday the results came back. It was indeed positive for anaplasmosis. I contacted my doctor before she was even aware of the results and pushed for prescription for antibiotics. I started a course on Friday evening.

Normally, you want to start antibiotics within a few days of the symptoms appearing. When this takes place, symptoms usually go away within 48 hours. Unfortunately, in my case it has been nearly five weeks since the first outburst. During this lag in treatment, several underlying condition may have been affected. Hopefully, none will be serious.

Yesterday, I could feel little energy in the afternoon, noticeably more than in the last several weeks, though it crashed in the evening. I ended up with night sweats again and a hard headache this morning. I still get very woozy and have to stop to hold onto something if I move or tune too quickly. But it feels like the antibiotics are making progress.

I hope to be able to get back into my full painting mode in the next few days. It has suffered greatly this past month or so.

I guess the lesson here is that we have to advocate for ourselves. Because without the info from my sister and nephew and my own begging for the test, my doctors would still be trying to eliminate potential causes even as the illness was doing more damage. As far as tick-borne illnesses, I would hope that doctors at least begin to consider their possibility when symptoms such as mine are presented, especially given where I live and work. I am not knocking doctors in any way here. It is something that is just overlooked too often and we shouldn’t have to be the ones to prod them to look into them.

Which is in the woods. With my deer, turkeys, foxes, raccoons, bears, possums, skunks, squirrels and so on.

Oh, and more deer ticks than you can imagine.

Thanks for listening to my tale of woe. I thought it was worth passing on just in case any of you have similar symptoms.

here’s this week’s Sunday Morning Music. It’s an old U2 song from way back in 1980. I can’t believe it’s been 45 years since this came out. Between this and my illness, I really feel old this morning. This is Shadows and Tall Trees.