Lyme is endemic in the northeast but it is risk-free in some neighborhoods and high-risk in others. It really depends if deer come visit your home and gardens.
Whoa! "risk-free in some neighborhoods"...?
Cement ones, maybe. Not in anyplace un-urban in the northeast, especially in.. CONNECTICUT! Where the town of Lyme is, Jill.
And it does not depend on whether just "deer" visit your home and gardens. Many animals drop the ticks. That's why you have to be so careful around brush, or a woodpile.
Birds can carry the ticks, too.
And dogs and cats and horses and rabbits and cows and chipmunks and lizards can carry the ticks on their bodies.
Did you not know this, Jill?
Did you not know that Connecticut (Lyme, CT) is the epicenter of the disease?
Are you saying that you told Poet of a devastating risk to you, and of your inability to take the antibiotics that are the only effective treatment for it?
Between my husband and me, we've had Lyme disease five times, each time zapped it with antibiotics and got well immediately; if I were allergic to antibiotics I would certainly not visit any place in the northeast where there were not only deer, but rodents, birds, or pets. If I did, and got infected, I wouldn't blame someone else.
Jill, since clearly you still don't know this, do some research on it: There is no rural or country-type area in the northeast U.S., no place that features mice, rats, rabbits, chipmunks, lizards, squirrels, birds -- or pets that run out into areas where these tick-bearers live -- in which you are guaranteed safety from Lyme disease. Not all of these animals become infected themselves, but any of them can shed the ticks.
And you must, given your unfortunate allergy to antibiotics, avoid such areas, or at least be sure to be scrupulously covered, long pants tucked into socks, for example, and sprayed with tick repellent whenever you are exposed. And you must, whenever you have been outside, examine your skin from head to toe. Jill: If you are not now following these precautions, and are still strolling about unprotected in gardens in Connecticut, be aware that you may be infecting yourself over and over again. From now on, you will test positive for the disease because you have produced antibodies. But you are in no way protected by those antibodies from re-infection.
It is shocking, and tragic, that you didn't know all this. Your doctor failed you, if you discussed your medical situation, and your plans to live and walk in a garden in Connecticut with him, and he left you in ignorance of the precautions you must take. If he told you only deer were involved in spreading the ticks.
And it is tragic that you were so casual about this disease, given your allergy to the only cure for it, that when you did ask about Lyme disease in the area, you heard the answer that you yourself report, "I think it will be all right," and felt that that was all you needed to hear! "I think it will be all right."
I'm sure Poet did think so -- neither she nor Bill have ever had Lyme disease, and Poet is a gardener.
Jill, you seem to imply that Poet, unlike the renters who told you the truth, was trying to make money off you by dishonesty. How much money did she stand to make?
I feel very bad for you, having Lyme disease. You have my sympathy. I know from experience how debilitating it is. I think, though, that the temptation to shift the responsibility for your condition to someone else is, although consistent with human nature, unseemly, and one you should resist. |
