{"id":5997,"date":"2019-05-18T09:51:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T13:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=5997"},"modified":"2025-08-23T16:35:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T20:35:43","slug":"ticking-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2019\/05\/18\/ticking-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Ticking Off"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Jacki and Graci Gillen<\/p><\/div>\n

Oh deer, it\u2019s almost that season again.\u00a0 Summer is coming and with it an abundance of ticks.\u00a0 Not all, but some ticks bring with them a disease that is all too common in areas with a high population of deer: Lyme disease. <\/p>\n

Deer ticks can carry a bacterium known as Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted from a bite into the bloodstream.\u00a0 The blood carries the bacteria to several different bodily tissues, where the bacteria makes a nice home for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in my family has had Lyme disease except for me,\u201d Jacki Gillen, an UMPI student, said.<\/p>\n

Her sister, gram and both of her cousins had to be treated for the disease.<\/p>\n

In 80 percent of cases, Lyme disease starts with an expanding rash at the site of the tick bite.\u00a0 The rash looks like a bulls-eye and is not usually itchy or painful.\u00a0 It can be warm to the touch.<\/p>\n

As the disease progresses, other symptoms pop up.\u00a0 Other rashes may appear at differing non-bite locations.\u00a0 It can cause aches and pains in the joints, give headaches, fevers of 102 and severe fatigue.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my gram, she would get headaches and you could tell that there was just something wrong with her,\u201d Jacki said.<\/p>\n

Her sister, 11-year-old Graci, was diagnosed at age 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was treated for 11 months, then she was treated for the symptoms again at age 6,\u201d Trudi, the girl\u2019s mother, said.\u00a0 \u201cIt was really scary and frustrating because there was so much controversy on how to treat it. \u00a0Some doctors (pediatrics) would only treat it until symptoms go away, others continued treatment.\u00a0 Graci was sick from it.\u00a0 She had sore legs, diarrhea, very tired and had no appetite.\u00a0 The antibiotics messed with her stomach as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

When symptoms get worse they can cause a mental fog with people being unable to finish sentences.\u00a0 They can also feel dizzy and have short-term memory loss.\u00a0 The hands and feet can lose feeling.\u00a0 Joints can become inflamed and painful with arthritis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had it yet, but with my luck, I\u2019ll probably get it this summer,\u201d Jacki said.<\/p>\n

Luckily the disease can be treated to a full cure.\u00a0 Treatment should start within three weeks of contracting the disease.\u00a0 If treatment is delayed, then the chances of a full cure are not as likely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was patient. \u00a0I waited for the medicine to actually work and I watched a lot of TV,\u201d Graci said.<\/p>\n

In some cases, the symptoms of Lyme disease can last months after it is cured.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had good days. \u00a0They were like I wasn\u2019t tired and groggy and I didn\u2019t have a headache and I didn\u2019t feel like sleeping all the time. Bad days were I had a headache and I was sore all the time and I was groggy,\u201d Graci said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day was rough. \u00a0It\u2019s a floating bacterium.\u00a0 When you think it\u2019s gone, it would float to a different part of the body and something else would flare up,\u201d Trudi said.<\/p>\n

Ticks that carry the disease can only be spread by contact.\u00a0 They cannot jump or fly.\u00a0 Hosts are animals of all different species from birds, to dogs, to humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter being treated 11 months, she got better. When the symptoms came back at age 6, she started getting yeast infections and multiple other symptoms came back. It took a fair amount of time after being treated a second time for her to feel like herself again,\u201d Trudi said.<\/p>\n

The best way to prevent from getting the disease is to limit contact with soil, leaves on the ground and vegetation.\u00a0 For pet owners, the best approach is flea medication, which also helps prevent ticks.\u00a0 Ticks can spread in the house if they come into contact with loveable pets.<\/p>\n

Graci\u2019s home is on a dirt road surrounded by woods and a small pond.\u00a0 The pond is often too dirty to swim in.\u00a0 There is plenty of room for a little girl and her dog Diego to play and have fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh deer, it\u2019s almost that season again.\u00a0 Summer is coming and with it an abundance of ticks.\u00a0 Not all, but some ticks bring with them a disease that is all too common in areas with a high population of deer: Lyme disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8437,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5997\/revisions\/8437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}