cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/1116242
Woke ticks are out to turn the US South into soyboys
(did I do that right?)
cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/1116242
Woke ticks are out to turn the US South into soyboys
(did I do that right?)
I got a tick bite. And I didn’t even notice it. It was right on my arm. So it’s not like I’ve just been sitting around feeding the fucker for the fun of it.
As the doctor told me. They can be very tiny, they latch on, and then you accidentally rub it off, never knowing it was there. And during that, it regurgitated and that’s why you see the giant tick bite mark.
The real question. Is why people see a giant hollow red circle and just ignore it. It’s a very distinctive mark, I don’t know how you could miss it, unless it’s on the back of your thigh or back. Go to the doctor, get penicillin. That’s it.
And these days, if you know you live in a high risk area, you can get vaccinated.
I never saw any distinctive skin signs after being bitten.
Then you probably removed it without making regurgitate. Which is good. Point is. If you see the bullseye. You need penicillin.
I’ll tell you why. Because it’s fucking expensive.
I had what looked like a classic “bullseye” tick bite (several, actually). People told me “run, don’t walk, to the ER”. So I did.
The ER doc told me it was probably fine but I should see my doctor. $600. They had the gall to bill me $600 for telling me to go see a doctor. And that’s with “good” insurance.
I still have no idea what caused those marks.
I’m not gonna justify a $600 bill for a doctor to prescribe penicillin. But $600 less in your wallet is far better than borreliosis.
And what kind of doc saw your bullseye mark and said “it’s probably fine”. That’s just incompetence. If you have the bullseye mark, you’re not fine. You need penicillin or you risk borreliosis.
Anyhow. My bill was $20 for the visit and about $12 for penicillin, 3 grams a day for 10 days.
Yeah, I was pretty freaked out. But on that part, I assume they just knew better than I did. To me it looked a lot like tick bite pictures I found on the internet, but I’m certainly no expert. I saw my GP ASAP after that and he didn’t think it was from ticks either. Maybe it was some other kind of bug bite, or an allergic reaction to some other woodsy thing. No way to know, since it all went away on its own in the end.
I’d advocate for erring on the side of caution, but I totally understand why people instead err on the side of not getting fucked over by medical bills.