I don't like critters that attach themselves to my body uninvited.

I woke up bright & early this morning with a little friend attached to me. A tick. Gag! (See the thanks I get from my yard by going out there & working? I would've never gotten a nasty tick if I was in the house watching tv...) B-rad was already gone to work & it was in a difficult place for me to see. It was on my lower side towards my back. A few years ago I had one on my back & again, B-rad wasn't home. I have a tendency to fuh-reak when I realize that a foreign object is sucking my blood (unless it's Edward from Twilight... ahhhhh...), so I had to call my sis-in-law, Lora, & she was nice enough to let me go to her house & she got it off for me.

Well, I didn't think she'd appreciate a franctic phone call for tick removal at 6:30 this morning. So I took matters into my own hands. Mistake - big, big mistake. I started by rubbing a cotton ball soaked with alcohol over it. Then I tried soap. Nothing was working. That little sucker liked the taste of my blood. Since I had to get ready for work at some point, I decided to try & pull it off with tweezers. Please remember, it's on my side, around my waist line towards my back. So I'm looking in the mirror (backwards) trying to get the tweezers on it to pull it off. I ended up pulling something off. It wasn't the whole tick. It was just like a piece of its back with other black pieces mingled in my blood. Hmmm, ok - there's no head, no legs - this isn't right.

So I started to panic a bit because a friend of ours had pulled a tick off with her fingers & didn't get the head & she contracted lyme disease. And that is bad stuff. So I texted B-rad about what I should do. Well, he's all about NOT going to the doctor. So what else was I supposed to do but go to my peeps on facebook? I tell ya, I love facebook. You ask something & boy, do you get answers!

The consensus was I should go to the doctor. I went to the little family clinic they have here in Palmyra. (It is run by Floyd Memorial, so calm down... I KNOW what you're thinking...). I did NOT like the doctor either. I'm pretty sure he groped my left breast under the ruse that he was 'checking my lungs'. Hmph, sure you were. THEN he told me he did think I got it all but he needed to get something else. So he left the room. I heard him open another door, say "HELLO!" to the people inside & the door shut. He was in another room talking to someone else. Double hmph. Then he finally came back in. He sprayed it with some cold stuff to numb it while he dug on it. I said ouch at one point & he told me to ' C'mon, suck it up, wuss...' OK, doc...

He again decided I had gotten it all, but because ticks are tricky, he gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. But here's the fun thing about it - you cannot get in the sun while you're on it. Uhm, exsqueeze me? No sun?! It's freakin' summertime. How do I NOT get in the sun?! So I decided, once again, to go to my facebook peeps. My aunt is a nurse at Floyd (she's a nurse for the babies, whatever - details schmetails!) & I told her about the sun thing & asked if she thought it'd be ok if I waited a couple of days to see if it got red or I developed a rash. She said that is exactly what she would do because the medication can make me burn really easily when I get in the sun. I have a prescription for the meds if I need them...

So this stupid tick cost me time off work, a $30 co-pay & sexual harrassment. Next time I find a tick in an awkward spot & B-rad is not home - I'm calling Lora. Sorry 'bout your luck...but I'm thinkin' that you will not grope me...