Hey Trent, there’s an article in this week’s Georgia Straight about lyme disease that you should check out. Apparently if you save the tick after you pull it out you can send it to the BC Center for Disease Control and they’ll test it for you.

Will, I saw the article… If only I had kept the tick, I could have sent it in.  Lyme disease is actually pretty rare in BC (only 20 cases in the last decade or so).  It’s been 11 days now, and there have been no symptoms (well, I have had a headache, but I’ve also been cutting down my coffee intake, so I’m pretty sure that has something to so with it…).

Climb soon?  I’m going to start training at UBC, I think.  ANd I need to be motivated, or this year will be a writeoff.

I had one once, on my 25th bday. I actually had a big red ring around it - a sign of lime disease. I was freaking, luckily I worked at the Whistler Health Care Centre and got a hold of Dr. Walman before he left (10pm) . He removed it, sent it in for testing and gave me harsh antibiotics the same kind you would take if you were pricked by a needle.

6 years later, no lime disease which is EXTREMELY debilitating. Don’t take ticks lightly. Although I did not get lime disease I did have a symptom so had I not noticed the ring (obvious red), and it swept over my entire body, I may very well have contracting the disease.