Unwanted Guest!

Jason took the boys back to the cabin on Monday while BriAnn and I went to the doctor to get some meds for her ears (which were indeed infected). They had a great time and came home tired. Jason got up to go to work on Tuesday and promptly came in to wake me up with the comment, "Honey, I think I have a tick. Will you help me get it out?" Of course, I went to the computer and goggled "tick removal" and read a couple different sites to figure out what to do. All this was done just moments after falling back asleep after taking care of BriAnn. So, I was feeling a bit hazy and queezy to begin with. When I started pulling that tick out of Jason's back, I about went down for the count. I would NOT make a good nurse! However, mission accomplished! All parts of the tick are in tact and a nice specimen is now floating in rubbing alcohol (bottom picture). We will watch the bite area (top picture) for the next month to make sure the "bulls eye" ring does not occur which would indicate Lyme Disease. Those are Jason's hands holding the jar, by the way, so you can see what a nice-sized tick was attached to him.

Notice the nice swelling on his arm? That is from his allergy shots that he has been getting on a weekly basis for the past year and a half. He has only ended up in ER once and hasn't had to take any allergy meds this spring so we feel it is definitely worth the investment of time to get them done. Maybe some day they will let him give himself the shots.