Last night as Vanessa was getting ready to take a shower, she happened to look in the mirror and saw something on her back. She called to me to look at it while she was standing in her robe in her room. I glanced down and spotted something dark in the middle of her back and asked her to turn more towards the light so that I could see better.
There, in the middle of her back was a tick. I told her to lie face down on her bed and called in Chris. I had him look at it too. Then I told him to bring the olive oil and asked Jeremy to get a paper towel. We started to drip oil onto the tick, drop by drop, to try and get it to back out. Chris eventually took the oil, put some into a small cup and brought a spoon. Then I was able to dribble the oil onto the tick easily, using the paper towel to catch what ran off to the side. We did this for some time, maybe 20 minutes. The tick alternated between wiggling its legs and moving so that its entire body was sticking straight up out of the skin. Vanessa was alternating between crying, sobbing, and screaming. I asked if it was real pain or if she was just freaked out. She squeaked that it was both.
I thought it would eventually back itself out of her skin. When this still didn't happen, I told Chris to go read the medical encyclopedia. He came back with rubbing alcohol and tweezers. The encyclopedia instructed to pull the tick out by the head, as close to the skin as possible. So, Chris rubbed the tweezers down with alcohol, and then he reached over and got the tick by the head and pulled. And pulled. And pulled! Vanessa was screaming by now. Her skin stretched and stretched and still that tick held on! Snap. Finally the tick let go. Vanessa cried. I looked carefully at her back. All that was left was a tiny pink dot. I looked for, but couldn't see, any parts of the tick remaining in her skin. Chris said that he could see the tick's mandibles still on it, so that was a very good sign that we didn't leave any parts in Vanessa. I cleaned her skin with rubbing alcohol. After she calmed down, she went in and we both combed through her hair very carefully and completely. No additional ticks. Then she took a shower.
Wanting to be cautious, we emailed the school nurses and informed them of the tick bite. We also called the pediatrician's office, after hours. We quickly got a call back from the pediatrician's nurse. She asked if we knew how long the tick had been biting her. We had no idea. She told us to watch for a red, bulls eye rash, minimum of two inches in diameter, that could appear anywhere between 3 and 30 days after the bite. The rash could last for 2 months. We should also watch for flu like symptoms over the same time. If either happens, we are to take her in to the pediatrician's office and they will do blood work. If it is positive for Lyme disease, they will start an extensive round of antibiotics. I have heard of other cases of Lyme disease that is treated with six weeks of antibiotics. No fun, but better than ignoring it and having worse problems later.
We don't know where she picked up the tick and will likely never know. Sunday, she was playing outside at both the Tralka's house and next door at the Hanson's. Yesterday she was also running around the middle school field and woods. It could have been any of those places.
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