important health warning

I know, I know, this being my blog, you read that title and immediately expected some kind of snark, sarcasm, or ranting to follow. But, no. I am totally serious.

You'll remember my best friend L, who has made many guest starring appearances in the marvelous adventures (though she hardly ever reads here and never comments, being strangely not addicted to the internet, go figure)? L's boyfriend S was driving the other night when he suddenly felt dizzy. He managed to pull over and call his sister, who was closest in proximity to where he was. She met him and convinced him to let her take him to the hospital.

Well, it's good that she did, because they found an A/V block--his heart is not beating correctly. The doctors were immediately suspicious, because this is not the kind of problem that suddenly shows up in a middle-aged adult without cause. Either you are born with it, or you develop it as an elderly person. When it happens to a healthy adult, they immediately question Lyme disease. So S is in the hospital receiving IV antibiotics while they decide whether or not he needs a temporary (or permanent!) pacemaker. Scary, scary, scary for someone who felt perfectly fine four days ago--and actually feels fine now, even though his monitor shows he's still skipping beats. Also scary for someone who had a rash he totally blew off, other than showing it to L, who also blew it off.

I was talking about this with my boss this afternoon and he said his wife actually got bitten by a Lyme tick recently and that you never used to have to worry about it in cold weather, but now you do. And he told me that besides the cardiac and arthritic consequences people get from Lyme disease--which I knew about--they're also seeing dementia from Lyme in some people in a syphilis-like presentation--which I didn't know about. It's bad, bad stuff.

So! Please check yourself for ticks if you're working or playing outside, even in this weather. Please don't ignore any weird rashes. Bite the bullet, pay the co-pay, and endure the wait at the doctor's office, but have somebody take a look at it. You really don't want arthritis, a pacemaker, or dementia, do you?

/public service announcement/

xoxo