Why all ticks are scary, not just the Black-legged "lyme carrying" ones (and why no news stories talk about it)

Why it took me only 6 hours to get bit by a tick - but 20 months to feel normal again. 

June 9th 2020 I was bit by a tick.

Jun 20th I noticed a swollen lymph node in my chest.

By June 30th I was a mess of swollen joints (unable to go up and down stairs without pain in my knees) and my hands and feet felt like swollen balloons every morning when I woke up. This continued all summer. I was 3 months postpartum and tried to chalk it all up to that, forgetting about the tick entirely.

In September I remembered the tick and told my family doctor, who ran 3 Lyme Disease tests back to back, all were negative. 

I had taken a photo of the tick (then threw it in the garbage - one of many mistakes I made) but I was able to send the photo to etick.ca. They confirmed it was a dog tick, not a carrier of Lyme. I was relieved, but confused. 

September involved a lot of gastro symptoms and then my veins started popping out of my arms like there was some sort of blood infection. Then, overnight, I lost 20 lbs. This escalated my doctors tests, and she ran a bunch more along with another Lyme Disease test. Still nothing came up and the lyme disease antibody test (Elisa) was negative.

In November, I asked her for something for the gastro symptoms and she prescribed me an anti-parasitic medicine. My symptoms went away within 6 hours. The veins in my arms, disappeared into my skin the way they were supposed to. It was amazing. (She prescribed something similar to Ivermectin. The media wanted to downplay it as horse medicine, but Ivermectin is actually a very common human anti-parasitic prescribed around the world until the Covid debacle that forced it to become.....well...you know.

But within 2 weeks, all my symptoms returned. 

I went back to etick.ca and read the fine print of their email. It said: Dermacentor variabilis (, also known as the American dog tick or wood tick, is found predominantly in the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, and as its name suggests, is most commonly found on dogs as an adult. The tick also occurs in certain areas of Canada, Mexico and the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. (Mcnemee et al. 2003). Dermacentor variabilis is a 3-host tick, targeting smaller mammals as a larva and nymph and larger mammals as an adult. Although it is normally found on dogs, this tick will readily attack larger animals, such as cattle, horses, and even humans. The 8-legged adult is a vector of the pathogens causing Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), anaplasmosis, and tularemia, and can cause canine tick paralysis.

By now it's December, and  I go back to my Doctor and asked for a test for RMSF, Anaplasmosis, and tularemia. 

She filled out a requisition and also ticked a box for something called 'Rickettsia'. 6 weeks later the results came back, we had a winner. 

I tested positive for Rickettsial Typhoid, and this bacteria was what was coursing through my veins. 
I was given 3 weeks of antibiotics. 6 weeks later I broke out in spots all over my body. It was leaving me, it was the first outward sign of something wrong I could show doctors. 

But the symptoms continued, the ballooned hands and feet every morning, the swollen veins and the joint pain (which had moved onto my hands and wrists - rendering me incapable of carrying my new baby).

My doctor told me there was nothing more she could do, as per the guidelines of what a family physician is capable of. She referred me to an internist who said I received gold standard treatment (3 weeks of antibiotics) and there's nothing more he can do. She referred me to an infectious disease specialist who said they wouldn't accept me - they don't accept Chronic Lyme patients. I didn't know what that was, but apparently I fit the bill. (That's a whole other topic, google lyme disease conspiracy).

She suggested I go to a private clinic, a naturopath, for paid treatment. And promptly.  
I am so thankful she did.

After much testing, I was told I not only have Rickettsia, but also 2 different strains of Lyme bacteria.  The Elisa test the doctor gave me can be wildly inaccurate. I spent thousands of dollars, followed 12 months of treatment, and am now almost 100 percent symptom free. 

But it's tick season again. 

So I thought I'd warn y'all not to do what I did, and lose 2 years and thousands of dollars to one of these fuckers. But of course no one really cares about any of this until they feel something on their skin or their child's skin, and reach up only to find it...

Since every news story I could find on it downplayed the seriousness of a tick bite, I wrote my own: WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE BIT BY A TICK HERE.