I thought the days of writing about ticks was coming to an end

 After all, I'm cured right?

But today we pulled a giant engorged tick out of my 4 year olds' head that has been on there for 7 days (7 days ago we left Grandma's farm in Saskatchewan).

3 nights ago we let her wash her own hair in the bath. Bad idea. I bet we would have found it had we done it ourselves. Grandma put her hair in pig tails 3 days ago, how did she not see it?

I've spent the last 3 hours working through the list of what to do after being bit by a tick - Written by me, last year,  here.  The most comprehensive "What to do after a tick bite" there ever was.

And now I sit here, shaken, uneasy, worried, frustrated, sick, desperate for someone to listen to me, angry at news outlets for getting it wrong every single time, and angry at myself for not checking her one last time before getting in the car to go home. They're so sneaky, I just don't understand how they can be so sneaky. They're biologically meant to go undetected, they first inject a numbing agent so the host can't feel them sucking their blood. 

7 days this disgusting creature lived with us, in her hair. 

I feel inclined to write or call Dr Steve Burgoyne, the Doctor that laughed at me and my list of supplements that helped my joint pain feel better, before sending me off with a diagnosis of nothing in 2021. It left emotional damage I'm still reeling from. The two women that treated me apologized for his behaviour, too common in the medical community. 

My daughter's seeing her doctor in 90 minutes, and I'm desperate for her to get home so I can reapply andographis onto the bite. She needs antibiotics now. In 4 days I should know the status of what that tick was carrying. It cost $375. A small amount compared to the $9,000 it cost me to get treated. 

So now it's a waiting game, but can we ever go to Grandma's farm again? Seriously?

UPDATE:
The best possible thing happened. 
The tick came back from Geneticks completely clean, it has never been on another animal before and has none of the 21 bacteria's they test for. 

Besides her telling me this morning that she's tired all the time, I feel like perhaps we dodged a bullet. And now the vigilance is of infinite proportions next time we're there. 

We still have to wait and see and watch her, and then test her in 6 weeks (when antibodies show up) for rickettsia and lyme. Doctor wants to be on the safe side, and she's only 4. 

But she applauded me for all my actions this week, which felt good. I did it wrong once, now hopefully I'll do it right forever more.