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Wise Old Owl
05-12-2010, 15:47
On the last week of March in Pennsylvania (2010) I contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted fever on the AT. The headaches, rashes, and pain in the joints of the feet are starting to clear up. This is a rare tick born disease, about 3000 get it annually. Has anyone else been though this?

turtle fast
05-12-2010, 16:23
It is quite rare. How fast did your doctor diagnose your symptoms? Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is not on the fore front of most physicians minds concerning the symptoms. Where in Pennsylvania were you hiking?

sasquatch2014
05-12-2010, 16:29
I had Erliciosis (sp) which was explained to me to be similar to spotted fever and it was not any fun only a second behind kidney stones in my history of illness.

Wise Old Owl
05-12-2010, 17:52
They didn't, in fact they diognosed my dad faster and then after hearing what happened to him I demanded the same test. I was hoping for a different result.

HiKen2011
05-12-2010, 18:03
When I was a young boy, around 14 a good friend of mine who lived 6 miles up the road got it. He was only 11 yrs old at the time and had a very difficult time with it. He almost died. Was in the hospital for about a month, packed in ice with a very high fever. He eventually recovered and is doing fine today. Very scary at the time though!!!!!!!!

Dtour

Wise Old Owl
05-12-2010, 18:13
Yea It is scary, but I never got the fever in fact it was more like night sweats or flashes.

Wonder
05-12-2010, 18:34
A friend of mine got it south of Hot Springs in 2006......we didn't even think he was going to make it!!! We all had to stay holed up in HS until we found out if he had meningitis! I hope you get better really soon!

Wise Old Owl
05-12-2010, 19:40
Thanks Wonder, saw your dad today, he is happy about something... As for me its one day at a time.... the headaches continue and the medicine is the best.

K2
05-12-2010, 20:13
I hope you and your dad feel tip-top soon. When I was a child, I heard a lot more about it than I do now. Usually the one affected was in "critical condition." I guess treatment has improve since then, not that I'm old, he-he. K2

Wise Old Owl
05-12-2010, 20:32
You are funny we are less than 1 year apart and yes YOU are OLD!:D

However, I appreciate the good will, dad is paralized for an hour each morning... He is 70+ and I am worried his hikin days are over.

I would loose the best hikin partner ever.

turtle fast
05-13-2010, 13:30
Wise old owl you had to demand the test? Wow. I hope that doctor felt like an idiot.
Where were you hiking in Pennsylvania?

Wise Old Owl
05-13-2010, 18:09
Yes and the primary doctor just wanted to send me to the hospital without the test. The infectious disease doctor would have kept me there for five days while waiting for the result... That didn't fly with me so I went to a previous doctor that was primary in the 90's and he took a different more intelligent approch.

Yes this was the AT in PA. (Pinnicle & Pulpit)

Wise Old Owl
05-24-2010, 20:29
OK Here we are .... I now have relief from most of the symptoms after three weeks of the drug. I clearly still don't feel like hiking. But I am better. Rugby my Lab is rambunctious every time I reach for my hiking boots.

kayak karl
05-24-2010, 20:35
my son got it in NJ. was treated at Penn State. he also had all 10 bars of Lymes. it been a long year and a half.

Connie
05-25-2010, 13:56
Wise Old Owl,

In Montana, my mom and dad said people check each other all over. I wear tight fitting ankles of my pants, and stretch gaiters in tick-country. I absolutely do not go in known Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever areas, I am so afraid of it. I am glad you and your dad found treatment.

How much exposure time was it? Do you know?

I mean, do you have any idea how much time the ticks were on you? All day? More?

I am asking, because I have heard it takes some time for the infection to be transmitted. Maybe wrong information.

Wise Old Owl
05-27-2010, 19:36
Exposure was no more than a five hour hike up to the top & back. I have picked off ticks in less than half an hour... This time I did not see them and or knew I was in trouble till two weeks later.

I usually look for rashes each night - didn't see anything.

Connie
05-29-2010, 00:58
Oh man, that is sneaky.

I hope you dad improves. Are you feeling any better?

K2
05-29-2010, 20:12
I am not old Sonny, but is that a way to talk to your elders? (smiley face)



I hope you feel better too. K2

Wise Old Owl
06-06-2010, 20:02
Thanks K2! 1 more week and I should be done....got to get back out there.

Mrs Baggins
06-06-2010, 20:50
Hmmmm...........our cats go in and out and our son has found ticks on his bed because one cat likes to sleep there all day (we washed all of the bedding and he keeps his door closed now). BUT..for about 2 weeks I had a ferociously itchy rash from my chest to my knees, skull cracking headaches for a couple of days, odd pains in my hips and feet. No fever, nothing else. I was taking Benadryl every night to keep the itching at bay so I could sleep. It's all clearing up now but I still don't know what caused it and I'm only allergic to things like nickel and spandex.....and they have never brought on symptoms like that. Could it have been a mild form of RMSF? I never found any ticks on me but I sometimes sleep on our guest bed (hubby snores) and the cats were sleeping there, too.

Wise Old Owl
06-06-2010, 21:17
I have no idea, not everyone gets the fever or the rash but I did have the rash - One should get tested.

Tinker
06-06-2010, 22:11
Hmmmm...........our cats go in and out and our son has found ticks on his bed because one cat likes to sleep there all day (we washed all of the bedding and he keeps his door closed now). BUT..for about 2 weeks I had a ferociously itchy rash from my chest to my knees, skull cracking headaches for a couple of days, odd pains in my hips and feet. No fever, nothing else. I was taking Benadryl every night to keep the itching at bay so I could sleep. It's all clearing up now but I still don't know what caused it and I'm only allergic to things like nickel and spandex.....and they have never brought on symptoms like that. Could it have been a mild form of RMSF? I never found any ticks on me but I sometimes sleep on our guest bed (hubby snores) and the cats were sleeping there, too.

That's a tough situation. If you had dogs you could treat the bedsheets with a permethrin-based product. I heard that permethrin can kill cats though.......
I've had two episodes of joint pain last year, and I hadn't been as careful as in years past about treating my clothing and skin. Luckily for me both doctors took my suggestion that it might be Lyme or another tick-bourne disease and treated me with doxycycline. It worked both times. Symptoms began to lessen within three days and were gone within a week (but I took the full dosage of the meds- very important - once for two weeks and another for three).

se7enty
06-11-2010, 16:59
i just got lyme disease last week, and when the blood test came back they also found i had RMSF at one point in the past bc i carry the antibodies. i never got a rash. i do remember feeling sick: low grade fever, bad headache, nausea, muscle aches. my mom actually came and took me to urgent care, but the wait was 2 hours so she brought me back. i never saw a doctor for it.

i am amazed that i had it. i am amazed and feel VERY lucky that i didn't die bc RMSF can get very serious very quick. i do think i have a lasting complication from not being treated though. i've had off and on knee & wrist problems. neither the gp nor the rheumotologist could figure it out. it is almost like arthritis but i test negative for all of those tests. i think RMSF may be the culprit. that sucks, and i'll have to deal w/ it for the rest of my life basically, but at least i didn't die or was hospitalized.

Snowleopard
06-13-2010, 12:02
Babesiosis is another tick borne disease that people have gotten on the AT, carried by the same ticks as Lyme. None of these diseases are fun.
Wise Old Owl, I hope you're feeling better.

torchred89
07-06-2010, 15:00
On the last week of March in Pennsylvania (2010) I contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted fever on the AT. The headaches, rashes, and pain in the joints of the feet are starting to clear up. This is a rare tick born disease, about 3000 get it annually. Has anyone else been though this? I got it 6 years ago from a tick on the walk path that goes from Va to DC. My wife is Rn and was working at hospital on Sun. I ran 5 miles that morning worked in the yard and Garden came in house to fix something to eat and couldn't get off couch. Took shoes and pants off and saw all these red spots. Called Doc and explained that it looked like blood vessels busting under the skin and it was evan on the palms of my hands. She said I will call your wife because i want her to bring stuff home from Hospital. Wife started IV of doxycline but at 4Am I woke up in Hospital I was ICU for 7 days.
Joints still hurt for the first 1year I would wake up soaked in sweat andthen the chills. I would like to know if anybody else that had it has problems with the Sun I still can't be in the sun I get burnt and the cold bothers me to.
When I got this I was in perfect health lifted weights every other day and ran 5 miles every other day. BE CAREFUL WEAR BUG SPRAY AND WHITE SOCKS AND LONG PANTS

Erin
07-07-2010, 00:37
Ehrlichiosis. I have never been that sick in my life and the only time in my life I have gone to urgent care (just short of ER) No rash. High fever, muscle aches and horrible headache. I picked it up in Tennessee doing volunteer work at at kids summer camp.
I am was always careless of ticks before. Not now. Once I got the antibiotics, it cleared up fast but I had to get liver enzyme tests for four months.
So many on the trail this year seem to be getting tick diseases and having to get off. It is discouraging and I wish you all the best.

torchred89
07-07-2010, 06:15
i just got lyme disease last week, and when the blood test came back they also found i had RMSF at one point in the past bc i carry the antibodies. i never got a rash. i do remember feeling sick: low grade fever, bad headache, nausea, muscle aches. my mom actually came and took me to urgent care, but the wait was 2 hours so she brought me back. i never saw a doctor for it.

i am amazed that i had it. i am amazed and feel VERY lucky that i didn't die bc RMSF can get very serious very quick. i do think i have a lasting complication from not being treated though. i've had off and on knee & wrist problems. neither the gp nor the rheumotologist could figure it out. it is almost like arthritis but i test negative for all of those tests. i think RMSF may be the culprit. that sucks, and i'll have to deal w/ it for the rest of my life basically, but at least i didn't die or was hospitalized. When I had RMSF they told me they couldn't tell for sure with a blood test. What they did to me was take one of the red spots on my leg and cut a plug about the width and depth of a nickel and then they grew it.

beartripper
07-07-2010, 13:40
Yes, in 2005. Thank goodness for Tetracycline.

torchred89
07-07-2010, 14:31
Yes, in 2005. Thank goodness for Tetracycline. Do you have any side effect now?

K2
07-07-2010, 19:16
Well, W.O.W. hasn't posted on this thread for a month.

I hope you and your Dad are feeling better.