One of the things at the back or front of every hiker’s mind is how to go out and enjoy the woods without worrying about dying a horrible and protracted grisly death. In everything we do, we try to avoid pitfalls and problems, and that’s logical. Who on earth would want to be trapped in the remote woods dealing with some scenario that would make Aron Ralston’s week in Blue John Canyon and Joe Simpson’s Peruvian Andes soiree feel like a couple of walks in the park?
That said, the reality of problems occurring on hikes are that they are usually simpler, but that they are just as painful. In this, ticks are one of the simplest and most common of the everyday hiking predicaments (tune in next episode for blisters). I won’t go into great detail in my discussion of ticks since I did that in the last issue of The Rock Hopper (still available online), but I will state that you should know how to watch out for them.
However, for this issue’s tick concerns, you should be aware of 2 problems that they create.
The first is Lyme disease. Recently, Avril Lavigne, who is/was something of a pop star (for those people who have no idea who I’m talking about) came forward to the supermarket tabloids with her revelation that she had this disease and is currently recovering from it. This brought out former pop stars like Debbie Gibson (who was famous in the 1980s and still has a sort of career) to empathize with her since they had suffered from the condition as well.
It’s important to note that as a singer with enough money to get treated in good facilities, it still took Ms. Lavigne (who it should be noted is also the wife of the lead singer of rock band Nickelback) 8 months of searching to get the proper help for her symptoms and conditions. With medical professionals telling her that she was just dehydrated and exhausted from touring, she felt misdiagnosed, and it turns out she was right to get more opinions than the wrong ones that she was being given. For most of us, we don’t have this second-level pop star’s money, so what do we have to do to know about Lyme disease and tick prevention?
Erik Nivision is less famous (a producer on HLN), but he’s also an interesting case of Lyme disease because he had the condition for 2 years without the bull’s-eye rash that people get to say, “Hey! Guess what?” Nevertheless, he had the disease despite a lot of medical professionals missing the boat on his diagnosis as well. As a result, he has a lot of lingering symptoms from the disease. This isn’t uncommon because even quickly treated patients who are given the all-clear will still suffer from symptoms.
Powassan Virus is the other concern, and that’s the extreme version of the 2015 season of tick problems. Essentially, what this means is that seizures, high fevers, and a stiff neck are the order of business for the disease, once it chooses to kick into full gear. However, it should be noted that not everyone gets these things because the person might not develop symptoms either. In addition, since there is a 1-week to 1-month incubation period, life could be hunky-dory after the woodland frolic until it isn’t. I don’t know about you, but that’s definitely not my favorite. Since there’s no treatment beyond respiratory support, intravenous fluids, and medications to reduce swelling of body parts such as the brain, the doctor will help the victim hope for the best while crossing his or her fingers that the said victim of the condition can be on the 90% survival side of the odds. If not, well, that could be a bigger problem. Nevertheless, even survival means battling through encephalitis and meningitis, and as those of us who know what an “itis” is, know that we don’t want the fevers, headaches, vomiting, weakness, confusion, loss of coordination, speech difficulties, and seizures that go with them, nor do people who survive want to bet that they can be among the lucky half of survivors who don’t have permanent neurological problems.
The good news is that this is rare—only 60 cases in 10 years, but Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (say that 3 times fast) has been noting that it is being seen again.
The CDC recommendations stand as strong for this as any tick prevention program—don’t go hiking. Just kidding. Do go hiking, but do the following: avoid bushy or wooded areas; use tick repellent with 20% to 30% DEET; use products with 0.5% permethrin on clothing, boots, or tents; bathe as soon as you’re indoors; do a full-body scan for ticks, especially under arms, in your bellybutton, and in your hair; put clothing in the dryer on the high-temperature setting for an hour to kill any remaining ticks that are hiding; and make sure to check for ticks on your furry friends who are hiking with you.
Remember my advice from last month: when asking people to perform a full-body scan on the parts of you that you can’t see, please make sure that they are friendly people you know. Random trail hikers might find this to go beyond acceptable levels of stranger danger.
That said, just remember to watch out for ticks, regardless of size, while you enjoy your woodland adventures.
The CDC's info on ticks can be found here http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/