Hacker News Reader

Comment by PaulHoule | Hacker News Reader

My wife (a horse riding instructor who spends a lot of time outdoors) and I were talking about the severity of our reactions to tick bites.

We were thinking that a stronger reaction would mean removing them more quickly and be protective against Lyme disease and similar tick-borne diseases. Both of us thought that our reaction to ticks had gotten more severe over time and we were thinking that was a good thing.

View on HN

This spring, unsurprisingly, I started spending a larger than normal portion of my time in the woods. I brought an uncomfortable number of (deer) ticks home in the spring and again in recent weeks. This is every bit or more frightening personally than Covid is. At this point I know every skin tag and mole on my body from doing thorough check downs every time I get home from hiking. In Pa. we have the East Stroudsberg U Tick Research Laboratory who will take a specimen of any tick found embedded or not and run a basic pathogen panel free. The few I've sent in have been clean but being familiar with my bestie's dad's experience with Lyme there's no chance I'm not being as proactive as possible.

I've lived near where my spouse and I moved for most of my life. The woods behind the house we currently live in are where I spent most of my childhood. Ticks are just part of the territory (many springs and seeps = many ticks).

I have never had problems with tick-borne illnesses.

We moved back here 14 years ago, and within one month my spouse was diagnosed with Lyme disease.

My theory is that I'm immune to it due to repeated tick exposure as a kid. Otherwise, it just doesn't make any sense.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com