Thrilling Survivor Stories / One Good Thing
And the story of a neighbor who really ticked me off!
It’s tick season, folks.
How do YOU celebrate? Are your clothes soaked in permethrin? Are you gardening in a hazmat suit? Or have you decided to cut to the chase and take a daily dose of doxycycline until the snow flies?
I ushered in this special season by — yes — having a tick pulled out of my neck.
I’ll spare you some of the details, but suffice it to say that I could actually feel it’s little hind legs brushing against my skin as it pushed its way into my neck, vampire-style.
As I stood in front of the mirror with tweezers in my hand, I realized I would not be able to get it out by myself.
The theme song from Ghostbusters ran through my head:
Who you gonna call…?
I ran through my list of usual suspects and dismissed them immediately as being:
Too far away
Too unreliable
Too “fainty” at the site of, well, anything.
I live on a quiet rural road.
I have one neighbor. Her name is Lisa, she’s very nice, she knows how to do everything, and she’s almost always home.
And so I called Lisa.
She was home, she was very nice, and she knew what to do.
I ran up to her house.
Lisa and her family members were having a quiet Sunday when I flopped into a chair on their lawn. Fortunately for me (what luck!), Lisa’s daughter-in-law Mikaela is a vet tech at Cornell University’s massive Mayo Clinic-style animal hospital, nearby.
(What is a vet tech? Well, this particular vet tech scrubs up and assists with complicated surgeries involving large animals: primarily horses and cows.)
Mikaela pulls a lot of ticks out of a lot of hides.
Naturally, I was extremely brave — as well as smartly dressed (I was headed to a memorial service).
“Wait!!” Lisa exclaimed, as she ran into the house. “Let me get my tick-twister!”
[I thought Mikaela was her tick twister, but no…]
Lisa’s tick-twister is a product called the Tic Pic, which she had just picked up at Price Chopper. “It cost 39 cents!” she further exclaimed. “And there are two of them!”
And honestly, when was the last time anything cost 39 cents — not to mention TWO of anything?
Have I mentioned yet how brave I was?
Honestly, this took some doing. But the Tick Pic really did work!
Mikaela put the tick onto the arm of a chair, so we could all inspect it.
It was not the behemoth I had imagined it to be, and yet … IT TOOK FOUR PEOPLE TO KILL IT. I am not kidding. We squeezed, slapped, and finally stomped on it.
Afterward, lounging in the glow of our victory (I was SO brave …), we traded Lyme disease stories, which is always fun. I haven’t had Lyme disease, yet — but the summer is in its infancy.
The New York Times published a helpful roundup of tick repellents and killers this week.
CLICK HERE for the full list.
The writer likes this product for clothing:
And this one for skin:
(I don’t think the 4 fluid ounce can is QUITE as big as this photo … and yes — this product is currently sold out on some online sites I checked.)
***** I’m sure you readers will want to share your tick tales, remedies and repellants.
And I am very much here for it.
But wait … there’s MORE!
One of my favorite podcasts features survival stories even more amazing than mine. I highly recommend that you check it out.
For one thing, these hour-long episodes are narrated by a man named John Hopkins, who has an English accent that I can only describe as “… dreamy.” Wow — he can make even the most outlandish and terrifying survival story go down like a warm cup of tea.
Most importantly, survivors are telling their own stories. And so — YOU KNOW AT THE OUTSET THAT THEY SURVIVED. This is important.
My gateway into the series was an amazing story I still think about at least once a week.
It’s an account of a tragic trip down the Zambezi River, where one of the guides leading this tourist expedition was swallowed by a hippo. He’s the survivor, so you know he survived — but how? I suggest that you listen and find out.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
Many many important lessons flow from these stories.
For one thing, every survival story reminds me of how amazing people can be.
I hope your week is amazing and pest-free.
And if you’d care to share your own tick stories, please do so in the comments section.
Love,
Amy
I’ve found that I’m especially appealing to ticks, as is my husband….if we’re out walking (on hiking paths, not in long grass) we always seem to end up with one or two ticks each, when our hiking partners do not. After this happened several times, our friend found a research article that showed a relation of tick susceptibility to blood type! “A negative” blood type appears to be especially susceptible….and guess what? My husband and I are both A negative blood types. So we are now SUPER careful at all times, all year round. Who knew??
Glad you had such excellent tick removal expertise just down the road!
A good friend of mine woke up in the middle of the night because she was having trouble breathing. She went to the ER and after multiple tests it was determined she had Alpha-gal syndrome. It’s caused by a tick bite (usually a lone star tick) and causes an allergic reaction to red meat. She had eaten a steak earlier and had a severe reaction. She no longer can eat beef, pork or lamb