Quote:
FJ 4 SKT previously said:
Dear Jon,
" No I'm not breaking up with you!" 
I took my FJ out for her initial camping trip to Tsali National Park in Murphy NC this past weekend. My family slept in a tent and hiked on trails. When I came home I took a much needed HOT shower and noticed 2 bites/stings on the top of my thigh close to the edge of my panty lines. I'm blushing. One has grown to the size of my first finger nail and the other the size of my thumb nail. I have put on hydrocortizone, but I am a little concerned. What do you think got me? 
Thanks in advance,
SKT |
One of the old jokes about treating skin lesions is, "If you don't know what it is, don't touch it. If you know what it is, there's no reason to touch it."
I'm convinced that I'm a direct descendant from Pandora because I touch everything. So far, I haven't brought anything home that I didn't expect to. I figure I'm just giving my immune system a workout.
The local erythema (redness) from an insect bite is hard to tell from a small contact lesion from a plant irritant (poison oak, for example) or from a small ingrown hair... there's very little way to lock it down.
The only thing I can think of that represents any sort of clue is that you mentioned this occurred along the panty line. That actually IS suggestive of a crawling insect that decided to take refuge under the edge of the elastic. Ticks do that... they've done it to me many times. The bite of a tick isn't especially scary, however some tick bites do carry infectious disease, and unfortunately you live in the zone for one of them.
The Carolinas are home to "Lyme disease" which is spread through tick bites of the species Ixodes Pacificum (if i'm remembering correctly) which is a really really tiny tick. You'd be hard pressed to make it out with the naked eye. The tick carries a microbe which then leads to a chronic systemic infection with a number of subtle (and eventually not so subtle) manifestations. If recognized, it's easily treated with a common antibiotic.
I encourage you to go be visually examined... it's cheap insurance.
Thank you for not breaking up with me. I don't think I'd be able to handle discovering your existence and losing you in the same day.
