baddy wrote:
I did about 6 plants, and the deer got 'em all
...and then they left me ticks, one of which got me and gave me the Babesia parasite (nearly identical to Malaria), which sent me to critical care for 30 hours with a ruptured spleen, while my hemoglobin dropped to 7.1, .1 above shock/transfusion level, and a 1:6 chance of not going home...the bastards.
The parasites go for your red blood cells and multiply inside them, causing them to burst. Red Blood cells are coated with hemoglobin which oxygen sticks to, so when you lose them you start fading out.
When I left the hospital my count was up to 8.6, I was walking slow as a turtle, (normal range is 13 to 17), I got a preview of what it is like to be a 95yo. It took months to build up red blood cells, I just entered the bottom of the normal range 6 months later, and have a month of blood pills to go.
The next photo shows a tetrad structure of 4. It's this structure that distinguishes this Babesia parasite from Malaria, the most common mis-diagnosis for Babesiosis. Fortunately for the mis-diagnosed, the dual antibiotics treatments are exactly the same for either parasite, (atovaquone with azithromycin, OR klindamycin with quinine).
Interesting to note the fever cycles with a parasite. Unlike the flu where you get a fever for a few days then it goes down and you're done, parasites have fever cycles of increasing intensity, (like a roller coaster). First it was 98.6f to 99.6f, then just before my spleen ruptured it was cycling 102 to 104f/40c.
In the beginning you think nothings's wrong, then the doc doesn't know what to think cuz you sometimes have just a mild fever with no other symptoms to go on, then you seem better.
Getting better is the opposite. Lower and shorter cycles for about 2 months. You become an expert at managing night sweats, (sleep with a pile of 5 t-shirts next to the bed so you can keep changing into dry shirts).
...so if anyone gets fever cycles, get a Lyme A/ B test and a Babesia/Malaria smear early, so you don't end up like me!
It can be a month or three between the tiny tick bite and the onset of the first fever cycle, many never even know they were bitten, (I didn't). Some people get over it themselves, and 1 in ten hospitalized die..it's a whole range. Some people never get fever cycles, they just die one day of lung, heart, liver, or kidney failure.
It's ground zero in New England, and the upper mid-west. My admission doctor said "it's getting to be a real problem, I've seen about 200 cases of it." The previous owner of my house had it, and when I was moving in, my next-door neighbor was in the hospital for it.
This gardening is life-threatening work!
Lol, the ICU is a 24 hour non-stop flourescent racket with 4-hour blood tests to prevent sleep. But it's punctuated by nurses as angels who keep you informed and encouraged while they save your life...thank God for the nurses, they run the show.
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