Ryan and I were just in Vermont for the NORBA mountain biking national championships. He did extremely well, making podium for the cross country event and 6th for the short track. But, like me, he's uber competitive and wanted to do even better. No matter, he still rocked out, as did his teammates, all earning jerseys and or medals.
After a warm-up ride on Saturday, he took off his shoes, only to reveal a rather angry-looking patch of red on the top of one foot. Now, 4 days later, he's shivering with fever chills and is one eyebrow twitch away from catatonia.
I'm trying to play it cool, but even if they say a good dose of antibiotics, early on, will clear up the bacterial infection of Lyme disease, I've seen some bad things erupt from a tiny little tick bite.
For instance, a bunch of us have been renting a house upstate this summer. I can't quite recall how it came up, probably just a routine web search on the town, but after some minimal sleuthing it came to light that our summerhouse landlord was the centre of a rather significant Lyme disease debacle.
The short story is that her husband, already dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from an earlier incident, had unwittingly been infected with Lyme disease which was slowly turning him a bit doolally. It culminated in a 12-hour stand off with the cops where he shot at and missed a local officer with his antique rifle.
Ever since the incident, our landlord has been trying to fight for her husband to be committed to a psych ward, treated for the deleterious psychological effects of Lyme disease, and not packed away to prison for the next 8 years, as is currently his case.
Like I said, I'm trying to play it cool. Instead of going back to Brooklyn tomorrow, I'll be driving the invalid to Central, PA to see his family doctor.
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