2022 Life Logs, Day 287: Mah Jong and Teeny, Tiny Ticks
Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
Weather: Rain and Windy, Clearing Late PM; High 66, Low 63 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, Falmouth, MA
No. Mah Jong and ticks have nothing in common as the title to this log might indicate. I just experienced both today. During the night, I kept waking up when I rolled onto my left side. There were two places just under my rib cage that really hurt when touched. I assumed I had somehow bruised my side. Once I got up, I forgot about it. But when I was getting ready to go play Mah Jong, I put on a different top. In doing so, I once again felt the pain and decided to take a look. What I found were two very red spots with a teeny, tiny tick dug into my skin in the middle of each red spot. I quickly removed the ticks, rubbed the spots with alcohol, and took off for my 1 pm Mah Jong game. I had to set the ticks aside for a couple of hours.
In the fall of 2019, I joined a Newcomers group to learn how to play Mah Jong. I was just getting the hang of it when Covid came along, and I stopped playing for the next two years. This spring I joined another learning group. Again, I was getting the hang of it when summer came along and ended my playing again. Today was my first Mah Jong game since the spring. I am still learning, but the group I played with today was very tolerant. I will continue to play once a week and hope the other players can be patient with me while I continue developing my skills.
I must admit that I was a bit distracted today knowing I needed to talk to my doctor about the tick bites. As soon as we ended our games for this afternoon, I headed to a walk-in clinic to deal with the tick situation. Since I had a whole-body scan at the dermatologist’s office yesterday morning and no ticks were seen, I’m virtually positive that I picked up the little critters during my walk at Bourne Farm yesterday. The doctor agreed and prescribed one megadose of Doxycycline that I was directed to take at bedtime tonight. Then all I can do is watch for symptoms over the next six weeks. Sure hope the Doxy does the trick.
