Doves - How's Your Season?

[dovehunter]

Except for Labor Day when I got my 15 bird limit the rest of my season has been terrible. I think the most birds I have gotten on any other outing has been 6. Maybe all this unseasonably cold weather we have been having here in Virginia has had something to do with it. How's your season be going?

[fabsroman]

Other than opening day where I saw all of 4 doves and none were within range, I haven't been able to go hunting because I have been sick. The docs and I think it is Lyme disease, but we haven't had any confirmation from blood tests yet.

This will be the first year in 30 years that I will not kill a dove while hunting. What a sad situation.

[skeet]

Luckily Fabs I have never contracted Lymes..but know many who have. Now if ya believe the docs..well lets just say it could be worse than listenin to a lawyer..but in about 40% of the cases Lymes may not ever show up in the "tests" that they have. Just my personal observation and that of my nurse wife. One fellow I knew pretty well contracted Lymes at work(state roads). They finally diagnosed the problem 17 days before he died. Guess it was just too late by then. A course of strong antibiotics surely won't hurt the average person..but they don't want to give you drugs you don't "need" you know!

[fabsroman]

Skeet,

That is the BS that I was dealing with from my PCP and my infectious disease specialist. I wanted to kick the poo out of them both. Today, my feet and knees are bothering me.

I just heard from a friend about an 8 year old girl that died from Lymes disease, and I have been reading exactly what you are telling me. I had read that before I even went to see my PCP, and argued it with her too. Needless to say, I'm not to happy with her, but I'm glad my infectious disease specialist finally decided to prescribe antibiotics on the last day of September after I had suffered pretty bad for a month. I'm probably going to have to go through another round of the antibiotics though.

Just got Windows 7 today, and that is another nightmare. However, I'll take good health over a perfectly functioning computer any day.

[FIJI]

I had Lymes when it first reared its ugly head here in MI. I knew what it was immediately from my dealings with Lyme infected dogs in WI.

Wasn't too hard to get the docs to listen (I was their first case) since I had the classic bullseye rash on my shin, Without that, it might have been a tough sell.
Couple weeks of antibiotics and that was that

[fabsroman]

That is my issue. I never saw the bullseye rash, and I think I have had this thing since early May/mid June. My cycling performance was starting to deteriorate and I had no explanation for it. I just did a cycle of antibiotics that was 28 days and I was feeling pretty good. The doc took me off the antibiotics on Wednesday morning and now I am starting to feel sharp pains in my ankles, knees, and wrists. This is seriously starting to piss me off, as are the doctors. I told the guy I was still experiencing pain in my heels and slight pain in my left knee with swelling in my knee, and I had been taking the anti-inflamatory drug called Voltaran. If this gets the least bit worse tomorrow, I am going to call him and let him know.

[skeet]

A bullseye rash is just one of the "possible" signs of Lyme's. A few questions that you don't have to answer on line..just food for thought. Have you checked out Lyme's on line? There are more than a dozen different tests for the disease. Have you been checked for Rocky Mountain Spotted? Have you had a urinalysis checking for excess protein in your system? If you have Lymes there are some drug treatments that may entail IV antibiotics for six weeks..maybe more. If you want to know a bit more check on line..or maybe give my wife a call. She dealt with lots of cases of Lymes in one form or another.. Lymes is really becoming a major disease in the Mid Atlantic area. Too many deer and not 'nuff really cold weather to kill the ticks off...and some of the ticks that carry the disease are as small as the head of a pin or less. Many people never know they had a tick attached at all. This my friend is a very bad disease as it can affect the heart and kidneys as well as other major bodily systems. The fellow that I knew from the shore that died was pretty much untreated for almost a year before he died..He did have other medical problems but the lymes exacerbated his whole system and he succumbed to all of it together.

[fabsroman]

Skeet,

I have been reading up on it, and my wife has too. She is the medical expert in the house since she is a pharmacist. She has also told me about the 6 to 8 weeks of IV treatment in the hospital, which scares the crap out of me. What really bothers me is that I think I know more about Lyme disease than my doctors.

Whenever I have a client that comes to me with something I only know a little about, I make sure I sit down and learn everything I can about it. I just do not get that feeling from my doctors. In fact, I feel like I need to create a time line for them every time I go to see them because they are too busy to look over my file and understand it for themselves and/or they see so many patients that they cannot keep my history straight in their head. I'm also sitting here wondering if it makes more monetary sense for them to keep me sick instead of curing me. I have gone to the infectious disease specialist 4 times now which has cost me $140 out of pocket. Mind you, I wouldn't be complaining about the money if I thought things were going well.

Tonight, the ankle pain seems just a tad worse than last night. I'm going to see what it is like on Monday and call my infectious disease specialist if it gets the least bit worse.