After last night’s investigation of the tick bite, by coincidence I was booked in to see a doctor about hernia. It is a linguinial hernia (look it up). Although hernias can be self managed I have chosen to ask for an operation. It is necessary to fulfill certain criteria on the NHS such as the fact that your job will be adversely affected, that there is a risk of strangulation, that the level of pain and discomfort is above a certain threshold. The doctor who saw me was a student, clearly a ‘natural’ for the job. It made me feel at ease.
an indicator of the disease is the red ring round the actual spot. This could develop in days or weeks
We discussed the possibility of lyme disease and he said that it would only happen if the tick had been infected. Evidently, the signs are a separate ring about 3 cm around the bite in addition to the normal signs of redness. If I do have the disease, I will need a course of antibiotics at an early stage. It is currently too early to test because the antibodies will not yet have become activated so I would have got a false-negative. In any event, it is necessary to build myself up so I need good supplies of vitamin C, magnesium,and other things to bolster my immune system.
Chris, the doctor, printed out a 10 page report from the Internet, written in very readable language and I was able to grasp pretty much everything that I needed to know. Because he was still a student, the team leader of the doctors was called in to re-examine me and agree to make an application to see the surgeon at the local hospital. It was all quite jolly and positive.
It always takes me a couple of days to settle in after being in another place so I guess that by tomorrow I will have truly arrived home. The weather is going to be very hot tomorrow so I am quite glad that I have no gardening jobs on the go and quite happy to sit at home and read.
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