Camp Crud

About six years ago, a very cute 4 year old came to camp with whooping cough, which I caught. I spent several weeks that summer with a deep, constant cough that sounded like an old man who had smoked his whole life. My best friend X, who was in charge of art that summer, ended up with pink eye two or three times, which, in my opinion was way worse. So by comparison, I got off easy in the category, "gross things you can catch from kids".

At the beginning of this summer, Counselor B came to ask if I had any idea what the pink bumps all along her belt line might be. I quickly identified them as bed bugs- easily recognizable since I'd had the same thing last summer and the three bites in a row are fairly distinct. Diagnosed in the same way this summer- poison ivy, poison oak, chiggers, and spider bites. All of these ailments are pink and itchy, but once you've had something, you know the difference between that and the other itchy things it could be. By the third diagnosis, I realized we don't need a camp nurse when I can identify crud based on personal experience.

So in my ongoing quest to gain first hand knowledge of every disgusting camp ailment... bring on lyme disease...

About 2 months ago, I felt a lump near my groin when I was washing in the shower. Naturally I assumed it was a deadly and horrific tumor and with death imminent, my reaction was to ignore it and pray that it would go away without requiring surgery or extended treatment of any kind. And it did. But only for a month. And then it came back. I was also feeling terrible exhaustion (more so than the normal camp exhaustion). I went to the doctor, who let me know that it wasn't a tumor, it was a swollen lymph node and I had another in my armpit as well. He did some blood tests and everything came back normal, so he said it was probably a virus and it would go away eventually.

The swollen lymph nodes went away, but the exhaustion and overall "blah" feeling didn't. I didn't have any specific symptoms except that I didn't feel 100% well. So I made an appointment with my doctor as soon as I got home and she took more blood tests. And on Monday called to let me know I had lyme disease.

Naturally my first thought went to the Real World Seattle when Irene went crazy due to her lyme disease. Lyme disease can be serious if it goes untreated- you can have neurological problems, develop issues with your joints, and many other serious things. But when it is caught early, 2 weeks of antibiotics will clear it up and life can go back to normal pretty quickly.

I didn't see a tick on me any time this summer and I didn't get the bulls-eye rash that usually indicates lyme disease. I'm pretty disgusted that I got such a gross disease from a bug, but it's not the worst thing that could happen, so I guess I should be thankful that's all it is.