Ticked off

Last Saturday was a red letter day: Jimmy went quail hunting! He mostly rode around in the Jeep, but he did get in a few shots, and had a grand time. He went with some of his old high school buddies, and they all belonged on the disabled list: Jimmy (cancer patient), Kenny Scruggs (Parkinson's), Buddy Coleman (broken foot), and Red Dawson (bum knee). Red's brother Rhett came, too, but I don't think anything's wrong with him.

Sunday morning Jimmy woke up with a tick embedded in his neck. It was a regular sized tick, not a tiny deer tick, and I tried to pull it out with tweezers, but the head broke off. I finally dug it out with a sterilized needle, and had to really gouge the skin in the process. After the surgery, we packed up and went to the beach, and forgot about the tick.

Jimmy's neck started to feel funny, and by last night the whole area was red and inflamed, and the lymph gland on that side of Jimmy's face was swollen up like he had the mumps. Dr. Romulo Alvarado from Valdosta has a condo in the building next door, and he looked at the bite and gave Jimmy prescriptions for Erythromycin and a strong antibiotic ointment. Romulo also advised us to check with Emory, which we did, and Dr. Langston approved the treatment.

He's 100% better today, but if it's not one thing, it's another. I told Jimmy last night, "This is absurd. We did NOT get you through two transplants and into remission to have you done in by a tick."