Spalted wood and some rough outs

[Jeff Nicol]

Well I took some time today to play with a few pieces I kept out from getting a bunch of firewood put up for the winter. I found some nice spalted hard maple, spalted bitternut hickory, spalted aspen and some nice ash too. I roughed out a couple bowls in the hickory and started a tall vase out of the Hard maple. Just when I was thinking all is going well and nothing is feeling to bad I found a tick on my leg yesterday evening, the picture is 24 hours later and the tell-tale "Bullseye" of Lymes disease is now present! First time in my life after hundreds of tick stuck in me that I was I guess infected! I hope it does not get crazy and make all my joints any stiffer than they are, I have a doctor appt. on Tuesday so I guess I will have to get the treatment!

More to worry about than getting whacked in the head while turning!

Do a tick check every night,

Jeff

[Ken Hill]

Hopefully it will turn out to be fine and you wont get Lymes. My FIL has it...not good, but will say a prayer for you!

[John Keeton]

Jeff, you got on it quickly, so hopefully the treatment will nip this thing before it gets far. I will add you to my prayer list!

[Richard Madden]

Same goes for me, Jeff. Glad to hear you are getting it checked out.

[Michael James]

You guys got some nice looking firewood up that way - good save on those pieces. I checked my spalting bucket (almost 1 mo) and there be snails and all sorts of lifeforms carrying on in there.....if the wood doesn't rot, I might get lucky.

YIKES on ticks..... I hope you get out from under that quickly. The medical challenge thing gets old....no pun intended.:cool:

[Paul Douglass]

Nice wood but the tick business is down right scary. Hope all turns out okay.

[tom martin]

Nice wood Jeff,
I sypathize with you on the tick bite. I live in a hotbed area for ticks and I won't tell you the last place I found a tick biting me!!!!!!!
If you catch it right away there is usually no issue. My 15 yr old son wasn't so lucky and has a limp from when he caught lymes when he was seven.

[David E Keller]

Nice looking wood you're spinning there, Jeff. I'm anxious to see the finished pieces.

As for the Lyme disease scare, you probably ought to get started on an antibiotic. If I remember correctly, doxycycline is the first line treatment. If you have an in with your family doc, I'd see if they'll call you in something. There's no sense in waiting another 48 hours before starting treatment... You could still see them Tuesday after starting the antibiotics. Take that advice with a grain of salt since I'm not a primary care doctor. Take care.

[Thomas Canfield]

Nice looking wood - bad looking leg. Hope you get that corrected and do more with the wood. I have problems with mosquitos in my back yard and try too often to get by without using repellent, and you would think that age would improve our thinking on those things.

[Greg Just]

When diagnosed early and properly, lymes disease is treatable and you should not suffer any side effects. About 30 years ago, my sister in law got bit by a tick and no one knew what lymes disease was. She suffered a lot and still has issues with the damage that was done. It certainly is nothing to fool around with. Good luck and get in to see the Dr. ASAP. If you still have the tick, give it to the Dr.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Jeff - great looking wood!

Sorry to hear about the tick - but we both know how easy it is to get them! Hopefully antibiotics will take care of everything before there are any problems! Best of luck with treatment!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice looking wood Jeff. Hopefully antibiotics will take care of things.

[Bill Bolen]

Beautiful wood....ugly tic bite. Please don't mess around with this. I have a close friend who is 100% disabled now from Lymes. Pretty dangerous ! Good luck to you. You are in my prayers Jeff..Bill..

[Josh Bowman]

Jeff, I'm with David, call the doc and get the meds called in. The way my doctor put it when I got Lyme's decease and before it was fully determined, 'I can give you this cheap antibiotic now and if it's Lyme, then it's dealt with, if it's not no harm. Or we can wait for the tests to come back and use this real expensive antibiotic and maybe get rid of it." I choose the cheap and sure route.
You're in my prayers.

PS I used your steady rest for a 8" tall HF tonight and it did great! Thanks again. Get well

[Tom Sherman]

Good lookin wood bummer bout the bite. God's speed healing Jeff.

[Tim Rinehart]

Jeff,
You bring something too close to home for all of us working on wood and keeping it sometimes in areas prone for dangerous critters to hang out. I'm always on lookout for black widows, brown recluse and copperhead snakes.
I know I forget about possible issues with ticks, so thanks for the reminder and again, prayers to your health Jeff.

...oh, yea...nice wood! I need to start harvesting my spalt pile before winter hits.

[Baxter Smith]

Pretty wood on those roughouts. If you do end up testing positive for Lime you should make out fine since you have caught it early. It won't show up in a blood test right away. Don't hesitate to get tested again in a few more days.

After a couple days of 103 fever this summer I underwent all sorts of tests including lime. Came back negative. After developing blotches, I was tested again 2 days later. Came back positive that time. Never saw the tick. Took doxycyline for 4 weeks. Other than being ready to take a nap at anytime of the day for the first couple of weeks I haven't had any lingering effects.

[Jeff Nicol]

I did some more looking on the web and saw a lot of pictures of others bites and some of them get pretty ugly looking. With all my other worn out body issues I should be able to get it treated right away. My wife's friend is our doctors nurse so we get a little extra help when needed and our doctor keeps my wife and I out of the pain realm with the best treatments as he can, working with us on her RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) and my shoulders, back and knees we keep him busy! So I should be able to get the meds called in to the pharmacy tomorrow, just another pill to take with the rest of them!

I have a few more big chunks of the hard maple to cut into, to see what is inside them. We cut all of the stuff this spring and piled it up on the edge of the field so the farmer who rents it from my cousin could plant it. The weeds grew up around it and we had like 12" of rain above average so that helped to spalt everything, but kept it from getting punky. I will have to get it blocked up and sealed to keep it in good condition.

Thank you all again, your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated,

Nothing to fear but fear itseslf,

Jeff

[Michelle Rich]

live in a tick area too...glad you saw it & getting treatment quickly..good luck..

[Jack Mincey]

Jeff, Best of luck with the tick bite. I hate the little pest so much I try to avoid places they typically would be until after the first heavy frost. The wood looks great.
Best of Luck,
Jack

[Dale Bright]

Jeff,

Get on the Doxycyline ASAP and make sure you take a Probiotic because the Doxy can be pretty rough on your stomach.

I speak from experience, I have been fighting chronic Lyme Disease for 18 months. By the time I was diagnosed, the Dr.'s told me that I had Lyme for 6 months to a year before we found out. I never saw the bullseye rash and I have never had a definative positive on any of the 7 blood tests that I have had. I have some permanent nerve damage, a Bell's Palsy and ringing in my ears as a result.

Catching the Lyme this early, you should be fine after a few weeks on the antibiotic. If your Dr. says you should wait for a positive blood test before starting the antibiotics, find another doctor.

Dale

[Jeff Nicol]

Thanks Dale for sharing your experiences with the little monster that can give us a big disease! I will send an e-mail to my foctor with the picture, or try and get in to see him today instead of tomorrow, he keeps his afternoons free to take urgent calls from his patients so I think i will be a shoe in. My appt. for tomorrow is just a meds check and to see how I am doing so short appt. any way.

I think all the rain we had and the warm weather the last few days and digging around in firewood piles put me in prime tick habitat. I had a little male deer tick in my back earlier this spring after collecting some cherry burls off some downed and dead trees. They don't carry the infection by what I have read and been told, but the little bugger really bored deep to get what he wanted. My wife had to basically cut it out with a little xacto and a very pointed tweezers. Like I said in an earlier post I get a lot of them on me every year, I must smell and taste god to the little monsters!

The season is almost done and we all pray for cold weather!

Thanks again and God Bless,

Jeff