My daughter and her two little ones, (4 and 1 year olds) were visiting the other day. Steph needed my help with the little one who had one of those mysterious childhood viruses and so the 4 year old could have fun running amuck. Poor little Nommie had taken a good nap in my arms and had recently awaken when I let Ladybug and Maggie inside to visit with the children. Ladybug gave me a good sniffing to find out what I had been up to. She looked over at Nommie nestled in her mother’s arms . You could tell that Ladybug wanted to jump up to check out the baby but thought better of doing it. After dancing back and forth on her front feet a few steps she looked at the baby then at my daughter and barked. Then she barked again. She wanted my daughter to let her check out the baby.

The baby started to cry, Ladybug looked stressed. I had to comfort Ladybug to let her know that everything was going to be alright while my daughter comforted Nommie.

Life with a Lacy can be interesting

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Brenda Sturman
Alvin, TX
blsturman@live.com 281-914-5635

I bet Ladybug is a good Grandogma!!  I hope yalls little one is feeling alot better.

I have had a scare with my son Dakota this week, he is 9.  Monday afternoon when he got back from helping his dad feed the cows he started to complain about hurting all over and was too hot.  At first I didn't think much about it because Sunday he had been doing slip-n-slide and I figured he had pulled something or just hit to hard.  Since he was so hot I told him to go lay in front of the fan didn't think much of that either cause it was so hot outside and he had just come in.  Well in about ten minutes time he started to really complain.  So me being the temperature fanatic that I am I got my thermometer and his temp was 102.3.  I knew then something was really wrong and him saying his whole body was hurting all over and his head felt like it was melting and he couldn't breath good I needed to get him somewhere.  I called the doctors office and they told me to be there by 3:30, well it was already 3:15 and it takes a good 30-45 minutes to get there.  I told the lady it was impossible to get there in that time so she told me okay 3:45.  Long story short he has Rocky Mount Spotted Fever.  I was surprised and very glad this doctor had enough since to realize it and not tell me oh it's just viral.  I knew Rocky Mount Spotted Fever was bad but until reading up on it and seeing the effects, never realized how fatal it can be in such a short time. 

I don't know how bad this fever is in Texas but I thought I would share this.  So if for some strange reason you or someone you love starts to run a mysterious fever all of a suden don't do like I would have done for myself take some Advil and go to bed.  I have never seen someone get this sick this fast.  He had been fine and went to feed the cows and within an hours time could not even stand up.  This is some evil stuff. He has run fevers all week long even with the medicine in him.  It really scared me when it got to 103.7 and I had just gave him medicine a hour before.  From the time symptoms started he was taking antibotics within 3 hours.  I would have hated to have seen the effects if he had not been given the proper diagnosis.

Sorry Brenda for being so long winded.  When you said mysterious illness for your grandbaby I thought of what we have been going through and I am just glad it was caught in time before it had time to do some real damage.

Amy

Now, that's just plain scarey!

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Clifford
TLGDA Breeder
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In the end, it will not matter if you were well liked. But, it will matter what you stood for!

Brenda, your Ladybug is a smart one.  She always seems to be very perceptive to people's feelings and emotions.

And Amy, you and your family are very lucky...great doctor to get you in and diagnosed so quickly too.   

Sure hope both of your families have a healthy fourth!

REbecca 

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"Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening"

OH NO!  Thank goodness the doctor recognized it and able to start treatment.  Tell Dakota that I hope he is feeling a lot better and thanks for the heads up on this. 

God Bless.   

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Brenda Sturman
Alvin, TX
blsturman@live.com 281-914-5635

so is ladybug handling the baby well, now?

 

Amy - how do you get RMSF?  I thought it came from ticks? 

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Crescent Moon Ranch
Raising quality commercial calves

Ladybug is handling it well.   She just stands off and watches to be sure the baby doesn't get into trouble.  Naomi isn't very sure of animals.   Their two dogs are very hyper and tend to scare her.  Naomi wasn't excited about petting the new to us rescue pony either.   She'll come around. 

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Brenda Sturman
Alvin, TX
blsturman@live.com 281-914-5635

Tracey, you are right RMSF does come from ticks.  From all the reading I have done this past week the minimum time the tick has to be on you is only 4 hours for the disease to get in your blood stream, however if the tick has not been on for that long and you go to remove it without tweezers you can squish the tick spit along with the disease right into your body.  I think this is what happened with Dakota.  We had been out moving the cows around to a different pasture and got wrapped up in ticks, but not as bad as we had before.  As soon as we got back to the house we done the usual strip search for ticks.  I have always, if the tick was just hanging on and not down in the skin, just pulled it right off with my fingernails.  I didn't realize that it was that easy to get RMSF I thought those evil little things had to be attached for quite a while and with their head burried in deep.  You can also get RMSF from handling a tick if you have any cuts, abrasions or by rubbing your eye the disease can enter your blood stream.  I also did not know Virginia has become a hot spot for RMSF or that if untreated or wrongly diagnosed that you can be dead in 2 weeks time or pretty much be messed up for life.  It appears that RMSF attacks the red blood cells and tissue inside the body and in 2-14 days after the tick has infected you the symptoms show up, in no time it can cause brain, lung, kidney, nurological system, joint pain damage, etc.  Alot of times the doctors do not think about RMSF, they think Lyme disease or that it is just a viral infection.  The test for RMSF takes several weeks to come back and only a few labs in the U.S. test for it.  So you can not afford to wait on a test result.

I have seen alot of people in pain in my life time but nothing like what hit Dakota, it scarred me to death.  That is why I think everyone needs to know about this terrible RMSF.

If for some reason you start to run a high fever, chills, feel like your head is busting with a headache, joints and muscles are killing you, feel like someone is drilling into your lungs with a drill, and alot of other hurts, go to the doctor!!!!!!!!!

This is the way I will remove a tick from now on:  Use tweezers, rub down the spot with alcohol, wash hands and if we are out with the cows everyone will be sprayed down with a bug spray that contains deet.

Dakota is doing better but he gets really tired easy.

I hope none of yall ever have to experience this.

Amy 

 

Amy,

We are in a hotbed of ticks in my area..I keep spray at the back door for my legs/ankles and a sulfur powder sock.  I read some time back in some medical journal to put camphophenique on the tick bite immediately after you pull it out.  Supposedly it stops Lyme disease 99.9% of the time?  This is what I do.   Until I cleared some around my house we were constantly getting ticks, I mean to and from the truck to the house.  But now that's it's cleared and I spray the yard several times a year we rarely get them while walking in the yard.  But step outside the boundary and you're fair game.  My horses have them alot.

We have a friend who had RMSF and he was seriously messed up. I'm not sure where he lived when he got it but wasn't here.  He had a lot of neurological damage but I did not realize how fast this disease comes on.  Lyme takes it sweet time.

You are so lucky to have caught this in time.  I'm sure Dakota will be back to 100% soon!

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"Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening"

Amy - we just got in from a trip to NC so I am just reading this.  Thanks so much for the info and I sure hope the little fella is feeling better.  Glad you caught it so quickly.  That's pretty scary!