In my life I've never heard of such. We took Meg to see the doctor today (not Dr. Heil, sniff sniff) and low and behold, she had a seed tick on her head. Huh? Where the tarnation did that thang come from? Oh, sorry, that's how it sounds in my head.... anyway, back to the point. So, I asked the nurse for a pair of tweezers so I could pull the little sucker (literally) off. She said, "Oh, I don't think you should do that. Let's let Dr. T pull it off." "Oooookaaaayyyyy, uh, if you think so. Well, okay... I guess."
Enter Dr. T.
Me: "Can you get me some tweezers so I can get this tick off my daughters head?"
Dr. T: "It's probably a louse. Let me see. Yes, that is a louse." (He is sort of backing away at this point.)
Me: "Nooooo, that is a tick. I have seen many a tick and believe me, that's not lice, it's a tick." (as it turns out, I've actually seen lice too, and believe me, that ain't no louse....)
Dr. T: "We don't have ticks in Hawaii."
Me: "Well, apparently you do because we haven't been off the island in six weeks."
Dr. T: "I'm going to need to send this off to the lab to have it identified."
Me: "Okay, but I can go ahead and tell you it's a tick." tee hee hee
So, we went on to laugh about the fact that this was so commonplace for me. And the fact that I have removed more than my fair share of ticks, between myself, my husband, and my four kids, there's not a tick I can't stare down at 40 paces. And the best laugh was that he has been a pediatrician for probably 35 years and this is the first time he's seen a tick on a child (or even a real live tick, for that matter.) So, for the first time in my life as a mother (and on only my second visit to this particular doctor) I have finally stumped the ped. Of course, it doesn't REALLY count because it wasn't Dr. Heil, but still.
Seriously though, have any of y'all EVER heard of such non-sense? Sending a tick off to a lab to be "identified." Sorry he didn't come with his papers properly displayed, but I'm fairly certain it's a plain old deer tick. There's a few things these island folk could learn from us Southerners. :) Can you imagine the look on the faces of someone at the lab if they sent that thing to LabQuest in Mississippi or Alabama? Ha! I'd love to hear what Aunt Susie had to say about that!
2 comments:
I am completely freaked out by ticks.
It's one (of the many) reasons why I don't camp.
When Mattias was about 5, he had one that had been with him for about a week. It was a BIG sucker! He's had one more since, and JOel too. I make Stefan deal with them.
This summer, our friends' daughter had a not-known-about tick. She got tick-paralysis, and was in Children's Hospital undergoing a battery of tests before mamma found it while braiding her hair. Once it was removed, her feeling returned to her whole body within a couple hours:)
Ticks are evil.
I hope Meg's ok. Good thing she has you for a mamma!!
HA!! Love it!!!
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