Be warned and vigilant if you live in tick country! I got my first tick bite here in Southeastern Pennsylvania during early Spring, April 2025.

The Bite:

The Culprit:

The Story:

While I was getting a shower the morning of April 8th 2025, I felt a small little bump on my skin near my left armpit. At least I think I felt a bump. Everything happened so fast I can’t remember exactly, but something drew my attention to the area. Maybe me washing the area is what drew my attention to it? LOL. But after decades of washing one’s self, how often do you really look at the area you’re washing other than a quick glance. Anyway… all I know is that I ended up looking at what I thought was a black mole sticking out of my skin that somehow grew without my noticing. After a few seconds, and with a closer inspection, I realized it was, in fact, a tick. A small one, that was partly engorged on my blood.

So I got out of the shower, went into the living room, and grabbed my Swiss army knife which has a pair of tweezers. As I write this hours later after the incident, I now realize there’s a pair of tweezers (that my wife uses on occasion) in our bathroom medicine cabinet. Duh. Anyway, I returned to the bathroom with tweezers in hand. It took about 4 tries to attempt to grab the tick by the head, which I was unsuccessful at doing, and which is how you are supposed to remove it so that you don’t squeeze the contents of its stomach, including any possible diseases, back into your blood stream. Well I couldn’t even see the head, let alone grab it, unless it burrowed deeper due to my prodding it or being under water during the shower. Best I could do was use the tweezers to grab as close to the skin as possible and remove the tick’s body & attached legs. It wasn’t easy, as the tick was burrowed in tight, and I had to apply a good deal of pressure to remove it. I think the head or mouth parts still remained burrowed in my skin.

I don’t know when exactly I got the tick or how long it was feeding on my blood. It’s stomach was partly filled and it didn’t look like it was completely engorged with my blood. Then again, maybe it was close to being fully engorged due to it being a small tick. I don’t know, I wasn’t about to play a game of “Let’s Fuck Around and Find Out” and let it continue feeding on me in order to determine how fully engorged on my blood it could get! I did get a shower the day before, and the day before that, and didn’t notice it then, so I don’t know exactly when or how I got it. I was out on a trail in the woods the day before, so I could have picked it up then. Other than that, the last time I was in the deep woods was the Friday before, which was about 3 days prior. So maybe that’s when it latched onto my clothing. Who knows? It could have been near where we live in the grass, among the leaf litter, on a branch, etc., and got onto me from just a regular walk around the neighborhood.

After removing the tick, I then drove to the local urgent care facility and was able to get seen fairly quick. Even the doctor had a difficult and I believe unsuccessful attempt at removing the head or whatever tiny black mouth parts of the tick still remain embedded in my skin. After they cleaned and disinfected the area, I was then given a prescription for Doxycycline to treat for potential Lyme disease. Not all ticks carry Lyme, but again I wasn’t going to play the game of “Let’s Fuck Around and Find Out”, so it’s best not to take your chances and get seen by a doctor ASAP. And if you are experiencing headaches, muscle aches, nausea, and other symptoms related to tick bites or Lyme disease, you might want to go straight to the emergency room ASAP at the nearest hospital.

I usually am lucky in avoiding getting tick bites or ticks on my skin because I tuck my pant legs into my socks, and also tuck my shirt in. But apparently I was lax that day in taking these precautions, whatever day it was when the tick got up under my shirt and onto my upper chest area.

This is my 2nd tick bite in as many years. I believe my last tick bite was in 2022 or 2023, I can’t remember exactly now. That tick was found on my inner right thigh, and I was able to remove it, head included, before it even began to feed on me and burrow itself completely into my skin.

So if you live in tick country, take the simple precautions like I do of tucking in your pant legs and shirt, try to wear light colored clothing, and check for ticks after your hike or more frequently if you are out in the woods for an extended period of time. They are slow crawlers, so you can catch them fairly easily enough while they are still on your clothes and before they get onto your skin to start feeding.