This BITE CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER (story time)
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- This is the story of a bite that happened a few years ago that for ever changed my life. This bite at the time didn't seem very bad but in the end I will have to live with the pain for the rest of my life. If you love reptiles please subscribe. Check my merch at the link below.
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To toot another animal's horn it is estimated that a single opossum is capable of eating an estimated 5,000 ticks every season!
Father Possum they are amazing beautiful creatures
Father Possum aren’t they the only marsupials in North America also???
@Coochie Snatcher Yup, like cats possums love to groom themselves and their little joeys
@@atroxarmy7239 This is correct
Father Possum lol Coochie Snatcher
Man, you also owe your life to your friend who gave you a huge heads up about what it could be.
I owe my wife, she made me go get tested
if the RSF anti-venom was administred sooner, would he have the tingling still? (hard to wear pants symptoms)?
Thanks for sharing your story. It’s so familiar. I have a 38 year old daughter who contracted Lyme disease here in TN through a tick bite eight years ago. It went undiagnosed for several years before reaching the chronic stage. She became bedridden and then wheelchair bound before she found a doctor in Washington DC who specialized in Lyme and had developed an intense experimental treatment plan. Slowly, she got better but is still disabled. Her physical condition has greatly improved but the mental toil still lingers. It’s tragic that doctors are so slow to spot and respond to infectious insect bites. Insurance coverage is beyond tragic for these types of sicknesses. Your experience is a strong message to question and not accept what doctors say when your body is saying something else. Hope you continue to improve. Thanks again.
Which Dr? I have a friend who is struggling with Lyme’s
I would have gone to each doctor and mentioned that a hillbilly accurately diagnosed what you couldn’t seem to diagnose for weeks. And did so without a laboratory.
i know right!???
Cory Winters and people disrespect hillbillies for being stupid but this one saved his life about something doctors couldn’t figure out
They see it elmore often than the average guy
@@RogueDemon1199 This is the real response. Doctors know a fuckton. But mainly in where they are in a specialty. Occam's razor to a fault.
I am sadly learning that many doctors are not really very good at handling the unexpected and they really often do not try so hard. I friend of mine developed a disorder making it impossible for her to properly handle metals and she lost all her hair and even her voice. None the traditional licensed MDs in town could diagnose it. Out of desperation she want to someone in chinese medicine. They did some strange things and told her she had a problem with metals.
She goes to an MD in an internal medicine; they do the blood work and her metal concentrations were very high. Once they knew the MD were able to treat it.
The tick story happens from time to time. Typical is a young girl with red hair that is progressively becoming gradually more paralyzed. Finally one MD gets a thought and looks very carefully brushing the red hair of her neck aside there was an attached tick that was causing the paralysis.
These days you need to be your own advocate. Years ago I developed sever pain in my left shoulder and was about to go to an orthopedic doctor but somehow that got cancelled and so went to my family doctor. By that time I had a rash across my back and I suspected Lyme disease. The doctor told me a Lyme rash does not look like that but I had him test me anyway. It was positive. Thank God I caught it quickly. I never got the infamous ‘bulls eye’. Thank God for your friend!!
I got Lyme, but didn’t have a bulls eye, and didn’t know it occurred where I lived so wasn’t tested.
I have Lyme disease and I've had it for 4 years now and I use to race and broke a lot of things growing up and the doctors said it's chronic pain because everyday I woke up feeling like I just did a 10 hour day at the gym and then because it was undiagnosed I got rheumatoid arthritis and my hands kill me...I work a very physical blue collar job and I'm only 28 but after work and on weekends I just crash and sleep from exhaustion. Let me know your life symptoms@@kathybradbury
I didn't catch my Lyme disease for 2 years due to ignorant doctors thinking I had chronic pain and I went and found a natural path and within 3 weeks of seeing her she found out I had Lyme and rheumatoid arthritis which rheumatoid attacks your hands and feet and my wife literally has to stretch and bend my hands and feet and they sound like glow sticks just from the tenants and muscles freezing up
@@tristanwalker7522 I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve got what appears to be psoriatic arthritis-finger joint got very inflamed from the skin to the interior-and ended up fusing -same fingers on both sides. Weird eye infections plagued me on rare occasions as a child. Then the Lyme-could’ve had it for ten years before a random blood test showed it. I have been using herbs for a liver condition for years so thankfully have been bumping up my immune system for the past 35 years. Learned long ago not to trust MD’s after a botched gallbladder surgery.
The Back Woods Hillbilly Type to the rescue. I worked 35 years alongside the type guy you describe. To see him, one might think he's an ignoramus, but they would be wrong. Dude was extremely intelligent. I am glad you were able to get some help for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
“Never Judge A Book By It's Cover...”
A lot of people say that about me……toot toot
Dude, I was diagnosed with Rocky Mountain spotted fever when I was in my teenage years. I felt like pure shit for about a year before they finally figured out what was wrong with me. I definitely feel your pain. So glad your buddy suggested it to you to get tested.
I had it when I was a kid in my late teens.... I was deathly ill at first and then slowly started feeling better after about 3-4 months.... I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy...
I am 54 and last spring I was also (after several months of misery) diagnosed with rocky mountain spotted fever. It has ruined my life even though I was treated for it. I'm glad you got help.
I feel bad for the US medical system. Glad you are fine. In the EU, I prefer to use private hospitals even tho government run are good. When you visit the ER of the private hospital, the test everything and find the cause or multiple causes. I had food poisoning and they took a blood sample and a few minutes later they came back with a huge document containing tests for heavy metals, poisons, radiation, sugar, drugs, diseases and the list goes on. In fact, results that could not be produced within a day, the call you and inform you. So even genetic disorders you did not even know about, you find out.
good to share this experience - i have Lyme disease since 11 years -treatment was done too late - after a few years and now i have been diagnosed chronical neuro lyme and this changed my life - always tired -a lot of pain - no condition anymore because of the damage due to late treatment
I have never really thought about the amount of disease-carrying parasitic animals that snake consume along with their prey. That's definitely an interesting take, and a thing that even non-reptile folks can hopefully wrap their heads around that keeping wild herps alive benefits them.
I worked as a land surveyor in the deep woods and swamps of TX, and I got Lyme Disease about 10yrs ago. My back, hips and feet feel like I jumped off a 3 story building onto the concrete, barefooted. I encountered thousands of snakes and hundreds of alligators during my career, and never had a problem with any of them.
@Fred Garvin I did take antibiotics. I got a headache that lasted for six months before I went to the doctor and it took three years to diagnose, which by then I had other symptoms and still had the headache.
@Fred Garvin I have to keep medicated but I still do everything I did, just a little less of it. I'm always in some kind of pain that I just power through. I do have a point that I reach sometimes where I've done too much and am bedridden for eighteen hours. I'm good, though. I appreciate your well wishes.
I contracted RMSF as well. Did not know I’d been bitten by a tick though. Got a fever, huge headache, aching body pains, started swelling. When they finally released me from the hospital (first was meningitis) they diagnosed hepatitis virus and mono. Weeks later my family Dr ran tests and discovered RMSF. Ticks don’t play.
Glad you're doing better. It's always good to have a friend like that guy.
Isn't it crazy that something as small as a tick can kill you? Glad you're okay, love your content!
Mosquitoes have killed more people than anything else in the history of man.
As soon as you mentioned the symptoms, my first thought was: "Sounds like a tick bite".
Nice call the people being payed to figure it out failed
It drives me crazy when I hear stories about doctors landing on what they consider to be the easiest explanation without really trying to learn about you. A five-minute conversation about your lifestyle should have set off alarm bells about alternative possibilities. Glad you got to the truth.
I’m pretty appalled that especially considering your age no doctors asked you about your lifestyle, activities, etc., particularly what you’d been doing before the symptoms occurred. If they’d asked, they would’ve learned that you like to walk in brushy areas to find snakes to photograph. It would’ve at least gotten them into the headspace that you’d possibly been bitten by something.
Thanks for pointing this out. I used to teach medical students. One of the foundational skills of an effective healer is to always obtain as complete a history as possible at the very beginning of each patient encounter.
@@ogdocvato Every physician I’ve had in my life was thorough on gathering history - When did the symptoms start? What were you doing prior? Have they gotten worse? When did they get worse? Have you ever had this before? on and on. And I could see the wheels turning in their heads - complete dedication in figuring it out what was going on. That’s why I was so surprised he wasn’t questioned in detail.
My family physician would have been testing when I first complained. Of course I live in an area where lots of people make their living and recreate in the outdoors and he knows I spend time there.
One thing that's beaten into a new physician's head is to look for the most likely cause first (as it's very unlikely to be a rare tropical disease endemic to Bora Bora in a US Resident who has never left the country). If you don't have an ongoing relationship with the doctor and he has inadequate background on you it's unlikely that tick born disease would be a primary suspect for a big city doctor.
All doctors have a wealth of medical knowledge.
They are not all intelligent.
Knowledge and intelligence are two different things.
Mechanism of injury is a must ask question.
Already been bit by a deer tick and caught Lyme Disease. About 7 years later, I had a doctor tell me, (when told him I thought I might have the newly discovered disease,) and he asked me when I first had the symptoms. I said about 7 years ago, and he diagnosed me as not having the disease and said, "You can't have Lyme Disease because they hadn't discovered it back then." I quit going to that doctor.
Dude, my brother had rocky mountain spotted fever and couldn't walk at all for 6 months.
He eventually ended up with type 1 diabetes, and I am convinced it was due to the RMSF. Complications took his life.
Glad you are ok, be watchful. And thx for sharing.
I know exactly what you are talking about. I got Lyme disease. I kept getting pain in my legs and stomach and I would go to the hospital and they said there was nothing wrong and I was just a drug seeker. Until one day I woke up with half my face paralyzed and my wife thought I had a stroke. She rushed me to the hospital again and they finally ran the right test and found out I had Lyme disease. Then I had to go to the hospital everyday for 30 days and get rounds of antibiotics through a pick line. Sometimes doctors are horrible. So now for the rest of my life I will always test positive for Lyme disease. God bless you and your family my friend.
Ticks are horrible in the Appalachian mountains especially since we don’t have bad winters anymore to kill some of them out. Stay safe.
Winters? I've heard of those.... it's 60F here in ILL Annoyed a tad bit north of y'all. Used to be 60-below with six foot drifts. Even my possums come out on a regular basis to forage instead of hibernating. I consume Black Walnut Hull Tincture and have watched ticks crawl up me but not find a place to attach because my blood must not be tasty.
Excellent little story driving home the point of the importance of all creatures in a given eco-system. In a World still driven by belief-systems, snake lovers like you educating the public are very much needed. 👍
An excellent story, an excellent attitude. My daughter had the same thing happen to her when she was small. She started to complain of painful legs, didn't want to get up/go to school. I thought a ruse but took her to a doctor who gave her a real search, found a tick just under the hairline back of the neck. He removed it and in two days she was right again. Was such a mystery and went on for a long time before we realized she wasn't making it up, she was in real pain. Your story was so right on.
Kind of sounds like you owe your life to Travis too lol. Shout out to him
Indeed. I've read that misdiagnosis (or no diagnosis) is one of the top 2 or 3 reasons for patient deaths and his doctors did him absolutely no favors. He should give that a guy a MASSIVE gift box if he hasn't done so already.
(O)possums are also extreme predators to ticks. If you see a possum in your area, you should be really grateful. Same with bats and mosquitoes.
@Jeff Schwab Possibly. Their main diet consists of ants, grubs, termites, and other invertebrates, but they're somewhat scavenger-ish, so incorporating ticks into their meals wouldn't be a stretch. Armadillos play a significant role in the overall ecosystem of an area and should left alone, especially since they are a potential leprosy carrier.
If I saw possums, raccoons, bats, and armadillos in my neighborhood, I'd feel very blessed, as they all feed on fairly dire pests to humans. We have a bat colony near our house and there's been a steep reduction in the mosquito population. So much so that the city suspended their pesticide runs on my block (it was really, REALLY bad at one point, as you couldn't step outside without getting swarmed).
Was just typing the same thing then seen your comment
@@fredleggett923 Possums with or without the "O" live in my tool shed over the winter. They eat all of the persimmons on the ground. I used to be upset until I found that they DO NOT CARRY RABIES like skunks and raccoons. They act like they own the place AND they eat cockroaches. The saddest part of all of this is that they have better looking teeth than I do.
@@vaccinefraud5570 I read somewhere that it's not 100% impossible for (o)possums to carry rabies, but highly unlikely, so I'd still get tested if I was bit or scratched by one. The ginormous problem with rabies is that you're a goner once you start to exhibit symptoms, as that means the virus has made it to your central nervous system and brain. There's been only one survivor of a person presenting with rabies symptoms and she had to undergo an extremely severe and experimental medical procedure. Even then, she still came out in the end with significant neurological issues.
TBH, rabies scares the bejeezus out of me, as it's a terrible, just terrible way to die and you often don't know you've contracted the virus until it's too late. Living in Florida, I've sometimes thought about getting the vaccine series, but it's $500 at a minimum for protection against an admittedly exotic disease. I've also often wondered about its effectiveness since the medical professional states that you should still get a booster if you think you've had contact with rabies, even if you've been vaccinated.
Anyway, it's best to just steer clear of critters like armadillos and bats and let them do their thing.
Thats crazy man all the dangerous things you have been in contact with and something like that just goes to show you you could handle venomous 10 times a day and cut your finger at work and go from a blood infection you just never know and i like how you related that with the snakes eating ticks from the other animals thats something id never really think of good thing your around to give us that imformation!!! 1 more reason to never give up again! Great story time!
Wow!!
Thanks so much for sharing.
Of all things......a tick.
Those little critters can be so dangerous.
Looking forward to more "storytime" 😊
Just found your channel, I love snakes and reptiles. I live in Illinois right next to St Louis, I'm 18 and currently working on getting into college for a degree in biology with a focus on herpatology, I know it's a very hard career path but it's been my passion ever since I was a kid. Keep up the videos I've been watching all day!
Girl..I am almost sixty and also love snakes and gators but was never in a position to follow that dream so you young one will be awesome if you keep walking this path!!! Make it fun!!!
Rocky Mountain spotted fever took years off of my dogs life. Early onset of arthritis etc. She was the best girl I've ever had,..irreplaceable.
Glad they were able to figure it out. I know all about nerve pain so I know what you are talking about with clothes hurting and joints and all that. Mine is multiple sclerosis so incurable but my medication helps alot. It's also why I dont have any snakes or reptiles anymore. It's hard to take care of them when you cant feel your arms and they dont wanna work right! So glad you are better and thank your friend for figuring it out!
Great story. I've been known to rescue rattle snakes from my neighbour. He can't tell the difference between a golfer or a rattle. Never made the connection between ticks and snakes before. Kind of like bats and mosquitoes.
I'm glad you're ok and that Billy-Bob knew what you had.
Seems that a hill Billy might be more knowledgeable than some doctors
It’s all about context. Doctors rarely see tick borne disease because they aren’t out and about in the bus, and don’t hear about these diseases. Billy-Bob lives in a rural environment and hears about nature related illnesses all the time - plus he has to be aware of them for his own health reasons. I’m sure the doctors deal with cases that HE has never heard of or know what the symptoms might be…
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever usually presents with an EXTREMELY obvious rash, but that's only like 70% of the time. They've been trained to look for that rash, but the remaining 30% of people are left to figure it out on their own.
Had a rash a week or two after coming back from the Rockies. That was actually the first thing they checked for - then Koplik's spots for measles. Wasn't that either. They finally figured out that it was a possible penicillin - years later, they figured out that it wasn't that. In any case, the rash faded after a day or two.
I got it when I was 14. I wasn't wearing a shirt one day, and my mom noticed a big circular rash on my bag.
At first, we thought it might be a spider bite, but thankfully I got a blood test that showed RMSF and then remembered pulling a tick off my back 6-8 weeks earlier.
Fortunately, I didn't have any symptoms besides the rash.
I got RMSF when I was 22 (2001). I had just graduated from school in Montana and moved back to Southern California. About a week later I started to feel run down and then the rash appeared, and a few days after that I went to see the doc. I never found or felt the tick but my doctor somehow put two and two together and had me tested.
It was the first case he had seen in his long career and I can't imagine what would have happened had he not been so attentive.
They loaded me up on antibiotic injections and I soon became the star patient at the hospital...just a constant stream of doctors and nurses coming in to see its effects in the flesh.
A few days into it I also got the joint pain but mostly in my wrists. That lasted for months.
I was obviously much more fortunate than you, but I had two other symptoms you didn't. The first was "mental confusion." That's literally what the doctor called it. I remember one day putting my shoes on and having no idea how to tie the laces. I had one in each hand and knew that I knew how to tie them but couldn't. That was a very, very weird feeling.
The other came a couple weeks after I recovered (about a month after diagnosis) when thick sheets of skin on my hands and feet started to peel off. We're talking leather thick, not blister thick, but not raw or burning. . I had no fingerprints for a few months (I can't tell you how many people have told me I should have robbed a bank) and had the most incredible sense of touch...glass countertops felt like sandpaper and my hair felt like straw.
Anyhow, I just thought I'd share my RMSF experience. Not too many of us out there.
It's crazy how many doctors use dice for diagnosis these days! Scary also! I'm going through it with migraines now and have been for over 5 years. So sorry you went through that. I sure hope you do the best you can, I wish you the best health. It SUCKS suffering!
Several years ago a Colorado couple were visiting New York City, Central Park, when they both came down with what they thought was the flu, getting sicker by the minute they called a cab to go to the emergency room, turns out they both had the plague, she had bubonic plague, he had pneumonic plague, put him in a drug induced coma to try to save his life, when he woke up, I don't remember what limbs he lost, they had this couple retrace their days, Central Park was closed, nothing found there, thinking back they remembered taking a hike behind their house, the authorities found dead squirrels, they had been bitten by infected, plague fleas from dead squirrels. I learned there are 3 types of plague, bubonic, pneumonic, septicemic, if it goes directly into your blood, that's the deadliest, A 6'4" 16 yr old lost his life from that one, they think he had been bitten while at a barbecue at his grandfather's ranch, they said he probably didn't even feel the bite. Something as tiny as a flea could be that deadly.
I've been in the military near death accidents where people was left dead and legless. Combat situations, I've been shot in the back and stabbed twice. Nearly killed in 1 mass shooting, almost got into a fight with Virginia Tech shooter Cho and the only thing that has nearly killed me was a Black Widow spider bite to the finger....image that. Arrrrgh!
Good life story! Us herpers have some really cool, sometimes scary, adventure stories. You were very, very lucky lucky to have run into that good ol boy. You don't have to be a doctor to figure out a health issue, just someone who remembers something he or she had heard or something handed down by word of mouth.
I remember a story about a little girl who went into a coma, and no one, including the doctors in an emergency, could figure out what she had. All the doctors that looked at her were stumped. It wasn't until one doctor looked at her hair and scalp and found a tic well sunken into her flesh. Shortly after removing the tic, she came to and got better.
Crazy stuff!
Amen ❤I'm 🙏 glad she got better
thats the plot of a house episode lol
My daughter has chronic nervous system problems from Lyme’s disease. It was 2 years before she was given antibiotics after her bite. These long-lasting complications are no joke!
I’m the same way. I’ve had horrible symptoms for almost five years :/
From how you described your symptoms, they were not the usual ones that one has. Glad you got the right treatment which is pretty easy with antibiotics.
Thank Gods for Travis!! Sorry you have residual pain and suffering but happy you are still here
Thanks for uploading this. I have Lymes disease and I know exactly the pain that u have been feeling my thoughts r with u. I'm wanting to get some Merch. Just can't afford it yet since I'm on disability. Maybe soon.
@354 HEMI don't eat meat.
@354 HEMI I have gastroperesis and cant digest any food.
I am so very sorry that you have to suffer so much. I wish you all the best, may healing come to you fast!
Good story, dude. Well told. I live in PA so no shortage of ticks or the diseases they are responsible for. Ive known many people with both Lymes and RSF. Serious stuff.
Yes it is and thank you
I live in Lyme Connecticut right down the road from where the first case of Lyme disease was ever reported
You owe your life to your friend who told you what it might be not a snake
Really interesting story and great info I hadn't even considered about tics. I totally get the bit about people thinking your crazy wearing shorts in winter. I suffer from a near constant migraine so I have to wear sunglasses most of the time even when it's dull and raining which here in Ireland is most of the time
I've had a constant 24/7 migraine for 30 years since early teens, kept getting worse as I got older and sleep makes it worse, go to bed with the migraine and know when I first wake up it will be cracking. Dies down a little during the day, but not much.
Also comes with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. People look at you like you've got two heads when you say you've got a non-stop migraine, doesn't compute, you'll get far more understanding from a once a month migraine condition than a constant one, which I suppose because of it's seeming absurdity isn't taken seriously. Mine sounds a bit different to yours as I'm not light sensitive. But the pain's real enough, all through the neck muscles too. Constant really loud white noise pulsing through my head at the beat of the pulse. Existence is an eternal lake of fire.
Try this youtube channel, it's been helping me when nothing else has ruclips.net/channel/UCe2XcRqNNRbkcbzC71s8DIw Because of it I've radically reduced my medication dosage and am hopeing to go all the way, but if I'd learnt this stuff 15 years ago before I went onto the current medication I'd have been able to remedy the situation far more quickly. Don't let it get literally constant like mine. Almost constant is bad enough.
My maternal grandmother, who's in her 90s now, has had a constant headache since she was young, although nowhere the intensity of mine, more like a constant 1 or 2/10. But like mine hers is also renewed by sleep.
My sister had Rocky Mountain when she was just a few yrs old,we were told by docs there was no way she had it as it wasnt in our state.well mom and dad after fighting and trying every med almost owned that docs ass and practice.they gave in,tested her and found out.she almost died.it was so bad we had to do everything for her including carrying her as she couldn’t walk.do not mess with those nasty creatures and trust your instinct
Great story time. I appreciate your content and your passion for reptiles!
Same thing happened to me! The doctors said I had diverticulitis… just so happened I was on a vacation in Florida and even told them I had been bitten… went 5 days and got back home in north Alabama. Went to my doctor and they took blood and sent it off. Got a call from CDC saying I tested positive for RMSTF but it looked that I had beaten it…. My symptoms were so different from yours, i lost all appetite, during the day would just feel like I had the flu but no fever then at night around 6pm for 5 nights would have a fever of 104.3! Even froze in a hot tub…. I guess my body ended up beating it by itself but the doc still gave me the antibiotics as soon as I told him I got a tick off of me
Great story!! I have been studying various reptiles in my freetime for a couple of years now, I just recently found out about how many ticks rattlesnakes and copperheads digest. I live in an area where Lyme diesease is a common threat but at the same time there's people who think a common garter snake is a copperhead and will just kill it.
And tbh a copperhead is relatively the least deadly of all vipers. Their bites are very rarely fatal outside of small children and pets. Not even really hating on them for it, I'm Js that copperheads truly aren't as dangerous as they're made out to be.
It is possible and does happen where a healthy adult can survive a copperhead bite without any medical treatment, it will be highly uncomfortable 🥵 but they typically live. Where as you will certainly die if you don't seek treatment for a rattlesnake bite.
@@Redbird10 exactly. I've seen some pretty painful looking copperhead bites. One of my mom's friends stepped on one while hiking and got bit on his ankle. His ankle was dark purple and blue and was very swollen. He even had to use cruches to help move around for a few weeks but it was strickly cosmetic I guess you could say. It didn't have any affect on his heart or nervous system like rattlesnake venom.
@@amandamosteller1371 yeah, or well technically it does have those effects, it is a pit viper, but it isn't potent enough or carry enough venom to kill a healthy adult male, especially not if they're on the larger side. It will kill small children and pets tho without medical attention.
I went 15+ years misdiagnosed with Babesiosis, which is a tick coinfection (protozoa) similar to Lyme (bacterial). After three years of treatment I'm clear of the disease, but the damage is done. Most doctors continue to disagree with the medical PCR test in favor of Rheumatoid, which I've tested negative twice. Our medical system is very, very broken.
Glad you were able to find treatment, but sorry to hear you have a chronic condition as a result of medical ineptitude.
Hey man thanks for another awesome video 👍 really enjoyed you kinda telling us why your so In to rattlesnakes..they really are interesting and beautiful..hope you have a great day
glad travis knew it because im a critical care nurse and dude I was clueless. its just not something you see very often
I got Lymes disease from a tick when I was a kid. Went to the hospital and got antibiotics.. but as Ive gotten older I've been having neurological issues. It sucks.
I'm treating Lyme and coinfections. I'd find a Lyme literate doc. I had Neuro issues related to Lyme. But getting better with treatment!!
Seriously some doctors you wonder how TF they got a licence. I'm glad you're here to tell the story and it's obvious you love and respect nature
In our system of top down centralized medicine our doctors follow a protocol for everything. They have become automatons.
I used to shoot possums on sight while out hunting. That is, until I learned that they eat a ton of ticks. I HATE ticks. Everyone has their phobia and ticks are mine. Ever since I found out they eat ticks, they get a pass.
Tryin' to figure why you should 'get a pass'.
@@donaldsmith3926 I was young and stupid. Like you've never made a mistake and learned from it.
@@deancerny9509 Many and varied mistakes, but tried not to make irreversible ones.
@@donaldsmith3926 I didnt break any laws. It was perfectly legal to do. I just realized that they're good for the environment and decided to stop killing them.
@@deancerny9509 legal yes, but killing animals for no reason is one of the signs of being a psychopath, so...
ICU nurse here, seen multiple people die from Lymes and Spotted fever. Many more with permanent disability. It is an often missed dx, even when tested for it, as the results are miss read.
Really ironic that you handle all those venomous snakes and as you say, here it was this little wee tick that almost killed you! Wow. Thanks for telling that story. Who knows whose life you may have saved by doing so!? Pretty shocking that it was you who had to ask the doctors to do the test. Love your stories. :-)
Interesting story.
Liked and subscribed 👍
God Bless you Brother. It's great to know that you are saved!! It's the single most important decision a person can make during their lifetime. Great video!!!
This happened to my baby sister. She all of a sudden lost her ability to walk. No doctors could find what was wrong with her. They flew her to two different hospitals. My father was praying in the room and the HOLYSPIRIT spoke to him and said check in her hair. In her hair under her braids was a tick! None of us had ever heard anything about this and this was before google and phones and all of that. So it was years ago!!! My sister was only 6 years old. She is now 25. It pays to have a relationship with GOD! He is real! My dad knew nothing about why he was looking through her hair. He simply obeyed what he heard.
My phone keeps freezing but I’m gonna come back , I am thinking this is Lyme disease for some reason ... just a pre watch guess lol, ok I knew it , only reason is cause I thought my Dog broke it’s back all of a sudden she couldn’t stand up and acted paralyzed, and she had Lyme disease
Very close did you puppy recover?
Wow me brethren. Thanks for sharing your story. Animals playing their role in the ecosystem is very important. That's why we must respect, educate, love & protect wild life. Keep up the good work me friend. Be blessed
1:55 : That's allodynia, and it's basically a neurological phenomenon wherein a normally non-noxious stimuli is perceived as painful. It's a symptom, a catch-all for many, many different but similar types of inordinate perceptions of pain that arise from many various normally innocuous stimuli. It could be a VERY light stroking of the fingertip across the bare chest, a light breeze to exposed skin, or any number of other normally innocuous stimuli that produce the sensation of pain to any number of areas of the body. Oddly enough, I had a good friend, now deceased, that had a real hard battle with diabetes along with numerous other neuropathic issues, and he quite often had the exact same pain that you had, albeit asymmetric (not sure if Venomman20's was fully symmetric, largely asymmetric, or lightly asymmetric. His pants legs drove him slap a$$ NUTS, especially in the area of the the thighs. Believe it or not (and no, I didn't ask him how he came to the following conclusion, as I did not then, nor do I now, want to know how he figured this out!), he realized that if he wore panty-hose with the left leg cut off right below the knee and the right leg cut off right at the ankle, he wouldn't feel these oddly disconcerting painful responses to the non-noxious stimuli that was his pants very lightly touching or brushing (much like is discussed herein), and, the panty-hose itself touching what were the areas of concern that did produce the perception of pain from the loose touch of pants, yet not from the tight panty hose nor the touching of the pants onto the protective panty hose. I have neurological pathologies that present with similar issues as do Venomman20 that come, that go, that move, and that really, REALLY $UCK, but it's great to know what the hell they are and what their etiologies are. To be truthful, as far as the issue goes, I would have been quick, yet wrong (albeit close!) with my prediction, as I would've guessed Lyme disease. And yes, I am in fact a real hardcore redneck, but my beard's smaller.
I had a good friend contract rocky mountain spotted fever back in the early seventies. He was very close to death when they finally diagnosed him, very rare disease. This is only the second time I have herd of this disease ever mentioned. Glad you also got it figured in time.
Really cool story man! Glad you caught it before it progressed too much. Most people like to forget that every animal has a part to play in nature. Even the ones they don’t like.
Tell me what part ticks play in nature besides beleaguering us. Snakes can find other things to eat.
Tick bites can be terrible, they don't hurt but they can carry some nasty bacterial and viral infections. I contracted Lyme disease, got treat very late and haven't recovered very well - that was 15 years ago, my life is very different now. Glad Travis passed on his knowledge 👍🏻
I have lyme disease really bad. Went misdiagnosed for over 10 years. Went on doxycycline for 6 months, got retested an my numbers went even higher. I have soooo many issues with joints, muscles an weird stuff
That’s crazy glad your ok now.
Very interesting! You are a good storyteller.
RMSF almost ruined my life, same thing they sent me to a rheumatologist thought I had lupus, still took them almost 6 months to do a tick panel on me I work with horses and that particular year was very bad on ticks had them on me every other day, it took me almost 2yrs to get any better almost lost my business.
Not sure where you are from, but I knew almost immediately. I'm in Alabama and we check for them on us every time we come home from hunting or doing anything in the woods. We try to keep possum's around because they eat hundreds of thousands of ticks.
What an incredible story; so pleased you got it resolved but staggering that all the doctors you consulted failed to diagnose.
...and finally... here's the problem that I have with snakes:
A corn snake sneaks through the foundation cracks every spring to hunt mice in my basement. I know that because I have gooey snake scat RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY BACK DOOR quite often. It is like Corny is giving me a gift by showing how well he/she is taking care of me. BUT RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR....? EVERY TIME....? Do you have a comprehensive training program to teach snakes how to skat in like a kitty litter tray to make my life easier? 6 months without mice was quite a gift but I'm dealing with mice from the back-end if you know what I mean.
I would have guessed Lyme disease. I've had very similar symptoms with that. There are some other tick borne diseases that often ride along with other tick borne diseases. You might look into them for any left over symptoms you have. For some reason veterinarians often check for those diseases but people doctors seldom seem to test and some of the tests for Lyme are prone to false negatives. Hoping you feel better.
Wow! Multiple doctors couldn't put together that a person who recently spent considerable time in the woods might have a lymes or rmsf? Either of these are not that uncommon. Based on a life -long experience of being incorrectly diagnosed by doctors, I shouldn't be surprised. Your story further reinforces my lack of confidence in the doctors. I'm surprised that they didn't just load you up with antibiotics--that's what they seem to do 99% of the time for me. Hats off to your friend for being logical.
Interesting how maligned snakes are, but they're such an important cog in our ecosystem, though we don't get many here in England! Great video, subbed
Great information. Hope you're better.
Dude Lyme sucks. I know so many people effected by it. My best friend growing up has one of the worst cases in Pennsylvania if not the country. Damn ticks are ruining the outdoors for me. I mean I still hunt, fish, check my den sights, but I don’t stay outdoors for days on end like I used to. 😒
Wow! That is a very informative story that may help many people.
I’ve had Lyme from ticks 4 times. Every time it’s worse and worse. It can take me out for a month at a time with meds. Do your self a favor and wear bug repellent and check you self fully before bed. It could save you a lot of pain. Trust me.
6:38 I was bitten by presumably a spider. The calf swelled. The skin on the back of my leg was dry and it itched. Off to the ER and it was treated successfully. Sean Bush on Venom ER was great. This channel is too.
Wow that's crazy! It's insane how much damage a tiny little tick can do to a human. Good thing your buddy suggested that you get tested or else it would have been way worse.
A flea almost wiped out the worlds population.
Did not predict where this story was headed. I have a severe phobia of ticks. I am so sorry you have to go through that.
I'm to the point here in PA that I don't go into the woods until late summer. The ticks aren't nearly as bad- it's hell in the spring. I don't know how the deer survive it.
Rocky Mountain fever, Lime disease, and/or potentially a lifetime allergy to red meat. (Forgot what the last one is called)
Ticks can give you some serious diseases.
Any time you go camping/hunting it's a big deal to check every nook and cranny for ticks.
I’ve never heard of this, thank you for letting us know about it. So glad these snakes like to eat ticks.
My stepdad got RMSF as well. He described the same thing as you except his arms hurt as well. He also got super sick, almost like the flu with severe headaches. I had to tell him to go to the ER because I remembered we both got a bunch of tick on a job we worked and I had a feeling he had it. Pretty crazy
The best friends are back woods hillbilly woodsmen!
Rocky Mountain spotted fever is super rare. Less than 20k cases in the whole country per year. You really lucked out.
It's not that rare where I am. It really doesn't take much to take hold in a forest. It starts with an infected tick, and then it goes between ticks and mice and deer. It's all over where I am. I had it once, my neighbor had it once, and her dog had erlichiosis twice. The dog was throwing up and swaying from side to side, almost like a slow rabies type of movement. Vet knew what it was right away. My neighbor had it a couple or three summers before I met her, and hers got so bad (she thought she had the flu, she had no spots, because the spots only present in about thirty percent of cases - I got some case studies from my doctor because the CDC didn't have anything useful to explain why I didn't have spots everywhere). So my neighbor was calling in every day, and no one where she worked was checking up on her. And finally a neighbor up the road hadn't seen her go to work, and she came down and my neighbor was hallucinating. Ambulance called, and it was RMSF. She could have died. It was far along and she wasn't eating, she was feverish. Just glad she got fixed up. This neighbor is the healthiest person I know, one time she asked me to help get a tick off of the back of her arm because it was tiny and she couldn't see it, and the tick had DIED on her. I told her it must have been all the supplements she takes every day. The key thing to know is this: you have to get ticks off before 24 hours pass. After that, from my understanding, there is a very good chance that if the tick carries this disease, then it will be transmitted.
Neuropathy is one of the worst pains one can experience. I tell people all the time, I can feel everything and nothing, all at the same time! The pain and sensitivity is excruciating. I can't wear socks. I can't be in the sun for more than a few minutes. When I am in the car, I have to cover my legs with a sheet to block the sun. But, a lot of that went away with a combination of drugs. Sounds like you just have some left of peripheral neuropathy. That sucks man, sorry to hear!
Thank goodness for ZZ Top as well, it’s good to have clever friends who are aware, usually more aware then doctors 🤦♂️
Yes I got Lyme disease. I had to tell the doctors what was wrong with me. Sometimes just got to go with your instinct.
I had Lyme back 16 years ago when it was even lesser known or diagnosed and was so ill until I became bedridden. Finall y after almost 3 years I was diagnosed and able to start recovering. It took another 3 years of high dose medications including a port and b12 shots I would give myself until I was almost healed. And I say almost because it doesn’t ever go away 100% So please guys WEAR TICK REPELLENT! DONT EVER SAY “AH I CAN DO WITHOUT JUST THIS ONCE OR ILL PUT IT ON NEXT TIME” because these diseases are a living hell. Literally. at its worst I prayed for god to end my life every night for a year. It messed my brain so bad also I couldn’t think properly anymore or remember things anymore which was extremely frustrating. Thankfully I was saved but it it took awhile of heavy suffering to get here that I wouldn’t wish on the worstest murderers. Also it took a lot of my memory and gave me anxiety I have til this day. So In short Tick repellent will save your life.
WOW! I have had the same problems with my legs for the last 3 months. The doctor can't figure it out, I think I'll have him check my blood for this. Thanks for the video.
I wish you the best
I got that also and had a 50 50 chance of living was very very sick
I had a couple year battle with Lyme disease thankfully my body somehow regenerated itself and I don’t deal with too many chronic problems but now anytime I go out in the woods or tall grass I always tuck my pants into boots and spray on copious amounts of repellant spray. In the last 20yrs I’ve only had one tick get me on my back and that’s it (I always wear at least a long sleeve T-shirt so I’m guessing one just got lucky and made it through my defenses). Not bad for living in thick woods and likely being surrounded by thousands of the little bastards.
I discovered a tick on me in the shower, pulled it off with my Tick Key, saw the doctor the next day and received a Doxycycline prescription to use if any tick borne disease symptoms developed. Spent the next few weeks monitoring, but I suspect West Nile from a mosquito came for a visit (there's human and animal cases in our locale). If you're a horse, you can get vaccinated, but the human vaccine was lawyered off the market.
A few years ago my GSD alerted me to something in her dog yard. I went out to check and there was a timber rattler trying to get into her igloo dog house. She never really barked unless something was out of place. I loved that dog.
Glad you're alive and here with us