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u/Chi_mom

r/fuckcars r/WomenTravelAdvice r/womensolocamping
▲ 34 r/womensolocamping+1 crossposts

Solo camping and ticks.. icks

So.....

I went solo camping for my birthday about 2.5 weeks ago and returned home September 23. Went about my life, happy, prancing through the local forests mushroom foraging and just chilling, then about 4-5 days ago I had an itch on my back.

We still have mosquitoes hanging around so I figured a mosquito bite, no big deal. Every once in awhile it gets a bit itchy. I feel back there and don't feel anything abnormal- "no tick," I figured, "just a bug bite."

2 days ago I start getting a mild headache. I've had worse and I chalk it up to not enough water, maybe period on its way, maybe my return to work after vacation is just stressing me out.

Yesterday I feel stiffness in my neck and along with the mild headache. I figure they're connected.. slept wrong. I try to massage it out which usually works but it just won't go away. I'm driving home from work and looking back over my left shoulder is painful. All the while my back is still itching and now I'm just kind of annoyed and a bit concerned. I haven't felt any lumps or bumps or a tick.. just an itch.

I get home from work at 8pm last night and I ask my husband to check my back and so he lifts my shirt and goes, "whoa... you have a big rash on your back." He snaps a pic and shows it to me and i knew right away what the bullseye like rash meant. The rash takes up nearly half my upper left of my back- like it's massive.

So I call 811 which is a provincial health line where you can talk to a nurse. She's like, "rash. Uh-huh. Tick bite? OK." I send her the pic and she goes, "Oh my.. um. You need to go to a doctor, like as soon as you can and within 24 hours."

I got in to a doc early this morning and they prescribed precautionary meds for lyme disease, so I've started that, but my question is how do you, if you're solo camping and find a tick on your back or the back of your neck, what do you do? How do you get it off? How do you even get a good look at your full back?

I was definitely running my hands over my back to feel for anything abnormal as I was camping but I guess I could have missed a small one.

TL;DR: tick bite rash on back. No tick now, but likely was one. How do you find and remove ticks from your back or back of neck if you find one while solo camping?

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u/Chi_mom — 5 days ago
▲ 451 r/fuckcars

Apparently being on the sidewalk is just like playing in traffic now

No one would be telling cars on the street that they should be making eye contact with drivers backing out of driveways, but for some reason pedestrians (kids in this case) on the sidewalk are expected to make sure they're not hit by cars while using the sidewalk.

u/Chi_mom — 3 months ago
▲ 265 r/womensolocamping

My aunt inspired me to solo camp

My aunt passed away on Saturday from Lou Gehrig's disease. She was an avid solo camper and inspired me to get out there and do it myself and I truly fell in love with just being by myself in the outdoors listening to the loons and owls singing me to sleep at night, watching squirrels quarrel and chase each other around my site, and sometimes waking up to coyotes off howling in the distance in the middle of the night and telling myself to just listen and enjoy knowing they're too far away to bother with me.

She was actually out camping, paddling on a lake in her canoe when her arms wouldn't listen to her anymore and that's when we found that she had ALS.

I went to the place she always went and told her when the disease first hit her how she inspired me and she told me she was so happy someone else had taken up the mantle, and I plan to sponsor a bench there in memory of her. I always stop and read the benches and look up the people whose names are on them to learn about who they were and so far my brother and mom (her sister) are very on board with it and offered to chip in.

She posted this photo of herself out biking on the trails on one trip during her 40th birthday. RIP to my aunt Chrissy.

Edit: thank you for all the condolences. I know if she knew she might inspire more women to get out and try solo camping for the first time that she would be over the moon.

u/Chi_mom — 4 months ago
▲ 163 r/womensolocamping

First solo trip of the year

Me n my girl at our first solo trip of the year. Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada

u/Chi_mom — 5 months ago