#8 Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

#8- Rocky Mt Spotted Fever (8% mortality and weird) … Joe had given us a night to stay in one of the cabins at the Crane Reservation area in Ipswich which he had enjoyed and thought we would too, for the simple accomodation and silvan experience…deer and birds galore, very nice! Well ,about 2- 3 weeks later I developed what I thought was a tough case of the flu with body and headaches which would come and go,but on a Sunday night I was really feeling tired and really lousy. I decided to go to bed early and woke up about an hour and a half later and my temperature was 103.9. Cyndy gave me some Tylenol and since I was in no real distress thought it fine to monitor things until morning when I had an appointment at Manet Community Health Center where Cyndy worked Monday evening. I had blood drawn et al with no clear diagnosis derived (though I had to confess that several days before to treat some persistent constipation I had done a Go-Lytely clean out (nothing lyte about it!) So we went home and I just felt tired and slept most of the afternoon, but when I got up to pee just before Cyn was to depart for work , I had to call her to “check this out!” – my urine was brown as it turns out a sign of liver dysfunction. Still I was in no distress and Cyndy went off to Manet and conferred with Fred Dolgin who after hearing my symptoms asked if we had been camping recently. “Yes”, Cyndy answered and Fred declared, “I bet Mike has Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.” The next thing I know Fred is on the phone telling me to go to QMC ER for a direct admit because I need IV antibiotics. Christine dropped me off and within 2 hours I had my first of 4 doses and felt amazingly better and the Infectious Disease expert confirmed my diagnosis as “ricketsial” meaning tick-born, with an 8% fatality rate. And so, though I recovered completely , if I behave erratically at times ,I can claim that in addition to Mike Cotter Syndrome I have had RMSF and am justifiably tick’ed off!