Lyme Disease

Now that the weather is starting to become nice, a lot of people are spending time outdoors enjoying activities such as hiking, biking and fishing. If you spend much time in the field, you have a very good chance of coming in contact with ticks - both wood ticks and deer ticks. This raises concerns about Lyme disease, which is very common in this area and is showing up in people and pets. Each spring, I receive a ton of press releases warning about the potential of Lyme disease.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Interrupted birthdays, angry Christmas Day calls and firing people are a few of the things Franklin County Commissioners G. Warren Elliott and Cheryl Plummer will not miss when they leave office next week. This past year, however, Elliott's vacations proved at least as challenging as his job. On a trip to Canada, he contracted Lyme disease, along with viral meningitis, which left him delirious and with a temperature of 106 degrees at an isolated fishing camp.

Miss Grove made all of our lives a little richer To the editor: On Nov. 15, the Herald-Mail carried the obituary of Frances L. Grove. Miss Grove was born at Mount Airy, the Grove family homestead. This farm, west of Sharpsburg, was in the Grove family for almost 100 years. It was a hospital for both Union and Confederates wounded after the Battle of Antietam. The farm and Grove family were visited by none other than President Abraham Lincoln. The pictures of Lincoln at Antietam were taken at the Grove farm and possibly Mr. Lincoln conceived the Gettysburg Address while visiting the wounded.

Frank Boddicker knows first hand that tick bites need to be taken seriously. The southern Washington County resident contracted Lyme disease more than 25 years ago through a tick bite when he was in his 20s. When he was bitten by the tick, he remembers seeing the characteristic bull's-eye rash mark on his back, but he didn't think anything of it. Eight years later, when Boddicker was diagnosed with Lyme disease, the condition had progressed too...

Ticks can spread multiple diseases and infections to humans. The most common on the East Coast are Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. More about Lyme disease: Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria passed to humans through a tick bite. Not all people exhibit every symptom associated with Lyme disease, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The first sign of infection is usually a circular rash that begins at the site of a tick bite three to 30 days after a bite.

CPR, first-aid class HealthFirst Enterprises will offer the following classes: Adult, child and infant CPR instruction, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 16; 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 21; or 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 29. Two-year certification cards and all materials included. $40. Registration is required. Healthcare Provider CPR also is offered. First-aid instruction, 9 a.m. Saturday, April 1. The course covers bleeding, burns, shock, severe allergic reactions, asthma, sprains, broken bones, neck and head injuries, diabetes, seizures, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, hypothermia, stings, bites, poisoning and more.

bonnieb@herald-mail.com When Chambersburg resident Morgan Crouch was 11, local doctors diagnosed her unusual rash as a spider bite, and her extreme tiredness as chronic fatigue syndrome. It turned out that Crouch, now 23, had Lyme disease, and because it was not treated properly at the outset, it became chronic. Her mother, Mona Crouch, found an internist in East Hampton, N.Y., on Long Island's east end, who specializes in the treatment of Lyme disease. She took her daughter there once a year, making the eight-hour drive to the office of Dr. Joseph J. Burrascano Jr. and paying to stay in a motel overnight.

Lyme disease has been a fact of life in our region for many years now. In case you do not know the history, the disease is named for an outbreak back in the late 1970s in Lyme, Conn. As most people now know, Lyme disease is spread by ticks. Symptoms seem to vary a great deal, but are often described as "flu-like. " Lyme can also cause pain in various joints and, according to the Center for Disease Control, can cause all kinds of very serious or even fatal problems if untreated.

Editor's note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail will run "A Life Remembered. " The story will take a look back - through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others - at a member of the community who died recently. Today's "A Life Remembered" is about Pastor Brian Lynn Leiter, who died Feb. 3 at the age of 58. His obituary appeared in the Feb. 5 edition of The Herald-Mail. marlob@herald-mail.com As the mother of four boys, Virginia Elizabeth "Be" Eckstine Leiter said she got used to them bringing home stray animals of all kinds.

I'm going to rip off a page from Larry King this week and write my column in the choppy format that I loved to hate when he was a regular columnist for USA Today. I have a lot on my mind and none of it really can be stretched out into an entire column. So here it goes: Kudos to Hagerstown Suns General Manager Kurt Landes for being named Thursday night as the Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce's Business Person of the Year. Even though the Suns finished last in the league, attendance was up 27 percent.