Tick Tock

The other day when Gage took his shirt off to go swimming, I caught a glimpse of something on his back that didn't seem right to me.  It looked like a mole that should really be removed.  It looked unhealthy and worrisome.  As I got a closer look I realized I wasn't looking at a cancerous mole, but a tick that had embedded itself into Gage's back.  Uh...GROSS. 

So with much relief and delight, my friend Heather stepped up to the task of removing this disgusting creature from my son's back.  She came armed with tweezers, Q-Tips and Peroxide.  She seemed like an old pro at it.  So after Gage stopped screaming and freaking out like a girl (who can blame him really), she carefully got the tweezers around the tick's body and she slowly began to pull and eventually, though with much resistance, she was able to remove the tick along with a chunk of Gage skin still in the tick's mouth.  Uh...DOUBLE GROSS.

Of course Gage was worried and freaked out about Lyme Disease, but Heather reassured him that only the Deer Ticks carry that disease and this was in fact a Dog Tick.  Who knew?  I also read that they have to be embedded for about 24 hours before they can pass the disease on to a human.  We suspected it had been there for about that time frame, but LB pointed out to me that an engorged tick is actually quite large and doesn't even look like a tick once engorged.  Clearly we weren't at that stage yet, so I'm relieved.  But probably not as much as Gage is.