Earlier this year, my family experienced a frightening health scare when in January, my 11-year-old daughter began to complain about knee pain and general exhaustion. We thought it was her body responding to adding club field hockey to her schedule. We figured the extra three days of physical exertion in addition to her already-packed schedule of dance, running, and swimming were making her tired, and that her knee pain was a sports-related injury.
We were wrong. The pain, the exhaustion didn’t go away, and instead my daughter got worse. Her knee flared up in a frighteningly swollen manner. She was limping around, irritable, and understandably clingy. We spent a harrowing day going between the pediatrician, who casually mentioned the possibility of juvenile arthritis, and then the orthopedist, who was shocked my girl could even walk with her knee so hugely swollen and stiff. He tapped her knee and removed so much Hulk-green fluid, I thought my daughter was going to faint.
Our daughter’s knee the day she was diagnosed and after her four-week course of antibiotics.
By the end of the day, we had our diagnosis. Our daughter had late-diagnosed Lyme Disease which had caused the extreme swelling, the exhaustion and sleepiness, the mood swings and sadness. We had a prescription for a serious dose of antibiotics, and couldn’t for the life of us figure out how she’d managed to get a tick bite that went undetected. There had never been the tell-tale bulls-eye rash or even an itchy bite she had noticed. But as a family that hikes and camps and with her in so many fields for field hockey, we knew she had been bitten somewhere, sometime.
That’s why this summer, we are pleased to partner with DC Mosquito Squad to spray our yard so that we don’t have to worry about spending time outside in our own home. Mosquito Squad treats more than just mosquitoes:
- Mosquitoes
- Ticks
- Gnats
- Stink bugs
- Aphids
- Wasps/ Hornets/ Carpenter Bees/ Ground bees
The ticks were a tipping point for us, because in addition to not wanting to end up with 8-10 bites every time we eat outside, we definitely didn’t want our daughter to feel unsafe being in our yard. We know that Lyme Disease is the fastest-growing, vector-borne infectious disease in the United States. We know that fewer than 50 percent of people even recall getting any rash and that up to 50 percent of ticks in epidemic areas (which we live in!) are infected with the disease. And what’s worse, there’s no test to confirm that Lyme is even completely eradicated once you’ve finished the course of antibiotics. It’s no laughing matter or simple childhood disease like chicken pox.
So we are grateful for DC Mosquito Squad’s treatments. This year, between our daughter’s Lyme Disease and the worldwide Zika scare, we weren’t going to take any chances. Not when it makes the difference between our daughter (and two other kids) feeling safe playing and hanging out in our yard.
DC Mosquito Squad is happy to give away one free treatment to a DC Moms reader. Please comment with your reasons for wanting a spray. We’ll pick a winner on July 8th.
This post was sponsored by DC Mosquito Squad. No monetary compensation was exchanged, but my family was provided with a season of complimentary treatments.
