Going outside - with a skin-tight body suit?

It's time to talk ticks. Again.

I picked off a deer tick in early July and didn't think too much of it - until about 25 to 30 days later, when my wife asked "What's that?" And there it was - the classic bull's-eye that often indicates Lyme disease.

The next day, I visited the Brainerd Medical Center and was put on Doxycycline, a pretty wicked antibiotic that is supposed to kill the crud.

One of the side effects is that it makes you very sensitive to sunlight - great for someone like me, who lives outdoors. I am thankful that one of the weeks I was on the drug I was at the ICAST fishing show in Orlando and spent the week inside. And we haven't had the classic Minnesota summer, which made it easier as the sun wasn't shining a whole lot in July. But it did shine enough to make things a bit miserable and now I'm paying the price.

I've talked with numerous people who have been affected by ticks, and the one thing I'm certain of is that nobody really has the answers. It's a pretty sketchy subject - if you talk to 10 doctors, you'll probably get 10 different answers as to what this disease is all about.

There was a recent article in the Star Tribune about a conservation officer who got terribly sick from a tick, and it was only on him for six or seven hours. What about the 24- to 48-hour rule? Can we throw that out the window? I think so, but I'm not a doctor.

I'm not going to quit going outside, but I am going to look for a skin-tight body suit that shuts the door on these nasty little suckers.

WALLEYEDAN Eigen may be reached at (218) 839-5598, walleyedan@brainerd.com or www.walleyedan.com.