Ehrliciosis: That is what the icu intensive care team of doctors told us what caused an other wise healthy 79 year old gardener to become so incredibly ill. A week prior to being in icu, My Dad was climbing ladders pruning peach trees, hoeing a very substantial garden and tenderly taking care of his beloved flower gardens. Than all came to a frightful halt. Dad was sick, but with what? It appeared he had a heart attack, hmm, strange from such a physically fit male. Then, a day later, a fever from an unknown cause. Questions???? You don't get a fever from a heart attack. His kidneys failed, liver failed and now he was on life support hooked to more beeping machines to keep his body living. Many doctor's worked to find the cause of what was making his body shut down so quickly. Finally after many blood tests, it was discovered he had Ehrliciosis. My first question was: What is that?? A disease from tick bite. This is a more common out west, not too common in the northeast, especially in our area. This was the evil villain who took my Dad's life after one week.
Since this happened to us, and so little is known in our area, we have wanted to share our story with hopes to make people aware of the dangers of tick borne illnesses. My Daughter is writing a simple book to share with her school about this. It is her way of reaching out and finding comfort in our loss. My mother and sister are sharing this information with all we see with the hopes of protecting others from this devastating tick borne illness.
Here is a link where to find more information about this:
http://www.cdc.gov/ehrlichiosis/
Our area where we live, has a very small ratio of illness on the cdc map demographics, but it can still happen.
