Ticks & Alpha-Gal Syndrome: What Every RVer Needs to Know

Ticks & Alpha-Gal Syndrome Sponsored by RV Roofing Solutions

Ticks aren't just creepy — they can change your life. In this eye-opening episode, Tasha and Jennifer dig into one of the most underreported tick-borne conditions on the rise across the U.S.: Alpha-Gal Syndrome. Tasha shares her family’s personal journey after her son David was diagnosed last year, revealing how a single tick bite triggered a red meat and mammal-product allergy that impacts everything from grocery shopping to dining out on the road.

Learn How:

•        To identify Alpha-Gal Syndrome and which ticks (yes, more than one!) can cause it

•        Alpha-Gal Syndrome is spreading into new regions and what that means for RVers and outdoor explorers

•        Alpha-Gal hides in everyday food products and medicines, not just red meat

•        To know you should talk to your doctor

•        Practical steps can protect your family on the trail

Links & Resources:

🚐 RV Roofing Solutions: rvroofingsolutions.com

🌿 Mayo Clinic, Alpha-Gal Syndrome: mayoclinic.org

🏥 Cleveland Clinic, Alpha-Gal Syndrome: my.clevelandclinic.org

🛒 Fig App (grocery scanner): foodisgood.com

🥾 Hikas Gaiters by Gear Envie (outdoor protection): gearenvie.com

🍳 Allergen-Sensitive Cooking on the Road: learntorv.com

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📸 Follow Our Adventures: @LearnToRV

👉 More RV Life Resources: learntorv.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Learn to RV the podcast. I am Tasha, and I'm here with my buddy Jennifer. And today we are here to talk to you about everyone's favorite thing. Ticks! Not the kind that you get whenever your kids are driving you crazy or you're backing up the camper and you're fighting with your partner through the walkie-talkie. The kind that crawls up your legs when you're hiking in the mountains. So Jennifer ticks. This is not a fun topic tonight. They gross me out. They're so gross. And I get to talk all about them, but it's for a good cause, you know? And it's, I wanted to let everybody know why we're putting them through this horrible, horrible moment in time. It's for a good cause. The reason for it is that in case you didn't know, and in case you haven't heard me bark about it over and over and over again on the show, Alpha Gal syndrome is on the rise. It is a real thing, and my son has it. And we traveled up the East Coast this last year. When we were going up, what we learned is that the change in climates is actually changing the migration pattern of ticks. So ticks that were normally southeastern-based ticks, they are starting to move further north in the country. So some of those illnesses that were kind of landlocked to certain areas of the country are starting to spread into parts of the country that haven't had to deal with them yet. And Alpha Gal is one of them. We're also seeing a spread of Lyme disease and things like that. So we wanted to spread that information to you guys and get some of those facts out to you so that you can prepare yourselves, know what you're getting yourselves into when you go for a hike. Not that you shouldn't go hiking, but that you should be prepared. So, Jen, what do you know about Alpha Gail? Do you know anything other than me just telling you that David can't eat there?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Well, I know enough. So I mean, like, I actually have a friend, I don't think it's Alpha Gales, but her girls all had tick bites, and she was back in California, and it drastically changed their whole lives in many, many ways. And so, like, I think that, you know, for an RV episode, I think talking about ticks is kind of like maybe a little weird, but the reality is we all don't think about it until we're impacted by it. And I think that's what happened to you, right? I actually have a friend that had something very similar to David, and it wasn't until we started talking about this that I was like, oh, I wonder if that's what they had. Similar tick bite, that sort of thing. But I think you don't know what you don't know until it's a point where you have to know it. And so for our listeners out there, I think that if you're avid hikers or if you just sometimes find yourself in longer graphs than usual at a campground, you know, this could happen to you. And you don't know until it does. So this is kind of just like a warning call, I think, more than anything else.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah. So I before we hit the road, I had a coworker who had this, but I didn't know this is what she had. I just knew that she had a food allergy and she had very particular things that she could not eat. And so it wasn't until after David got diagnosed with it last summer that I started seeing her posts pop up on Facebook. And I was like, wait a minute, I know what that is because my son just got diagnosed with that. And I know like that's what we're kind of dealing with, trying to get our bearings and and figure out what everything means. And so you're I think you're totally right. It doesn't only hit people who RV, um, but I think that it is really important if you are someone who likes to get out and enjoy the outdoors with your family, if you are someone who likes to get out and mow your yard and you don't have an RV, like ticks are everywhere. And I think it's just really important to know so that you can watch for symptoms, so that you can take care of yourself and prepare for it. I'm going to jump into Alpha Gal and then kind of touch on some other things and then we'll go from there. I started to pull out some other things that you know maybe we should watch for whenever we're like swimming in creeks or we're doing these things, and then that seemed like a rabbit hole that was gonna take us to next year. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Actually, just so you know, I started a companion blog post that does have some of those things listed. So I did think ahead that way. So there is a whole companion blog that's coming that does have a lot of other stuff. But can I ask you a question first? Yes, ma'am. So did David have any other did David have food allergies prior to this?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

So when he was a baby, his sweet little baby face, he was already killing you. He's gonna kill me. Um he was he was sensitive to soy, and so we we already had that sensitivity, but he didn't really have anything that we were aware of. We knew that his stomach was sensitive here and there. He had more stomach problems like sensitivities than the rest of us did. But last summer it really got bad, and we were back around his doctor, and he was going in for like his checkups, and I just asked them, could we do like a full panel workup? Could we just see like, is there a food allergy that we're not aware of? Is there something that we haven't checked for? Because he is sick to his stomach so much, and it's just progressively getting worse. And when they did that panel, they checked for all sorts of things, and that's when we found out that he is allergic to all sorts of things. So, you know, he's allergic to gluten, he's allergic to soy, he's allergic to peanuts and hazelnuts and walnuts and shrimp and cod and you know, there's there's just a whole I have a I literally have an Excel document that tells me these are the things he's allergic to. And then I it's actually color-coded yellow, green, red for severity, so that like I can kind of go, these were the ones that were like, Mayday, Mayday, find an epipin.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Well, I think it's important to note here that David is a connoisseur, like he's not just a teenager that goes and buys a burger and fries, yeah. And so I'll never forget the first time we went out to dinner together and David was with you. We had been we were in Lake Havasu and he ordered this meal, but he ordered it like with the accent and everything. And I was like, wow, kid. And I mean, I was just genuinely impressed by his knowledge of different foods. And so, like, this isn't like didn't he say what do you think I'm uncultured? Yes, he did. But so, I mean, like, but he loves things like shrimp and like shrimp is favorite, so that was so this has seriously impacted him, but yeah, it really, really has.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

And for me, I think that's why this is such a passion project for me to let people know about this because I don't want anybody else to suffer this way. One of the things that I've got on my notes for us to go through tonight is that unfortunately the medical community has not been able to figure out why, but Alpha Gal syndrome affects different people in differing degrees. The only thing consistent about Alpha Gal syndrome is that it's different for everybody. That is the only consistent thing about it. And so there, if you start Googling it, you'll find stories of the gentleman who didn't know he had been bitten and had it and went out for a cheeseburger and had to be rushed to the hospital and passed away. And then you'll find stories of people who have it and can basically eat whatever they want and they just get like a little itchy afterwards. So it's the the gamut of how much it affects your life is so varying person to person. I just think like if everybody could just know to tuck their socks and you know, their pants into their socks before they go hiking, check for ticks when they come back in, like these would be good things.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

But also saying I should not hike in sandals, is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I'm saying stop hiking in sandals, Jennifer. Don't do it. Just don't do it. But also, there's some information that has changed out there about Alpha Gallon. So I want to get that out there too. So I'm gonna I'm gonna dive in. But yes, this has been this has been life-changing for him, and he is somewhere in that medium spectrum where it's not bad enough that he has to go to a hospital, but it is bad enough that if he decides, dang it, I'm going in, Bobby, I'm eating that cheeseburger, it his stomach is gonna be very, very unhappy for the next one to two days. So it's you know, it's it just it's a he decides if he's if he's gonna do the crime and if he's willing to pay the pay the price for it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Well, and that's the other side of it, right? Like he's not like a seven-year-old where you're controlling his entire diet. Yes, he's what, 18. Yep, he is 18. So he has to live with it and make those decisions like an adult now, even though he's still a high schooler technically. But yeah, at some point he's gotta own this for himself. Yep, and so and let's get into it.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

All right, here we go. So, what is Alpha Gauss syndrome? Well, first of all, it is an allergy to products that come from mammals. And what is a mammal? It's anything that lactates, it's anything that you know gives birth to babies and you know, has fur, and you're talking beef, you're talking pork, you're talking lamb, you're talking, you know, but it's it's not just those meat products, it's any product that is a byproduct of those animals. So you're talking jello, because gelatin is made from those products or from those animals. You're talking sugar that's not vegan sugar because cane sugar, which I didn't know, but I learned afterwards, they ground sugar with bone chart, which is just the weirdest thing I've ever heard of in my whole entire life. But that's one of the ways that it gets processed. Some medicines have gelatin in it, so some medicines, you know, you've got to completely cut out soaps, lotions, things like that. So anything like that can cause an allergy. We have a pet coming in hot. Wesley is making an entrance. Hi, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

This is not now he's being bad.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

You missed your you missed your entrance, sweetheart.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Hi, mama Bobbers. We have to tell him this is not the pets episode.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

This is not the pets episode, Wesley. I'm too much sorry. But you will see his ears. If you're watching on YouTube, you get some Wesley ears, and they're awfully cute. You should follow him at Wesley the Frog on all the things. Are you all the symptoms? This episode is sponsored by Wesley the Frog.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Okay, so as we've mentioned, he cares about ticks. I mean, yeah, he's low to the ground.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

He's concerned. He's concerned about it.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Ticks can affect your pets too.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

They can. They can. So he's like, what do I need to know? Load me up with the information. He's all ears, literally. He is, he's all ears. So we will so Alpha Gal Syndrome is caused by a tick bite, which we've talked about in the United States. It's most commonly caused by the Lone Star Tick, which I thought was the only tick that carried it. But as I was researching this, I found out that that information has changed. And that scared the living daylights out of me because I really liked it when it was just one tick, but it is no longer just one tick. So I have written down the names of the ticks and I'm going to tell them to you. Are you ready? They are the black-legged tick. I just didn't need to know that there were this many ticks. Also, I need to throw that out there. The western black-legged tick. Can we all just say they're like if they're black-legged, they're just bad. The American dog tick, the Asian longhorn tick, and cayenne ticks. Like I hope they don't, I know I'm like, I hope they're not small and like the color of cayenne pepper, because if they get mixed in with my spices, we're gonna have worse. But also, what I found out is that it's not just in the US and it's not just in North America. This is actually something that is spreading worldwide. So, for those of our friends who are listening across the world or maybe planning some worldwide trips, I wanted to give you some information. In Europe, the primary carrier is the castor bean tick. In Australia, the tick that is responsible for 95% of tick bites in Australia is the tick that carries Alpha Gall syndrome. And that tick is called the Australian paralysis tick, which is just a horrible name. He's a horrible little guy. We don't like him. Then Asia is the Asian Longhorn tick. Africa has three with names that I cannot pronounce. So I'm not even going to try it. If you're going to Africa, look it up. I also cannot say the name of the South and Central America ticks, but they have it there too. So this is a worldwide condition. And if you've got ticks and you've got mammals, you got a chance of getting Alpha Gal syndrome. So be prepared, take some bug spray, do whatever you need to do.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

So what exactly is starting to itch, actually, you know, just thinking about it. You know, I think it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Everybody's in their car like scratching their necks.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

So Alpha Gally the least watched or the most watched episode we have today.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

We're gonna have like a thousand thumbs down. Alpha Gal is short for Galactos, Alpha 1.3 Galactos. So I'm so glad that we can see that. I know. So I'm really glad that we can just call it Alpha Gal. Big I'm a big fan. But also, Alpha Gal sounds like it's like the number one gal. Like I'm the Alpha Gal, you know? But it's not. It's not the sh star of the show.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

So is this like mosquitoes where only the girl ticks bite or do all ticks bite? All ticks.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

I think I think it's all ticks, and I will verify that. Unless you've verified that, do you know that? I didn't see anything that said that none of that there's any that don't.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Well, I just know like mosquitoes, you know, the girls are the only ones that actually bite.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Those mosquitoes.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Suck your blood.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Let me Google it right now. You guys are getting me hot in the moment.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

So what you may or may not know about Tasha is that she is a chronic, no, that might not be the right word. Well, she's just a researcher by nature because of what she does in real life. So as a copywriter, she kind of has to know her stuff. So when we decided we were doing this episode, she was like the normal, like she was the most logical choice because she's the most impacted by it. But it also meant that she was gonna go down a deep dark rabbit hole and her faces are fantastic. And I don't have my glasses on.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

So both male and female ticks bite, but only adult females require a large long-term blood meal to lay eggs. So what that kind of sounds like, and then it goes on to say that it makes them the primary transmitters of diseases like Lyme disease or diseases that are transmitted through blood pathogens, which would be alpha gal. Because they hang on for dear life.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

And because they they need all the blood that they can get so that they can really lay those eggs.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Crazy little babies, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Way more information than I needed. But because I'm not gonna check the ticks. Everybody else is a boy tick or a girl tick. You know, if it's a tick, it needs to not be on my body. End of sentence, full stop. Like, I don't care if it's a male or female, non-binary tick, whatever, just does not need to be attached to any part of my body at all, at all. But if you happen to know how to tell if a tick is a male or a female, and you're feeling spicy and you want to put one of them on your skin, go with the male. You'll have a lower chance of getting a bloodborne disease.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Now, are we gonna get into like not medical advice if you are if you are a bit are we gonna get into that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Like if you do suspect you've been per chance, but first I gotta talk about what Alpha Gal does. I know.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

We're gonna do this part first.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

And it's not like it's not like in cricket, right? Where you can tell the boys and the girls apart. So, you know, let's keep going. I didn't know that you could tell the difference between boys and girl crickets.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

So we should have that conversation off screen so that you can teach me because I didn't get that lesson at school, but you know so much. Okay, so Alpha Gal, Galactose Alpha 1.3 galactose, the Alpha Gal guy is a molecule, it's a sugar molecule that's found in most mammals, but not humans, which is why we have an adverse reaction to it when it is introduced to our bloodstream. So the way that it gets introduced to us is when a tick has recently fed on another mammal and then they feed on us, and they still have that sugar molecule in their little pincher gross teeth guys, it then gets introduced to our bloodstream when they bite us. So, like I was saying, the most consistent thing about Alpha Gal is that it is not consistent at all, it's the variation. So they do not know why, but different people have different responses, and these are the different kinds of things that vary across everybody. So one is the period of time that a reaction may occur. So if you have alpha gal and you have a product or a food that has mammal or alpha gal in it, um, the amount of time that your reaction takes to trigger can be anywhere from a few minutes to many hours, and they don't know why, and they don't know who's gonna react how. I've been asked if it has to do with your blood type, if it has to do with your health history. I have found nothing in all of my research that indicates that there's any trigger for any of that. They just do not know. So David is one who he can eat something and he'll feel fine for the most part, and then in a few hours is when it starts to go downhill. So he at least had like a few hours of joy and enjoyment before before he starts to feel the pain.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Well, see, and that's different, you know. We've navigated uh my daughter's, you know, gluten top intolerance the past couple years, and so like for years we thought it was like red meat, and because that always seemed to be what the triggers seemed to be like. But what we realized it was a couple years ago now, somebody said, Well, you know, every time you eat a cheeseburger, it seems to happen. Could it be the gluten? And so that's how we figured it out. But she has a face, like she turns green halfway through the bite, but she's like five bites in and she turns green. So we would always know right away if she'd been glutened, except we didn't know she was being glutened. So this he has kind of and is it the same every time?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Like in terms of the actual amount of time, the reaction for him differs. I haven't figured it out, to be quite honest. I have not figured out what triggers him more or less. And the other thing is there was something I can't remember where we were, but we thought for sure it was gonna be fine. And then I remember him having a reaction to it, and then we realized that it it was an item that had sugar in it, and that was the only thing that we could figure out that had been in the item. And it was just one of those things where it was like it was literally the only thing listed, the only thing listed in the ingredients that could have even been anything, like everything else was so clean.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

So it's and it makes it hard because you know, as a parent protect your kids, yeah. You know, this is one of those things that there's still so much that's unknown about it.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Yes, and the FDA has so many very loose and the USDA has so many very loose rules and guidelines around what has to be and what doesn't have to be reported in what they do. And so, and that's one of the things that I learned when I was working um in food package design. And even when I was in college, I did an internship for a hospital and I worked with some nutritionists doing some ghostwriting for them. And there's there's actually like a certain percentage of ingredients, like up to a certain percentage, they don't have to claim it in the ingredients list. There's just so much fluctuation. And grace given to the food and medicine that industry, that there's not really very clear guidelines. So one of the things that we have to be really careful about is anything that says natural flavors cannot come home. That's something we absolutely cannot have because a natural flavor, when you start actually looking into it, in the food industry, natural flavors can be used to describe something that is a mammal byproduct. So it becomes really dangerous. So if it doesn't have the great big vegan sign on it, uh, then you know, we can't trust anything that says natural flavors. But then also because he has all of these nut allergies and these gluten allergies and things like that, if it's vegan but it says natural flavors, I also have to look and see, well, does it have the nut free sticker? Does it have the gluten-free sticker? Does it have the, you know, what does it have on here? Because if they're saying natural flavors, there's no way for me to know what that natural flavor is. So there's there's just so much. The other thing is the amount of time that you can have alpha gal. And this is something that's really interesting to me, is that you can get bit by it, the tick, and get alpha gal and have it for a year, two years, and it taper off and the allergy leave your system. And that would be amazing for him. That would be amazing, and you be able to go back to eating the foods that you know and love. Or, like my friend that I used to work with, you can have it for your entire life. They do not know why it sticks with some people forever and it doesn't with other people. The other thing is that there are studies that show that people who get bit by another tick, it intensifies the Alpha Gal syndrome. So I did meet a lady who her, God love her husband, he had Alpha Gal. He had gotten it from a tick bite during a hunting trip. He went through literally like a five-year period where he had gone in and they were monitoring his levels yearly at his checkups, and the doctor said, you know what? I think that you can start slowly reintroducing these foods into your diet. Your levels have all come down. You don't seem to have as your panels are coming out really good for your allergy tests. He got cleared. He basically like had a cheeseburger, rejoiced, went on a hunting trip, got bit by another tick, and got alpha gal syndrome again. No, again, I say those pants saved people.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Maybe the idea would be to give up hunting at that point. I'm like, you know, I don't know. Do something. I mean, if you're an avid hunter, I can see why you might not want to. Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

But take some precautions, do what you need to do.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Because you can't even eat the things that you're hunting now, if that's the case.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

I know. What are you gonna- I mean, turkey, you could, but nobody's hunting chicken, you know. Like, that's not that's not anything people are going hunting for. But so the other thing is, given the opportunity to the dog, my dog Stella, she she would definitely hunt some chickens. The other thing that's kind of interesting is that alpha gal is not just in red meat, and this is something that a lot of people don't know, is that there is alpha gal in some non-meat products. So red seaweed has alpha gal in it. And red seaweed is used in a lot of processed foods, particularly nut milks and deli meats. It's used as a thickener, it's an additive, and you'll see it listed in different, it will be listed as carrageenin, C-A-R-A-G-E-E-N-A-N. And that's how it'll be listed in your ingredients list. It is very hard to find turkey or chicken deli meat that does not have carrageenin added to it. It's also very hard to find turkey or chicken deli meat that does not have natural flavor added to it, and a lot of times those natural flavors include like pork or beef juice, which is just the weirdest thing I've ever heard of in my life, but that's what they do. So it's very important.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

You're making me not want to eat a lunch snack like that ever again.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

I know. I'm just saying that if you do get that sort of diagnosis from your doctor, you can't just go buy any turkey off the shelf, you can't get sliced chicken. You really need to pay attention to those ingredients lists to make sure that they don't have carrageenin in it because red seaweed is actually very, very high in alpha gal.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

So and you mentioned fish with him being allergic to fish. Like so, like those are not mammals.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

I mean, I know enough to know that he was already allergic to cod and we did not know that. Okay, well, that makes more sense then. Yeah, yes, he was allergic to cod and he was allergic to shrimp, and so those were gut punches for him, literally and figuratively, because shrimp is is his favorite thing, and now he can never have it. And it was actually quite high on his list of these are things that you are very, very, very sensitive to. So, but not all shellfish, just shrimp. So he can have lobster, he can't have shrimp, he can have crab, he can't have shrimp.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Well, but shrimp is essentially the cockroach of the sea, so it's okay. If you look at it that way, it's not so bad.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

It's not so bad. Well, I want to tell everybody kind of the symptoms to watch for with Alpha Gal, just so you can kind of have an idea of what to look for if you've had a tick bite. Um, these are things that you may experience after you've eaten red meat of any kind. Um, you might experience hives or itching, swelling of the lips, face, throat, or eyelids, wheezing, shortness of breath, stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting. Your symptoms may go away, they may lessen, but you also may have weird things like joint pain, which why would anybody ever go? I bet this joint pain is because I had a cheeseburger earlier. You also may have dizziness or fainting, which again, most people would just go, was I in the sun too long? Is it too hot in here? No, you had a glass of milk. You might have tingling or an itching feeling in your mouth. So, like a tightness in your throat, just look for things that are kind of common to an allergic reaction. But also, if you get a physical reaction after you eat a food over and over again, so that you know, the joint pain. If you're experiencing joint pain every time you eat steak, that may be an indicator that you need to talk to your doctor and ask them to run an allergy panel and and then go from there. And there are lots of websites out there that will give you lots of great information. Mayo Clinic has got a great list of information. Um, the Cleveland, Cleveland Clinic, they have a really good page, and I'll pull some of these into our show notes. And then I know that Jen is doing a really great companion piece on Alpha Gal, but also on other illnesses that you can pick up, like legionnaire d disease and things like that. But I also want to just call out that there are a whole slew of other things that you can get from ticks. So, you know, ticks are picking up this year, you know, as the heat is coming in, it is getting time for ticks season.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

So well, and that being said, if you are bit by a tick, if you can save the tick and bring it in with you because then they can test and see if it is a carrier for Lyme disease, especially if you're removing it. And if you don't know how to remove a tick safely, you know it's okay to go to the doctor to have that done.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

I was always told put Vaseline over the top of it and they'll start to back out because they can't breathe.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

And so I don't know if that's I've also heard that with I've also heard that with Dawn dish soap, that they'll like start to suffocate and they'll start to pull out.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Right. So I mean you don't want to leave a tick head in there, and if you do, you definitely need to have somebody take a look at it. Those are some things that you know you just don't think about. But you know, it's always best to contact your doctor and see if that's the way to do it or go to a primary care clinic somewhere near you, whatever that looks like for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

And we always, because I'm such a weirdo about this, if I find a tick on my family, even if it's not one that I've found biting them, if it's just one that I found crawling on them, I will put it in a ziploc bag and put that Ziploc bag in the freezer. Um, that way I know where it is because maybe it did bite them, but it's not biting them now. Don't laugh at me, Jennifer. I need to be able to find this tick because what if they did get bit and they start having symptoms later? You know, I I know where the tick is. It's in a ziploc bag, it's in the freezer, it's not getting on anybody else, you know. But that's what we've always done. We've always put the tick in a Ziploc bag, like in a little sandwich baggie, and then stuck it in the freezer. That way it's there, and then I leave it there for a couple days, and then if everybody's fine, then it you know goes.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

It's a well-preserved tick. Good job. So laughing at my tick. I'm not laughing. Actually, I'd never thought about putting it in the freezer. I mean, like, where do you put yours in a plastic bag, but I don't stick it in the freezer. What if it gets loose in the freezer while it's still alive?

SPEAKER_00 31:54

It's it won't. It's frozen, you know. They don't come out in the cold. They're not coming out in the cold, they're coming out in the heat. So I think that it's miserable in that freezer, which I don't like to torture things or beans, but I'm just saying that maybe it shouldn't have crawled on my family or my dog.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Just it brought it sounds like a threat.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

It brought its its demise upon itself, is really how I feel about that. But yeah, those are those are just things that you can do.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

How has your life changed because of that tick bite?

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Oh my gosh. Listen, we one of the ways that it's changed is that, and this has been more of like a sad thing for me than probably for him. David is is a major introvert. He is just a big introvert. I I can't say it enough. There's no way for me to say it in a way that makes it any more true than what the word introvert already is. But if we're talking about going out, he will stay home rather than go out with us, specifically using that like, but what if we can't find a place for me to eat as an excuse to stay home? Sometimes it's used as an excuse, you know, and so then I miss out on that time with my kid. So that's really like disappointing for me for him. He's like, I get to stay home and play on the computer and you know, video game it up without having to fight anybody for the internet download speed. So, like, it's a great time for him. For the mom, I'm very sad. In a very real logistical way, our grocery bill is probably three, four times what it was because the foods that he can eat are so astronomically more expensive. That's kind of the for lack of a better word, and pun intended, that is the beef I have with the food industry is that to get the healthy things, to get the things that you do need, um, they do kick the price up on those things.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

So, you know Well, that and the fact that once you find something that you can have, and it's hard to find plentiful, you'll buy four or five times more than you would any other way. Because like I know for gluten-free stuff, you don't know where you're gonna find it. So I need to buy more of when I do find it.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

Yeah, and he is not a small kid, you know, it's not like I'm shopping to your point for a seven-year-old. He's six four. Oh, see, he's six four and he's built like a linebacker. So, you know, he's like eggs are just when the price of eggs went up, that that was not a small thing for me. I was like, I had a spreadsheet of how much our eggs were, like, because that was one of the things that he could eat without a you know, with a bandon. Like that was that was a safe food for him. And it was, you know, am I gonna spend eight dollars today on a dozen eggs or am I gonna luck out and find somewhere where I could get it for five? I don't know. We're we're just gonna shop around. But it's it's deli meat is something that you don't think about. You think anybody can have any deli meat they want, and deli meat runs so cheap, and you know, what are you gonna do for lunch? Oh, I'm just gonna make a sandwich. Well, okay, but when it's eight dollars at the least for six slices of turkey that doesn't have carrageenan in it, and your son is six foot four and does not like to just have one sandwich for lunch, but likes two sandwiches for lunch, you know, that turkey doesn't last very long.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

And so it's but he's also gluten-free, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:44

Yes, and so then we've got the price of the gluten-free bread, and then you know, he can't have regular cheese, so it's not I'm not grabbing grabbing like the off-brand craft sliced cheese. I have to get the crabby cashew cheese or you know, the stuff that you have to like. We had this conversation the other day, you know, because we just moved into the new rig, and the cheese, all of the fake cheese says melts just like real cheese, and it never melted just like real cheese. Like he would put it in the microwave and it would be in the microwave for five minutes, and and it'd be like, Well, it's hot and still solid, there's no melting happening, but everything's hot. And so the first meal that he made nachos here, and Theo was with us. He put a bowl of nachos in the microwave and he put it on for like two and a half minutes, and Theo was like, Your cheese is gonna get all crunchy and burnt, and that's gonna be disgusting. And he goes, No, it's not real cheese, it's never gonna get melted. Like, it'll just be hot. And Theo was like, Really? And then we're sitting there, and I was like, David, it kind of kind of smells like it's burning a little bit, and he pulled it out. And our new microwave and our new rig is a higher wattage than our old microwave. And he was like, Melt, it melted. I guess I can I can melt cheese in here. So it was a big day that we were able to melt the fake cheese for the first time in a year, so you know that was pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

The new rig is changing things up for us, but yeah, I mean, that you don't think about those things whenever you don't have to worry about them. Melting cheese on nachos, that's definitely like Crimea River type problems. But when you can't eat with everybody, when you, you know, you pull open the refrigerator and you're like, what in this refrigerator can I eat? It is a pain for him. So when you're going around people in the grocery store and you're annoyed because they're just standing in one place, it's probably me reading the ingredient list trying to figure out, can my child eat this? Please be patient with me. And to that, there are some apps out there that can help you. I know that Theo's got a few that that she uses to find restaurants and things like that that are gluten safe. And I have one that I use for shopping for groceries, and I will put that in our show notes for anybody who wants to know. Uh, the name of it is Fig F-I-G. It's a really good app. They try and update it regularly with ingredients lists. It's a it's a great way to try and keep your grocery shopping a little bit shorter, but there are apps out there to help you mitigate some of that, but they can't keep up on everything. And companies change ingredients so often, depending on what part of the country you're in, it's different. You know, you can be in Florida and the ingredient list will say one thing, and you can be in Massachusetts, and it'll be a completely different ingredient list. So you just have to be very careful and you have to be very thorough when you're shopping. So a little bit of a downer. This episode has been a little bit of a downer.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

I think there's a lot of really good information here, you know, and things that maybe somebody never thought about being around ticks, being out hiking. And ticks don't have to be in the long grass. I mean, like I'm gonna say that it they can be anywhere, and so it can make an amazing summer visiting Yellowstone a very bad summer, three or four months down the road when you can't figure out what's wrong with your kiddo or your husband or your or yourself, even. And so, you know, knowing what to look for, the signs to look for. If you are bit by a tick, I know there's a thing where you can keep track of the ring, like as you're bit and that sort of thing, too. There's lots of good stuff there. But you know, it's it's something that so many people don't even stop to consider. What would you tell people? Like, I know it's changed your lives in ways you never expected, but what what kind of like let's let's not leave it on kind of a a solid note, but let's like, you know, if you had one piece of advice to give, yes, like what would you tell someone?

SPEAKER_00 40:04

What I would say is just in terms of being prepared when you're going out with your family, protect against ticks, you know, use repellent if you can. There are some really good repellents out there that are safe and and healthy for your family. Wear protective clothing, use gear that will help protect you. There's tuck in your socks. Um, tuck in your socks. There's we featured them in our Christmas episode, the haikas. Those are really good because they tuck into your shoes and over your socks. So they really help keep not just debris and things like that out, but they also help keep bugs from getting into your pants and your socks and your shoes whenever you're hiking. Um, so I'll link that in our our show notes as well. Um, you know, just be mindful whenever you're going through grassy or brushy or wooded areas, or even just like it's not the season for it, obviously, because we're in spring, but as we move into fall later, if you're in like the leafy areas, if you're going out pumpkin hunting or whatever it is that you like to do in the fall, those leafy areas are also going to be breeding grounds for ticks or when you're, you know, just be vigilant and make sure that you're checking your family whenever you get back into the house, into your RV. Um, really just give yourself a really good lookover, help each other, just check, you know, check your back, check, check all, check your hairline, weird places that you wouldn't think about. Yeah, yeah. They like the dark places, they like the warm places. The soft places that they can easily bite and just land. Yes. Yeah, so long, long sleeve shirts, long pants. And I know that that is a horrible thing to think whenever it's getting ready to move into the hot months, but you can get light, long-sleeved, long pants that are lighter colors, lighter fabrics so that it's not overheating you. Close-toed shoes are really important, Jennifer. Avoid sandals, avoid going barefoot and kind of tick prone aerial. Yes. Um, you know, and if you are in a home, keep up your yard, you know, that's a really easy way to do that. Um, and then, you know, check your clothes, check your laundry, check your dogs if you take them out for a walk. That's a really easy way for ticks to come in. You know, we we forget sometimes to check Stella when we bring her in. But sometimes we'll just take her out for a little walk and we don't think anything about it because we're just taking her out to do her business. But, you know, she's getting into grass where we're not getting into grass, and so she might be picking something up with her and bringing her, bringing it back into the camper. So just be vigilant and uh I don't know, don't let it deter you from going out and enjoying things. Just, you know, it's just something to be aware of and to be prepared for and um take action for, you know. Um, it's kind of like mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are bad, so be prepared for them. Ticks are bad, so be prepared for them. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

I'm probably bugs. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

I know you are, and I will always be the person that's like, Jennifer, where are your clothes-toed shoes? And I will probably start bringing you like slip-on. I'm gonna start getting those those booties that they put over the PPE that they put. I'm gonna get a one pair of PPE that goes over the shoes for the people in the hospitals. And I'm just gonna carry that one pair with me. And every time we go out hiking or walking anywhere, and you come in sandals, I'm just gonna put them over your feet so that you don't get ticks. No ticks for Jen.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

Well, we hope that you gathered some good, helpful tips. We hope that you check out Jen's. Companion, uh, which is going to have so much more information, just in case you want to know about all of the scary things that live in the water.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

I was gonna say all the things that bump everywhere else are gonna be in that post. So, you know, one of the things that I'm trying to do is make it so that we have a companion blog on Mondays that kind of goes along with our episode, but it also tracks it back. So you're gonna want to tune into both because there's gonna be different information in both places. So in the blog, you're gonna find that, you know, I might talk some about like different items. And so there's, you know, not just ticks out there, there's a lot of allergens. Actually, I'm gonna talk about we're gonna dive into the world of crop dusting in that article. And so there's some really good stuff there about that. So, you know, make sure you take the time to do a little bit of diving, and you know, it's not just ticks that are out there that can affect your impact you, there's a lot of other things too.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Yes, and and we joked that this episode was brought to you by Westley the Frog, but this episode was brought to you by RV Roofing Solutions, and so we just want to thank them again for being our longtime supporter. And if you are interested in being a sponsor of the podcast, you can do that so easily by visiting us at learn to rvthepodcast.com or learn to rv.com. You can also reach out to us at connect at learntorv.com with any stories. We are looking for great stories to share on the air. Um, and um, yeah, we're just so excited that you're here with us and we will catch you around the campfire next time. See you later.