Posted on 05/24/2007 3:50:08 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is receiving treatment to prevent lyme disease after being bitten by a tick during a recent tour of dams in upstate New York.
Schumer, a senator since 1998, apparently was bitten during a May 7 dam tour in the Hudson Valley region. He and other lawmakers have called for improvements to many small dams in the area to prevent flooding.
``I went tramping through the woods with Congressman John Hall to check dams,'' the senator said.
He later found a tick, and spotted a telltale ``bulls-eye'' mark on his leg that is an early sign of infection.
Schumer is now undergoing a 21-day treatment with antibiotics, which can cause fatigue in some patients.
He said he hasn't noticed any symptoms besides the initial bulls-eye mark, and is being treated ``to prevent it from developing into the disease.''
Lyme disease is transmitted by the black-legged tick, also known as the deer tick.
Symptoms include lethargy, joint pain, fever, limping and loss of appetite. Even after treatment, symptoms can recur in some patients.
Last summer, amid concerns that a new, aggressive type of tick had migrated from southern states to New York, Schumer proposed legislation that would have authorized $100 million for Lyme disease research.
Poor tick.
Isn’t anyone concerned about the tick?
Poor helpless thing.
No honor among thieves, no honor amongst blood suckers.
Did Ted Kennedy bite him?
Two bloodsuckers should be able to get along.
Wonder why the tick bit him? You’d think there’d be some kind of professional courtesy among blood suckers.
Whens he going to be treated for his phobia of persons of color who don’t share his liberal views?
The tick is as good as dead.
Damn, you beat me to it.
In a rare interview shortly before his death, the tick was quoted as saying, “That guy has more venom than anything I have ever seen!”
Senators should get hazardous duty pay.
Does anyone think that the antibiotics will cure him of his hoplophobia?
Me neither. Oh well, I'll just have to be satisfied organizing a memorial service for the tick - 'cuz for what it ingested, there's no cure.
Let me use this post as a cautionary tale. A few years ago a member of my congregation began experiencing muscle weakness and fatigue. Eventually he was confined to a wheelchair. His wife was told that he had ALS and to take him home and make him comfortable. He continued to deteriorate and a year and a half ago ended up in a convalescent hospital on a respirator. He has been written off several times with the diagnosis of ALS. Just a month ago it appeared that he might have an advanced case of Lyme disease. He lived in Connecticut years ago and so was in Lyme Disease Central. They are treating him with antibiotics and he seems to be improving. It is too early to tell definitively but Lyme Disease in its advanced stages can mimic ALS. If a loved one has been written off for something like ALS, consider asking for treatment with antibiotics for Lyme Disease if there is a chance he or she might have been exposed. The tests for Lyme Disease are not always dependable. The issue is whether his condition improved with treatment. In this case, the possible misdiagnosis came about because he got an infection in his larnyx tube and was being treated for it when he began improving.
Sheesh. I pull so many ticks off me I think I’m immune to anything they got.
I keep a roll of scotch tape on my desk just for the purpose of folding up ticks and throwing them away.
Schumer’s a sissy.
If he had any sense, he would have followed the basic Boy Scout guidelines about what to do and how to dress when hiking in tick infested areas....but I guess he was never a Scout and he has no sense...
We need you here Bogtrotter52. You’re our only hope.
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