Posted on 08/08/2007 1:51:22 PM PDT by BGHater
Today's White House report on President Bush's latest physical is revealing for the first time that he was successfully treated for Lyme disease last year.
The president's encounter with the disease hadn't been made public until now.
The exam says he was treated for "early, localized Lyme disease" last August after developing a bull's-eye rash characteristic of the disease. The condition didn't recur.
Lyme disease is a common-tick borne infection that can spread to the joints, heart and nervous system if left untreated. The CDC says the disease can be treated with a few weeks of antibiotics.
As for the latest physicial, each of the eleven doctors involved in the exam have pronounced the president fit for duty.
I’m glad to hear that it wasn’t serious. But I’ve heard that being around RATS can be dangerous to your health.
Hey, kiddo, you’re right up there with the Prez!
LV, the white states in the northeast all seem to be incorrect.
It has a wide range of symptoms and no real timetable.
I had it about 20 years ago. I remember the tick and the bulls-eye rash around it, then nothing. About a year later, I got sick with flu-like symptoms and dizzyness. On the third day, the right side of my face was paralyzed, which was obvously worrying. The doctor determined it was Lyme disease; some antibiotics and some steroids and I was fine in about a week and had no complications or recurrence.
I’ve known quite a few people who have had it - that happens when you’re from East Lyme, CT. Some has pain in joints, some flu-like symptoms. I haven’t known anyone who had long-term complications, but I have heard that it does happen
When I was a kid in Missouri and Arkansaw, I come into contact with tics numerous times. Luckily, the lime disease didn’t seem to be a problem back then.
I appreciate the additional comments.
Glad it hasn’t seemed to be a continual problem for you.
My 78 y/o Dad was bitten by a tick. He didn’t get Lyme, but he DID get erlichiosis (sp?) and had a 104 fever for a few days. Tick- borne illnesses are nasty. Thank God for antibiotics.
I heard raging herpes. Would anybody be surprised?
Three words, Mr. President: Deep Woods Off.
hey wait..ain’t du’ers....
deer ticks themselves?
I was bit by a deer tick and had no idea about the bullseye rash as it formed in an area that was not readily apparent. I was already on antibiotics for strep throat for several days, and was out chopping wood when it happened. The day after chopping wood I started getting a neck-ache, that wouldn't go away. I figured I slept wrong.
The following day at work the neck ache migrated to the back of my head, and I was eating tylenol but nothing was working. By the time I got home from work, the pain was so bad in my head and neck that I started to feel nauseous.
I told my wife that I had to go to the doctor, and that's when the fun began.
The doctor's office is a 10 minute drive. It took me 45 minutes to find it, and I do not remember how I managed it.
I only remember going into the doctor's, and being led to a back room to be examined. I remember him telling everyone to turn off all the lights, and then I heard sirens and found myself in an ambulance. I vaguely remember being on the emergency room table throwing up while getting a spinal tap, and I absolutely remember the ice bags they put all over me.
My temperature was 106.
The emergency room spinal tap analysis, unfortunately, revealed nothing to the ER doctor.
Without knowing what I had for sure, they specutatively put me on a certain strong antibiotic, but kept me iced down. That night, they had to do another spinal tap because they lost the first sample and they needed to run detailed tests.
My temperature was 104, steady, for two days, with icing.
The 2nd spinal tap revealed Lyme Disease antibodies and the MRI and CAT-Scan revealed meningitis.
Apparently, I was a lucky one: 5% of lyme-disease patients contract meningitis, and 95% contract arthritic symptoms. I got both.
The good thing is that the antibiotic they had me on was what I needed.
The bad thing is that I had a 3rd spinal tap in 3 days. I no longer had any spinal fluid after that, so the "plug" at the top of my spine would "drop" onto the nerve bundle if I stood up. This is on top of the fact that my meminges was swollen beyond belief.
Here's what it felt like when I had to go use the restroom:
Imagine a 16 pound bowling ball attached with a Christmas ornament hook to the upper liming of your brain. If you moved in the slightest, the bowling ball would land and squish your brain and crush your nerve bundle, with a lights-out explosion of full-body pain that reverberated for hours.
I was in the hospital for 10 days, had intravenous antibiotics for six weeks, and it took me six months to feel like a human being again. Six months.
To this day, the arthritic conditions persist.
I wished for death, yet death fled from me.
Two weeks after leaving the hospital, we moved down south away from those ticks. Never again will I go into the woods of Northern Virginia (or anywhere near it.)
Gosh, what an honor! ;-) I go to the doc on Monday to get some blood tests, and to talk about long term stuff. I’m hoping that she can do something for the pain/stiffness. I feel it especially in my elbows, wrists fingers and knees. The headaches and fatigue... I think I’m on my own, but boy do they knock me down! I still can’t drive long distances yet.
Wow, sorry to hear about your illness. Sounds terrible.
The imprint of severe pain from illness will stay with you for the rest of your life even if the symptoms pass. I still remember laying in a hospital bed with pain so severe that it actually hurt for someone to walk down the hall outside my room. It was like my nerves traveled out of my body, across and off the bed, out the door and down the hall. Then a visitor would walk up to my bed with the best intentions in the world and place their hands on the foot of the bed. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh...
Hope your continuing symptoms aren’t too bad. I appreciate you relating your experience.
Quite a dangerous fever for an adult, especially somebody your dad’s age. Yes, very thankful here for antibiotics too.
There is no need for that. I know 2 people who had Lyme Disease very bad and have been cured. They have to have a spinal steroidal epidural and it goes away,trust me.
Email me I and I will give you the people. They have tried to tell everyone including politicians, but nobody wants to know. You know, no research money.
Fedupjohn
That’s horrible... poor thing.
Wow. I’m thankful you made it through that. I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy.
I’m surprised he hasn’t come down with Bubonic Plague, working around ‘Rats all day for the past 7 years. ;)
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