Bush’s Doctors Kept Lyme Disease Secret for a Year; Is the Condition Why His Mind is Degenerating?
We’ve all seen the video, and if not, you really can’t watch it enough: George Bush when he was governor of Texas, using big words and whole sentences, making sense and not embarrassing anyone. It’s a marvel!
But Bush now is a whole different animal, leading many to wonder if it’s Alzheimers, if he’s back on the sauce, or if Dick Cheney is slipping something into his fried quail.
An even better explanation is Lyme disease. Although doctors one year ago treated him for what they now claim was early stage Lyme disease, who knows when he got it? And dementia is one of the main manifestations of undiagnosed Lyme disease.
Bush was treated for what his doctors described as “early, localized Lyme disease” last August after developing the characteristic bullseye rash. The doctors said he has had no recurrence.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the disease was not disclosed earlier because it happened after he had his last physical, on Aug. 1, 2006.
Right. So why bring it up until now? After all, it’s not like we ever hear about any of the other Bush health problems, like hangovers — whoops, I mean stomach flu — at global summits.
The president’s main form of exercise and recreational activity is biking. His doctors advised him to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts and use bug spray when in risk-prone areas, such as Maine, where the president is spending a long weekend starting Thursday at his parents’ summer home on the coast.
Bush has had a lifetime of opportunities to contract Lyme disease, if you can get it from mountain biking in Maine. But the curious circumstances of his recent annual exam have really got me wondering what gives.
Last year’s presidential physical was conducted as usual on a visit to the National Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland. This year’s took place in a series of exams at the White House starting July 17 and ending Tuesday night. The exams were not revealed until Wednesday…
A total of 11 doctors were involved in the exams, overseen by White House physician Richard Tubb and Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the president of The Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. The group included skin, hearing, heart, eye, neurological and sports medicine specialists.
Each signed a statement saying that “within the scope of my specialty” he found Bush “fit for duty” with the expectation that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency.
It’s all kind of odd, don’t you think? It seems like presidents always have their exams at Bethesda. I wasn’t aware the White House kept the equipment on hand that you’d need for 11 different specialists to perform tests.
But listen to what happens when, instead of the early stage Lyme disease the White House claims Bush had, you don’t know you have it and it goes untreated too long. Symptom types include: