Posted by bleauberry on March 9, 2009, at 19:00:23
In reply to Darn Lyme's Disease on radio now exists all over !, posted by Phillipa on March 9, 2009, at 17:18:53
> Sorry to bring this up again but radio again talking about lyme's disease and how prevelent it is all over the world just different strains of the bugs or spirochettes and different bacterias. Since I did and was positively diagnosed with lymes and that's when all my problems started the failing of thyroid. And now hearing no diagnostic test is accurate. No doc will prescribe antibiotics without a reason as so much antibiotic resistance. What to do? Any suggestions? Phillipa
Well, most of what you said is accurate Phillipa, but not all of it. Please let me clarify.
There is a diagnostic test that is accurate. That is, a trial of Tetracycline by a Lyme Literate MD.
Is there any accurate test to tell if there are any fish around your boat or what kind of fish? No. But you can throw your fishing line in and find out. You can drag a fishing net and find out. The same thing applies with specific antibiotics.
The closest thing to an accurate test is the clinical experience of an experienced LLMD who asks you a hundred questions about symptoms, history, exposure, and gives you a lengthy detailed neurological exam. Then the antibiotic trial. The lab tests can help, but really are kind of useless. Someone can be very ill, test negative, be given antibiotics specific to Lyme, and get well. Fill in the blanks.
Please don't give me the line about that LLMD who went bankrupt and had his license taken away. Or the LLMD who's patients are still sick. There are jokers in every profession. The other 98% are miracles of medicine that actually give people their lives back.
So diagnosis is accurate. Just not from a lab.
Some people go on to be healed and yet never know for sure exactly what pathogen they had. Was it Lyme? Was it mycoplasm? Was it Clamydia? Babesia? Or a host of others? All very similar and very destructive. Good thing is they all respond to the same treatment as Lyme.
Now, no doctor will prescribe antibiotics without a reason? Sadly true for the general population of GPs and many Infectious Disease specialists. They are bound by the strict criteria of the Centers For Disease Control, or their own egos (remember the "I have spoke" type), or just plain simple lack of updated knowledge. Most doctors are too busy with a waiting room crammed with patients to know what advances are happening in any particular field. They'll know a few years after the fact.
But that is not true of MDs who specialize in Lyme. More and more regular MDs are gaining knowledge and expertise from the successes the LLMDs are having, so hopefully in years to come there will be more widely available good treatment. But for now, the LLMDs do prescribe antibiotics even when there is no proof on a lab test that it is justified.
Whoever made a lab test a God anyway?
You asked for suggestions. Ok. Find an LLMD. Get online and find one in your area who takes your insurance. There are several Lyme websites that will help you accomplish that.
Another option would be to google "Dr Sam Donta Boston Lyme", and google "International Lyme and Associated Disease Society". Print out everything you find. With a yellow marker highlite the important stuff. Take it to the MD of your choice and say, "I want this kind of treatment. I have all the symptoms of Lyme, I was diagnosed with it, I believe based on symptoms that I still have it, I want re-evaluation based on this information I have brought you, and I want antibiotics."
Really it is just that simple.
But you gotta do some homework. Go in unprepared and, well, I know the history of your chosen doctors.
Give them something to work with.
As for the resistance to antibiotics. Yes, there are probably many conditions for which antibiotics should not be used. For example, acne. Or anything that is not life threatening or very crippling. But that does not apply to Lyme. An infected person has no choice.
Lyme and Lyme-like pathogens do not develop resistance to antibiotics. Read Sam Donta's stuff and you'll see why. Other pathogens can and do.
Longterm antibiotics carry potentially serious risk. Very rare, but potential. On the other hand, choosing to NOT take antibiotics GUARANTEES serious outcomes. It isn't even risk...the horrid outcome is guaranteed.
So while I can understand how you might feel trapped, you really aren't. Everything you need to know how to get out of the trap is in this post.
poster:bleauberry
thread:884645
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090304/msgs/884658.html