Posted 2/2/2011 7:34 PM (GMT -5)
If hubby were not so symptomatic, I could be happy believing this.
Of course, this was the trip to the infectious disease doctor that could have gone either way. Either he would clinically diagnose him, or dismiss him. Well, hubby was dismissed.
Unfortunately, I did not go with him to the appt. The weather here in NJ has been horrible. Hubby was already on his way to the appt. while I was still at work. I did arm him with a request to get tested for babesis, erlichia and bartonella.
Imagine my surprise when hubby gets home and says the doctor said to stop taking the Doxy, he doesn't have lyme disease. Dr. said his testS were false positives. Dr. said if you had lyme disease, you'd appear/look much sicker; you look healthy to me. Dr. said stop taking Doxy; you don't need it.
Hubby said "for my own peace of mine, please give me a prescription for lab testing for erlichia, babesia and bartonella. He got the script, and bartonella was left off.
Now, I don't want to argue with the dr. as that is counterproductive, BUT, I called and asked why bartonella wasn't on the script, and could I write it in. Imagine my nerve. The nurse said the dr. would call back. He did.
The dr. said BARTONELLA DOESN"T COME FROM TICKS. I said there are plenty of authorities who differ in that opinion and, we want to be healthy, and want our loved ones healthy and for our peace of mind, would he please request a bart test. He actually said, then you'll have to come back next week and I'll have to charge for another appt. and this is going to get expensive. I said how much longer will you be there tonight cuz we can be at your office in 5 minutes.
THEN HE SAID your insurance company isn't going to want to pay for all of these unnecessary tests because your husband doesn't have lyme. I said I understand that is your diagnosis, and I don't want to argue that, but the positive tests in my hand say he does, but that is neither here nor there. I said I am not stuck on the idea that he has lyme disease, however, I need peace of mind and the insurance company, for any disease diagnosis, may not want to pay for testing, and then your patient can die. We just want to put this to bed and these 3 coinfection tests will do that, and if insurance won't pay, I'll pay for it myself so please, to put this issue to bed, won't you request the test?
We went back and he gave a 2nd script for bart.
He did not tell my husband what WAS WRONG WITH HIM INSTEAD OF THE LYME...he just dismissed him by saying that his testS were false positive. He didn't take into account any of his CLINICAL symptoms.
Many of you warned me. Hubby wanted to give this fella a chance. Hubby DID NOT BELIEVE the controversy, nor that some doctors take a hard CDC/IDSA stance and others will listen to their patients. Now he believes.
Hubby says this dr. really didn't care to listen to anything he had to say.
Hubby will have taken 41 days of Doxy from the initial diagnosis. We know this is not enough to make him well, but he has improved. That improvement alone, and the herxing, means something has made him sick.
Dr. said the results take 10 days. He told hubby to stop the ABX.
I told hubby finishing the ABX can't hurt him. I said we'll get the IGENIX test and pay for it ourselves, but we have to get a dr. to order the blood work. How does one go about getting an unwilling dr. (his GP, or perhaps his "maybe" willing cardiologist) to write the order for the blood work?
I'm sorry this is so long. I broke it up as best as I could.
I feel like we've hit a wall.
I know we have to see an LLMD. I have found 2. I got a bad feeling about the one place. I have a feeling they are all going to be the same, shielded in secrecy, underground, and out of pocket.