Posted 8/21/2012 8:23 PM (GMT -5)
Hi everyone!
So I posted yesterday talking about how scared I was today to go to my first appointment with a new LLMD.
Well...at first I was really nervous all morning. I am also having a bad pain day...so that didn't help. When the dr. came into the room, he just sat down AND he had a mask on and I was like "they think I'm a freak! He's even wearing a mask!" but he explained that he has a cough and didn't want to get ME any sicker. As soon as he said "any sicker" I relaxed a little. That means, he already had time to review my charts and didn't think I was faking it yet! He reviewed my symptoms with me very thoroughly, one by one, and typed notes on his laptop. It was very clinical and a little scary.
I have paranoia right now, for those new viewers, so I'm always thinking something paranoid. Well, I think actually, he just wanted to make sure there was enough time in the appointment to cover everything, with enough time for me to ask any questions.
When he was done typing and reviewing the list, he moved the computer aside and then asked me how long I was out west...something I had mentioned as possible tick exposure. He said he lived in Seattle for 5 years and then I relaxed and the conversation turned friendlier. He started to explain to me the three forms that the B.burgdorferi can take, and how they treat for all three at the same time PLUS use herbal supplements to help. I knew all of the bacteria information but was SO happy that a doctor knew something I already knew about it...I just let him keep talking. Plus I wanted to gauge how much he knew. He knew A LOT.
He outlined all of the tests they would be giving me. Unfortunately, it takes 4 weeks to get the results, but it's because they send it to the Igenix lab in California. He said that since I had a positive 23 band on my first western blot test last year, that he's pretty certain all of my tests will not come back negative (as I fear). He said that if the test wasn't over a year old, they would treat just based on that test alone. (So if the doctor last year had thought it was important to review the results of the lyme test, I might have looked for this place earlier and been able to get treatment right away.)
Because of my recurrent fevers (16 of the last 30 days I have had a fever), he highly suspects that I have a co-infection (I forget which one he said, but I think it started with a "b") too.
I asked why they couldn't just treat right away with antibiotics and he said because they want to get as complete of a picture of each individual first to get the best "plan of attack." So, instead of guessing, they know exactly which three antibiotics will work best to kill the three forms of bacteria. This is the first doctor that has offered me a plan....that sounded like they knew exactly what they were doing and that they had done it all before, many times, with success.
I was a little dismayed at another four weeks of just waiting, but he told me that he's so sure that I have lyme and/or a coinfection that he felt comfortable starting me on the herbals that he normally prescribes with the first round of abx.
So I will start Samento and Banderol tomorrow. They said some people herx and some people...it doesn't touch them. So we'll see. But I feel like I have taken a step forward in my journey today. Although............that nasty paranoia...after the original high of a good appointment wore off, about 1 hour into the ride home, those nasty paranoia thoughts started to creep back in. I was like "what if he wasn't telling the whole truth...what if he was just being nice?" or worse "what if he really thought I was crazy, but likes crazy people because they think they're sick? and then he can take their money!!"
But I tried my best to push those thoughts out and think of all of the positives from today. I'm trying to keep thinking "this is a step forward"