posted
Looking for a good primary care doctor through John Hopkins in Anne Arundel county in Maryland. Hoping to get diagnosed using insurance before attempting self pay. Thank you! Lymed &Confused
Posts: 5 | From USA | Registered: Oct 2010
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Others will be by for specific suggestions, soon, I hope.
I just wanted to let you know to be VERY careful with Johns Hopkins. They do not "believe" in lyme disease or the complex treatment.
You may find the rare doctor who does "believe" or understand the complexity of lyme to some degree - but they may not be able to treat, and they have to be quiet if they disagree with the establishment.
As an institution, JH's Infectious Disease department has been absolutely terrible for lyme patients.
Be sure to talk to those in your area lyme support groups first. There are just so many patient failure experiences from this place that you to really do your homework.
You may also get some good replies here: --------------------
TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
The only way this might happen is if you ask for a lyme test (the Western Blot is the one you want, if they will do it for you--most likely the doc won't do it) and it comes back positive through Quest or LabCorp.
Then, likely your doctor will call it a false positive, meaning that he believes you really don't have lyme.
But, you will know that a false positive doesn't happen. Then, you can ask for names of lyme docs at this site and we can give them to you.
Just know that MANY people test negative for lyme disease but they really have it.
Also, a Boston TV station did a great show on lyme disease about 2-3 years ago. Here is the link to it: http://www.kettmann.com/Lyme/Save/
Then, click on "Here"
The show was taped by a girl on LymeNet and she put it on-line for all of us to be able to view it. You will learn a lot about the medical controversy surrounding lyme disease and why it is so hard to find a doctor who knows how to cure a person of lyme disease.
You will also hear over and over how people tested negative for lyme disease, only to find out later that they actually had the disease.
10 years ago when I was looking for a diagnosis, I went to Hopkins. The doc I saw there (an endocrinologist) thought that perhaps I had a brain tumor. He never thought of lyme.
Then, 2 weeks later I went to an endo in private practice and told him my same symptoms. He said it sounded like lyme disease, tested me, and called and told me I had lyme disease.
That's the way it is with this disease. Don't expect Hopkins to ever say you have it. I once read an article where a doc at Hopkins infectious disease dept said that they really don't want to see people with lyme disease there. He said the disease was too controversial.
Let us know when you want names of lyme docs. They are the best ones to give you your diagnosis of lyme/not lyme.
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