While on the Amox. he was actually able to walk almost upright w/o pain for the 1st time in almost a year.

He then went to Dr. A.G. in NJ (ILADS MD?)
who put him on 300mg Doxy and wanted him to take it for 6 wks. before she drew PCR to send to MDL. Again, his feet (this time both) blew up and were so-o-o painful. He also got alot of knee pain which he never had before.Definitely a bad Herx which improved after a few weeks, but his back never improved at all and seemed to get worse the longer he was on the Doxy.

After about 7 weeks, she sent the blood to MDL for PCR. It took 3 weeks for results and today Dr. G's nurse or secretary called him and said his tests were negative and asked how he felt.He said he felt no better and she reiterated that the tests were negative and he got the feeling he was being blown off.

I thought Dr. G was a LLMD. Do you think she would put that much weight on the PCR? My sister-in-law said she told them it would tell what stage of LD, what strain and how he was responding to TX and what ABX would work!!!! Is that possible???

Also, she told him on his 1st visit that Amox. doesn't work for Lyme ???

 

Lisa
 

same with the blood they draw. that particular sample of blood didn't have any of hte lyme or bart or babs in it, that's all...sometimes you have to draw wht they call 'serial pcrs' or 5 or 6 weeks in a row, to try and 'catch' the bacteria in a sample...one try does NOT mean you dont' have it..and any GOOD LLMD knows that! pcrs are picking up actual pieces of the bacteria, NOT searching for antibodies like the western blots done by igenex..it's a totally different test...

This does not sound like an llmd to me. You base lyme treatment on symtoms according to the cdc, not on testing...you also already have a positive igenex test..pcr's are usually more reliable for coinfection testing anyway...not western blots...

hope this helped explain it..now explain it to the doctor too, and he'll learn...
 

There are alot of other drugs besides doxy!

------------------
oops!
Lymetutu

 

For me, amoxy worked some with Biaxin but didn't do much on its own. But it greatly helped my daughter, although when she went off it she relapsed almost immediately.

As for the PCR, all the doctors we have put no stock in negative PCR's. It's always worth a try to get a positive, but a negative doesn't mean much, we've been told.
 

Her secretary told him she was NOT going to call him back.She said his tests were negative, he did NOT have Lyme anymore. She said Dr. G wanted him to STOP the ABX and gave him the name of a back specialist to see.He has already been to many back "specialists" who could find nothing wrong with him.He's had MRIs,Bone scans, EMGs, myelograms, etc. and the only positive test he has had was a WB from Igenex!!!

I feel terrible since I suggested Dr.G from recommendations on her and because she was past president of ILADS !!

He told the secretary that he thought a neg. DNA test was not uncommon and she sort of cut him off by saying that Dr. G was a "Primier" Lyme specialist (cost him $600 for 2 visits-the second at $200 just to draw the blood for the PCR and another WB with MDL) and that he should follow her advice!!!

If I didn't know better, I'd think they went to the wrong doctor.

Just wanted to vent a little. The poor man doesn't know where to go from here!!
 

A PCR test if positive is very valuable but a negative PCR is almost meaningless if you still have symptoms.

NJ LLMD's are currently being scrutinized by the State Medical Board for the over diagnosis and over treatment of LD. Dr. G works with Dr. F who is currently being investigated.

Perhaps she is just being cautious with the patients that she takes on because of the scrutiny? Just a thought.