My Dr.diognosed me with Lyme even though my blood test was negative. How do I know if he is a LLMD? Does anyone Know a good Dr. in New Hampshire?
Posted by lymednva (Member # 9098) on :
One sign that he might be a LLMD is that he diagnosed you based on symptoms, not just a test. Did he explain why he diagnosed you that way?
Do you have a copy of your test results? If not you should ask for one.
Many of us here have been diagnosed with Lyme without having a positive test. We had some Lyme specific bands show up positive, or indeterminate.
We may also have low CD57 results. Do you know if your doctor ran that test on you?
A clinical diagnosis takes into consideration everything the doctor knows about you , symptoms, history, and test results. Based on all this a person may get a Lyme DX without having a positive test.
To find out if others are familiar with this doctor you could write a new post with the first initial of his last name in the topic and see what you come up with. For instance: Does anyone know about Dr. A in NH?
Good luck!
Posted by Michelle M (Member # 7200) on :
Your doc actually shows promise, because he listened to you, knew about your tick exposures and rash, and diagnosed you with lyme despite you testing negative on ELISA.
However, he's not an LLMD.
We know this because he's not giving you very much doxy. We know this because he hasn't mentioned co-infection testing to you.
He MIGHT be able to be educated. "MIGHT."
Trying printing off the ILADS treatment guidelines and seeing how amenable he is. Some docs will actually agree to this and you might get lucky.
Others will balk.
You should not have to spend your time and energy educating your doctor. As treatment progresses, you want an LLMD with knowledge and experience in how to help you.