posted
Last night I was at my family doctors office and as usual I left very frustrated.
I have had a positive Elisa and a Postive Igm Western Blot but a negative IgG western blot. Here in Canada they do not tell you what bands were positive but I did manange to find out that my IgM's that were positive were 41 and 23.
When my doctor got these results he went ahead and referred me to an infectious disease doctor who turned around and said that I can't have lyme because my IgG antibodies would have been positive by now.
My family doctor is believing him of course and he claims that he is beleiving him because he just doesn't know.
I tried to explain to him that with lyme disease the IgM antibodies are frequently elevated because you body thinks that it is constantly being reinfected. He then said well wouldnt your IgG antibodies who up sometime? and I said that is depleats your immune system so sometimes it doesn't work properly.
He then went on to say that even if I did have lyme he gave me the 3 weeks worth of antibiotics that the IDSA/CDC recommend and I tried to tell him that that is not good enough and that long term antibodics are necessary.
Well that didnt go well and he started to ask me why I thought that somebody would make up a guideline that would purposly keep people sick. Why I thought that theres a conspiracy. I told him I am going to give him a movie to watch (Under our Skin) that will explain alot.
Now I dont know if he really is naive or if he really is just stupid but I really want to send him some information about all of this trying to explain things.
I just dont know where to start. Anybody have any suggestions?
Oh, I also asked him why I would have a positive Elisa, and a positive IgM western blot if I didnt have lyme. And as I thought he said that other things can cross react with the test making the IgM's positive. So I then asked him what those things are and I also suggested doing tests to rule those things out. His response was "Oh there are probably hundreds of things". Arrgg .
He then told me that he would like to know what my LLMD based is diagnosis on because the test results were "negative" according to him.
I said you know, even if my tests WERE negative (which they weren't) that even the stupid IDSA/CDC say that Lyme disease is a clinical diagnosis with test results to back that up.
As you can tell I left VERY frustrated and I just want to slam him with information and I want to highlight things etc.
If anybody has a start then please tell me thanks so much!
Posts: 574 | From Out there somewhere | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
If you need to educate a doctor, find a new one ASAP. Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged |
Dawn in VA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9693
posted
Perhaps print and give him Dr B's guidelines to look over if you think he's open-minded enough to do so?
If he's not, I agree with seek.
(I sometimes "inadvertently" leave Lyme info around docs' offices who dismiss chronic infections and such.)
-------------------- (The ole disclaimer: I'm not a doctor.) Posts: 1349 | From VA | Registered: Jul 2006
| IP: Logged |
METALLlC BLUE
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6628
lymeinhell
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4622
posted
I gave my GP Dr. B's guidelines when after 9 mos he truly hit the point of 'I honestly don't know what is wrong with you'. At least he had the guts to admit it. He actually spent the time to go through all of Dr. B's info and agreed to send my blood to IgeneX.
But in the end, I realized that he wouldn't know how to treat me, and high tailed it to an LLMD. The time I wasted I could have been being treated and getting better. No amount of $$$ will ever get that time back for me.
Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed. Posts: 2258 | From a better place than I was 11 yrs ago | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
Honestly, in my opinion. theres no way to convince "Primary Care" doctors or "Infectious Disease" doctors that Lyme is chronic. and that it can be identified with just 2 antibodies. Hell, it can be diagnosed with even 1 antibody. and alot of times you dont even need antibodies if you are symptomatic
all these doctors (ones who AREN'T LLMD's) are taught to adhere to the CDC guidelines. thats what theyre told. its imbedded into their brains. My primary care doctor told me REPEATEDLY that I didnt have lyme. but I knew i did. i had a positive IGM. 41 and 23 IGM. as well as 41 and 23 IGG.
Dont pay attention to your primary care doctor. Think of it this way. Is he going to help you? No. You're being treated by your LLMD for lyme, and thats all you need. Go to your primary for basic health needs. You dont have to bring him into the lyme situation
you should rent the documentary "Under Our Skin" I watched it the other day its truely amazing. Really explains why regular docs are so admamant about not diagnosing Lyme.
good luck Posts: 995 | From somewhere out there | Registered: Oct 2010
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic