I am totally new here and feeling very overwhelmed! I am looking for a LLMD in NJ. I live in Morristown and am willing to travel a little bit for a great doc. Please message me if you have any recommendations. I am 36 yrs old with 2 small kids and feel nervous about prognosis. This seems like such a difficult disease to treat, and I believe I have been undiagnosed for a year now. Thank you so much.
Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
I'm sorry but I don't know of anyone good in your area. The great doc near there has at least a 1 year waiting list.
If you are willing to travel to the D.C. area for a good doc who can see you in a few days, let me know. You can take the train down and back, all in one day. And, you can do telephone appointments after the first in-person appointment. I have lots of good reviews on him.
Good lyme doctors are few and far between, so you have to be willing to travel.
You can also contact the lyme support groups in your state and surrounding areas to get doctors names and info on who is getting people well. See Support Groups on the left side of the page.
Contact as many as possible and get as much input as possible on lyme doctors before laying out the big bucks.
I know a number of lyme doctors in NJ, but none that I can recommend to you. I have bad reports on nearly all of them. Don't want that for you. But, that shows you that you have to get a lot of patient input before going to a doc. Do your homework so you don't get disappointed and waste your money. That first appointment can be very expensive.
I went undiagnosed for at least 10 years. Still, I got well once I got to a doctor who followed the Burrascano lyme treatment protocol.
You must attack both the regular and cyst (or other) form of lyme simultaneously--requires at least 2 different antibiotics to do so.
You must test the patient for all co-infections and other physical ailments (thyroid, etc.) and treat everything the person has.
You must treat all co-infections the patient has(including babesiosis, bartonella, ehrlichia, mycoplasma, etc.) or the patient will not get well.
You must use Igenex for most of these tests--they are a tick-borne disease speciality lab in Calif.
You must use very high doses of antibiotics to kill the diseases (batericidal doses).
You must give the patient supplements, probiotics, herbs such as artimesinin if babesiosis is suspected, and require adherence to rules such as low carb diet, no alcohol, no smoking, rest, and exercise as the patient is able to do it.
You must treat at least 2 months after all symptoms have disappeared (if sick at least 1 year).
These are just a few of the important points you will see in the guidelines. If possible, you want a doc who does EVERYTHING Burrascano says to do. He treated lyme for over 25 years, and compiled what he learned so that other docs could benefit from it. He was the most successful lyme doctor on the planet. They came from every country in the world to be treated by him.
The best thing you can do for yourself is become educated on this disease and what good treatment looks like. Then, you will be able to evaluate the treatment you are being given.
If it is poor treatment, leave that doc. You will never get well if you are getting lousy treatment. I got well once I left my lousy lyme doctor and switched to one who did everything Burrascano said to do. In 8 months I was symptom-free, and in 13 months I was finished with treatment.
And, this doctor tested me for coinfections and found that I had babesiosis and bartonella also. So, he treated me for both of them.
Nobody sick for a year has just lyme disease. You most likely have babs and bart also. Until you are treated for every disease the tick gave you, you cannot get well.
Good for you for finding LymeNet and asking for a doctor here! We will help you all we can.
Don't give up hope. With a good doctor, you can fell good and enjoy life again!
Posted by hopingandpraying (Member # 9256) on :
Welcome to Lymenet! PM sent for PA & CT.
You need to be evaluated and treated by a Lyme-literate doctor (LLMD). Non LLMDs have no clue about this horrible disease or its complex treatment!
A LLMD is one who has treated Lyme disease and the co-infections which come with it for many years and has gotten patients well. A good one will follow Dr. B's Guidelines, the "gold standard" for Lyme treatment.
Unfortunately, LLMDs are far and few between. You need to go where they are.
Also most LLMDs do not accept insurance due to the politics surrounding this horrible disease. Read poster TF's explanation, "Why Lyme Doctors Don't Take Insurance":
Btw - please break up your posts into 2-3 sentence paragraphs, as there are people on Lymenet who cannot read large blocks of text due to neurological problems from Lyme. Thanks.