I decided that the LLMD in Pennsylvania was way too far for me and the fact he doesn't take insurance really annoys me. This was mistake #1.

So, I decided to try an Infectious Disease doctor who took my insurance (mistake #2) to see if he could tell me if i have lyme and if not, what i could possibly have going on.

3rd mistake: they only take new patients from 9am-11am. that is too late in the morning but too early in the afternoon for my husband to get off to watch my 21month old son. So I went with Jamie.

I walked in and two other patients were complaining about the wait to see him. One lady left.

It was over an hour of waiting before i saw the doctor.

The guy walked in with an arrogant, jerkish attitude. He would barely listen to me concerning my symptoms. He was apparently annoyed that I had brought my son. He told me whatever it is that I have, it is not infectious. He was so rude to me, I didn't know what to say. He asked me if I had depression or anxiety and I laughed and said no. He then asked me if I cried alot, if I was sad alot, if I wanted to hurt myself, if I was nervous alot, etc. I guess he was worried i did not understand the first question about depression and anxiety? He told me that my symptoms were probably all just anxiety. Oh, and that I had sleep apnea because of my obesity - how he came up with that conclusion, out of the blue, I do not know. Then he said that he didn't know what could be causing my pain because sleep apnea does not cause pain. He said perhaps I have hiv or syphillus but that my symptoms were not related to those two diseases!

Could we be any more confusing?

He told me to go out in the waiting room because he could not concentrate with jamie in the room. He was extremely rude about it.

I went into the waiting room and the receptionist asked when I needed to make another appointment to see the doctor and I said I didn't think I would be coming back. Then I sat down. Jamie was crying and I said something like: I know it's been a waste of a morning jamie but we will be out of here soon.

I guess the one receptionist lady heard me and tattled on me to the doctor.

Next thing I know, the doctor tells me to come back to his office. I didn't think anything of it. Little did I know that I was being sent to the 'principals office' because I was in trouble. That is exactly how I felt once I realized he was going to tell me off.

He then belittled me telling me that I was wasting his time and nothing was wrong with me and his other patients 'really' needed him and how dare I badmouth him in the waiting room, etc, etc, etc. He also said that I disrupted my appointment and the entire office with bringing my son in and they did not ask me to bring in my child and I should have known better. He said he was trying to help me but that I was just being rude. Then he said that nothing was wrong with me again....

He absolutely knows nothing about lyme. He told me I don't have it and if I did, I would be dead by now (because it would be in my brain). He said I was not around ticks so I couldn't have been bit and I told him that my entire 23 years was not only in Maryland but that we had ticks inside our house, on the cats, outside, etc. I told him that I remember seeing ticks crawling on me several times over the years. I slept with my cat every night who always had ticks on him. He then said Lyme does not last for a year, much less years and years. He said if I tested negative on my tests through Labcorp, than I don't have Lyme.

It is sad that I know more about Lyme Disease than most of the doctors out there and all I have done is R E S E A R C H it!

I flipped and told him he was arrogant and it was obvious that he would not and could not help me and that he came into the appointment with an attitude towards me. (I swear, but i really think doctors are predjuiced against overweight people! I really, really do). I also told him that it was apparent that he did not like my son and was annoyed with him. And that if he had seen me at my appointment time instead of making me wait over an hour, my son would have been fine. I also told him that it was not my fault that my husband could not take off work to watch my son and that they need to do something about their new patient hours if they did not want children in the office (I had explained to the receptionist when I made the appt. that my son would have to come with me if they could not see me in the afternoon). I told him the results for the tests he was ordering were going to come back negative and then he said - than what are you here for? Then he tells me he is trying to help me and order tests for me and I am a very rude person.

He was one walking contradiction.

He totally disregarded everything I said and kept going on and on about how his other patients needed him and that I was wasting his and their time.

I was so pissed.

And I actually waited for him to give me my lab slip for the tests he wanted. This was another 15 minutes. I figured I'd get them done and have his office fax them to my doctor's office. The more I think about it though, the more I know that I don't have HIV or Syphillus or TB.

I left and told the two nice receptionist girls that I appreciated them being the only nice ones in the office and that at least they did not waste 2 hours of my time (it was about 2 hrs by the time I left). I then told them to tell their doctor that it's not a good idea to tell a mother that her child is disrupting his office when it's his fault that he does not see his patients on time.

As soon as I got to the car I burst into tears.

I just cannot believe the nerve, ignorance and arrogance of this doctor. He was so rude. It was unbelievable how rude he was.

I then called my regular doctor and asked if she would order the Bowen test that I had told her about. It sounds like she won't. She thinks if I have lyme, my test results with Labcorp should have been positive. She told me that if I had chronic Lyme, it would have shown on Labcorp results and that she had three people just test positive with Labcorp this past month.

It's just one doctor after another. Obviously something is wrong with me and it's definitely NOT anxiety or depression for goodness sake! I am so sick and tired of the doctors telling me that.

I guess I will have to make another visit to that LLMD in PA.

What a terrible morning!

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. My one infectious disease doctor experience was about 14 years ago.

I had problems with my knee swelling, that we now know was Lyme. When all my blood tests came back negative, he told me it was just growing pains. Then he took out a tape measure, measured my legs and announced that my left leg was shorter than my right.

Feel free to email me @ [email protected]. I'm so annoyed right now that I'm ready to just throw up my hands and just try to forget I'm sick.

My primary doctor seems to be annoyed with me on top of everything else. It's like you're not supposed to continue to see doctors and talk about your symptoms if noone can figure out what is wrong with you.

Anyway had to take Dan to the ER two weeks ago..he cracked his neck so hard he pulled his muscle and couldn't lift his head back up straight and was in alot of pain...needed IM valium and toradol to settle the spasm ..anyway my son has a PICC line and is under and angle LLMD's care and of course our ER MD was a little intimidated...long story but even had the nerve to refer to our LLMD as "self-proclaimed"..

I let him know that no one locally knows what the devil they're doing and patients like my son are suffering needlessly...(Dan had lyme when he was 3/4yrs. old undx'd for 2 yrs...what we thought was Lyme arthritis for the past 12yrs. when infact it was traveling to his brain all this time and he now has encephalopathy (neuro/psych.lyme) so...

There are very few MD's out there who are willing to use their brains, take the time and apply their God-given talents to understand a disease that is underestimated!

GRRR, how terrible!

At least you can take solice in the fact that probably 99.99997% of the posters in here have had similar experiences, typically on more than one occasion. Sometimes many occasions. The arrogancy of some doctors just amazes me. They think that they are masters of the universe and that they are absolutely correct about everything. These doctors are greatly deluded.

I went to one and only one ID doctor also. Big mistake, complete and utter quack. When I mentioned about the possibility of Lyme he actually laughed (yes, out loud) at me, but said he would order tests basically for the hell of it. He was one of the 'profession' in Australia who believe that it does not exist down here, and even without any evidence, they are 100% absolutely certain, of course. He was also one of those doctors who follow the "if it's not in my textbooks or medical journals, it must be bogus" way of thinking. Crank.

I never went back to him.

So sorry you are having such a tough time of it. I hope things get better when you get to the right MD.

I do, however, take isuue with the others here that IDMDs are quacks. That kind of generalization is not helpful for those of us who do see good IDMDs and for those who need to see IDMDs because of insurance problems. My IDMD treats me as aggressively as any LLMD would. He also sees me every 2 weeks (even thought the wait is long) and, he has an efficient staff that monitors my blood, my PICC, my liver, etc. on a weekly basis. I feel that I get good treatment and careful attention is paid to all the other problems that are associated with Lyme and expecially with the Rx. He takes insurance and THAT is very important to me, as I don't have the time or energy to do all the paperwork for these extremely expensive drugs. Nor do I have the cash.

Your experience was horrible, no argument there. I hope you find the right MD to help you and to listen to you. I went through a few myself. I endured lots of testing. I was very frustrated. The good thing is that all that testing ruled out the possibility of some other heinous infection and my Drs. all agreed that Lyme was the reason for how terrible I felt. I did test positive.

I just hope that this forum does not turn off others who may be helped by good Inf. Dis. Drs., or Neurologist, or other MDs who do have knowledge of Lyme even though it is not their only specialty.

I know you will find help. Just keep trying. I wish you well.

I think you are correct about the prejudice against overweight people. It really stinks.

Hang in there and know that you will get what you need eventually.

hopeful123

It may be a pain in the butt to travel to see a LLMD and it may be annoying and expensive because the LLMD does not take your insurance but it is worth it.

So, I'll be going back to the LLMD in Pennsylvania.

I would rather take a day of travel and spend a little money to deal with someone that is experienced with Lyme and is nice vs. dealing with another arrogant, ignorant, nasty doctor with a 'god' complex.

"God complex" is right!

I walked into my son's pediatrician's office with his positive Western Blot in hand, and the doc wanted to know more about who I had seen when I first had Lyme (another duck story, btw) than about my son. He wrote "Lyme disease" on my son's chart, then SCRATCHED IT OUT, saying, "We don't want to say that yet, because then I'd have to report it to the state."

Huh? Positive test, never had antibiotics in his life, has psych symptoms up the wazoo, and it might NOT be Lyme? The kicker was when he wanted to do the Western Blot all over again, at the same hospital I'd just used a week before (they take son's insurance). Gee, maybe he'd be lucky and it would come out negative, so he wouldn't have to fill out paperwork with the state.

We've already got too many cases to begin with, I guess, so let's not report any more, and give our state a bad name...

Even my son was holding his ears and mouthing to me, "He's not listening to you, Mom."

I just came from an incredibly good appt. with my doc in PA. She is sooo thorough and treats all individually. I see her about every 6 weeks. She is backed up a few months. She does not take insurance for the office visits, but every test, blood draws are. I am really happy I made the choice to see her after interviewing 2 others. She has also worked with Dr. B.

Forgive me if I am wrong- because I surely am used to being so,

but didnt we email each other and didnt I give you various, various other names of LLMD's basically right next to you?

I COULD be wrong, but Im not sure.

In any case, if you are speaking of Dr. B.... in Colamar, PA he is by far, NOT CHEAP and he is surely NOT the only lyme doc in PA

There are TWO llmd's that i can think of off the top of my head, Im sorry- THREE that are right on the border of Maryland.

If you need their information, please email me!

Dr. F, Dr. B****, and Dr. Be**..