...That virtually all of the Docs in an entire large city have chosen to refuse treatment for a particular infectious disease of any sort is truly Bizarre! Forget getting treated, they won't even schedule a consultation.

I think that comes under the same heading as what would happen if you tried to refuse service to people in wheelchairs in your restaurant. But nonetheless they are doing it OPENLY and they aren't even ashamed.

Good luck! Are you planning on traveling to find a dr? Like to Austin or Bedford?

My retired pathologist friend who I showed the microscope photos to gave me the name of a Dr. that he thought was very knowledgable about lyme. In fact he said this doc was the only one in SA that was knowledgable about it.

My wife (an RN) today tried to get an appointment for just a brief consultation with him. She was told flat out that he or any of the other ID Docs in the whole office complex would not even consult with a LD or suspected LD patient.

We just wanted to pay him for a little of his time and ask him if he had any suggestions. We weren't even asking for treatment if he didn't want to.

If you have Aids, cancer, tuberculosis, leprosy, STD's, or anything else I suppose they will take your money and at least pretend to treat you. If you have lyme just go home and die.

This Doc supposedly treated most of the LD cases in San Antonio in the past... Obviously somebody has leaned on him hard.

It was just so blatant... like McDonalds putting up a sign that said "Cripples not Welcome" with a picture of a crossed out wheelchair.

I'm actually not doing too bad health wise. Its just that I'm going to be reduced to buying my medicine at the farm co-op soon at this rate.

I'm trying to find the protocol to treat lyme in livestock, but all it says is 'cook the meat thoroughly'... :-)

I hope you are at least doing some better... it sounds like you are having a rough time.

That's terrible that no Doctor in SA would even talk to you. Sounds like those DOCS have united to set the "standard of care" for SA.

That is, if no one will treat a LD patient-------then I suppose no one gets in trouble for it. They're covering their backs bigtime.

You & jo3 having to diagnose yourselves also takes the cake.

I sure hope you get your apt. soon.

If more of us were diagnosed AND died from the disease, they'd have to pay attention. While Lyme is not as fatal as AIDS in most cases, it can be in some just as bad in others. By refusing to ever diagnose it in a fatally ill patient, or even at atopsy, their lies can feed upon themselves and the cycle can continue. By denying care to those who are so obviously sick, these doctors are just as responsible for our poor health and disabilities as the ticks that bit us.

I wish I knew more about the battle the AIDS patients fought. In some ways, easier because no one could deny the severity of their illness but also, in many ways harder because gaining access to care meant that it forced doctors and health care professionals to potentially put their lives at risk to treat the people infected by the virus. That group of people definitely had an uphill battle but now so many support them and they easily obtain extremely large research grants to study potential cures. They definitely serve as a model to study.

I know the researchers are still trying to find a vaccine that works for Lyme... so why would they be doing this if Lyme still isn't even recognized by most Docs.???

And why try to invent a vaccine if they don't think it's very prevalent?

And it seems to me, in the last 2 years less and less Drs want to get anywhere near a person who has lyme.

I've been around the Lyme world long enough to under stand past politics..

but what's happening recently??

As you may know, we lost Doc H here in Houston to research

And the 2 left no longer take ANY new lyme patients--it's just too complex of a disease to handle any more new lyme patients ---and they already do have many, many patients( not just with lyme)

I do think fear may be a factor in that decision(IMO)

I have had to work with one of those doctors' regarding the ways and means to get most of my treatments covered by insurance( he is on my plan)

I posted about this topic a few days ago in general--and got no replys--just wondering if anyone esle had experinced something like this-----yes, I know I am very lucky to have a LLMD right in my backyard, and also very lucky to have insurance at all--so I do count my blessings

I do not have great insurance---but I have a wonderful case manager---and if you get him what he needs---he gets you approved

It has been like pulling teeth to get them( the docs' staff) to play ball with the insurance company

I finally had to go to the top---docs' wife who manages the office

once I got her sat down, and explained things to her----she was out of the office in a flash to straighten this problem out with the billing person on their staff

On the way home, the billing agent ran me up and applogized for her mistakes

So much is not known with lyme as an infectious agent--let alone how to get insurance to work with you on treatment of a disease with no known, generally accepted protocal

I am just wondering if this is another road-block to doctors willingness to treat us---not just being flagged by insurance co. for suppossed over treatment, but not really knowing *HOW** to get the treatment we need thru the case managers??

Don't beat me up on this---it is just my experince, and that's what lymenet is all about--sharing info, and trying our best to navigate thru the hell that is lyme disease

I am most blessed for my wonderful case manger--who just lays it on the line as to what I need to do to get my needs met.

quote:

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Originally posted by bpeck:
I know the researchers are still trying to find a vaccine that works for Lyme... so why would they be doing this if Lyme still isn't even recognized by most Docs.???

---

this is particularly ODD.

just this week a group in Michigan spoke about initiating a project to vaccinate mice to prevent lyme disease,

a Stanford study showed how the extinction of the passenger piegon has given rise to the tenacity of lyme disease,

and in a Virigina Univeristy a group working on a vaccine for lyme located a key mechanism of the protein binding agent of borrelia.

meanwhile the OPMC failed......

looks like someone wants to have their cake and eat it too

UC Medical Center in Fresno refuses to treat for lyme. They have interns from UCSF.

I assume UCSF Medical Center is the same. I was up there before being dx looking for answers. Lyme was never considered.

When I went to UC Medical Center, the ID was pleasant enough. He just said he would not take the word of a lyme specialist or the lab results from IGenex.

He would only take the lab results from Unilab serology and even then they have false positives.

He also told me to watch out for doctor's who would just take my money and not help me.

I asked him what he could do to help me regain my health. He said all he could give me was sympathy.

I believe this was due to ignorance or as my lyme doc said...they are listening to the wrong people.

I do believe this doc really felt that he may be doing me harm by treating me with abx instead of helping me.

He said he knew of a patient who died of hear problems after receiving abx for lyme disease. He thought it was the abx that caused his or her death.

I went to another ID doc in SLO. He, too, was concerned about the amount of abx my lyme doc would give me. He, too, did not have a plan for helping me to regain my health. He informed me he was an ivy league doc and was familar with lyme disease. But, he also said that Igenex contradicted themselves on the lab results as I was negative on the serology and positive on the Western Blot.

I tried another ID in Fresno. He refused to treat me.

I tried the local ID's. They refused to treat me.

I had a doc who was working with my lyme doc but he refused to continue after I had the 6 months of rocephin that he had helped to get approved. I never met this doc. I was working with the NP from his office.

Thanks for bringing this up.

Darn..

gotta go..

Back later to talk.

I've been looking for some answers to this and simular questions. I've been checking out doctor's blogs online to see if any answers between the lines came up. Blogs are sort of public diary websites.

Doctor's blogs are pretty discrete as a whole. Lyme is rarely mentioned, in fact most diseases are not mentioned much. What is striking about a lot of blogs is that the issue of malpractice and income loss comes up over and over again. They tend to practice what they call "defensive medicine", which they all agree doesn't do the patient much good, and yet most of them deny that they themselves practice "defensive medicine". It's generally *someone else* who is doing that.

Read between the lines. This is classic human behavior.

If good intentions don't work for us, & then good intentions don't work again, then what is left as a tool is fear. If your life depends on it perhaps it is better to put a little bit of fear in the opposite direction if nothing else has worked.

Too much fear backfires... Not mean or frightening, or even threatening unless absolutely necessary but a little pressure in the other direction. Like to make them think to themselves "oh, if I don't treat these people they could come to harm & I could be liable". Or, "if I don't treat these people then it is like saying that *publically*, instead of humoring that person and discrediting that person and waiting for them all to go away".

I had MUCH better luck getting treatment by putting on the intake form "chronic relapsing bacterial menengitis" than I would have gotten by putting "lyme". Because lyme is basically dehumanised (as in - oh, they're just nuts, or oh, they just look at the internet too much). Because it is dehumanised and discredited they can possibly sleep at night if they don't treat you. But meningitis or *measurable* heart disease are things that if untreated and neglected are obviously causes for a lawsuit. And there- the meningitis is in writing in my records.

There is a double think here- on the one hand they don't want to treat a systemic illness that can have grave consequences and complications because they are afraid of making a mistake and getting sued. On the other hand they dismiss it as an inconsequential illness, maybe even a fantasy illness. That way they can sleep at night. Do you follow me?

This pattern of denial is so entrenched in our society for so many many issues it's not funny. It goes way way back too- nothing new, same old, same old. Maybe someone here has dealt with it enough and has better and more effective insights on breaking down those walls. Step by step. If so, I'd *really really* like to hear them. Please!