posted
Have any veterans been successfull in obtaining Lyme treatment from their VA Hospital? A friend of mine has been ill for 6 or 7 years and put through all sorts of tests by the VA with no results, and finally paid to go to a LLMD who tested him thru Igenex. He is CDC-positive on IgG. This doc is conservatively treating him with Doxy but he'd like to get the VA to order it so he won't have to pay out-of-pocket. He's afraid the next drug will be hundreds of dollars a month. But his VA group of docs refuse to treat him for Lyme. (Their criteria is very specific and I think very strange.)
Posts: 459 | From Connecticut - just across the river from the Lymes (Old Lyme, Hadlyme, East Lyme, South Lyme & Lyme) | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
I spoke to a relative of my sister in law and he was treated for Lyme at the VA hospital.
I think it depends on the hospital and the doc you get at the time. He did catch his early. So that probably contributed to it. But they did the Western Blot and then treated him.
Posts: 347 | From WV | Registered: Jan 2007
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
Good to know that someone has had a positive experience with lyme and the VA. My brother has been ill for a long time and they won't even consider a lyme test let alone a diagnosis.
Of course there is no need to test for it since we don't have lyme in our State. Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
laurie, please edit your post and break up your solid blocks of text into smaller paragraphs. k
click on PENCIL ICON and start breaking it up for us neuro challenged; thanks; you'll get more replies that way.
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What would happen if he took the results of his Lyme test to the VA and presented them with this fait accompli? Or has he already tried this? All VAs are not the same, since someone I know who came to CT from Missouri was told that CT did not use the same meds he had been out, so he had to switch meds, and yet CT very efficiently & effectively did things that the other VA never helped him with: totally different treatments & "allowed" meds at the 2 places, both VAs. Of course our CT VA is staffed by Yale medical students, supervised by Yale intructors ...
ESG
Posts: 424 | From Connecticut, USA | Registered: Nov 2003
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He did take his test to the VA and showed it to his primary care doctor there--he says she is very nice, very sympathetic, but states that "her hands are tied" if neither a rheumatologist or infectious disease doctor will order the treatment. He has seen both these specialties at the VA, but their Lyme criteria are very, very narrow--I've forgotten exactly what they are, but there are 3 of them, and I know one was swollen knee(s). I believe one of the others was a certain type of neuropathy--he does have neuropathy, but not that specific type. I think it certainly does depend on the VA.
By the way, a year or so ago a guy I know here in my town who also uses the VA had a tick embedded in his back, a fever, aches in all his joints, went to this VA and was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. You're so right, ESG--here in CT they are very tightly connected to Yale.
Posts: 459 | From Connecticut - just across the river from the Lymes (Old Lyme, Hadlyme, East Lyme, South Lyme & Lyme) | Registered: Oct 2000
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