posted
My toddler is currently on antibiotics for a suspected tick bite. I need to find an LLMD to confirm or deny if it is actually a tick bite as well as treat her appropriately if she is infected with Lyme.
We only have 2 weeks on antibiotics and I do not believe this is sufficient. We are in St. Paul MN and prefer a provider who can take insurance.
We are familiar with the clinics (Dr. O) but neither accept insurance.
Thanks!
(editing out city locations for LLMD)
[ 05-18-2017, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: Robin123 ]
Posts: 2 | From St Paul, MN | Registered: May 2017
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
They may be able to help you find a lyme doctor who will treat such a young child. (Such a lyme specialist is going to be RARE. And, lyme specialists RARELY take insurance.)
From my years of experience (14 years) of dealing with these diseases, I would say that no doctor can look at your toddler's bite and tell you for sure if it is a tick bite or not unless the child has the characteristic bull's eye rash. Without a rash, no doctor can say for sure what kind of a bite the child has.
I strongly suggest you take a few pictures of the bite and keep them so that you can show them to any lyme doctors you may see in the future.
Also, no lyme test can tell you right away if the child has lyme. It takes about 6 weeks for the body to form antibodies to lyme. If your child was bitten by a tick infected with lyme, that means that her lyme test cannot possibly give a positive result until about 6 weeks after the bite.
You see, the lyme blood test is NOT looking for the lyme bacteria in the child's blood. Instead, it is looking to see if her body made antibodies to lyme. So, it is an indirect test.
You can read about this and more by reading the Burrascano Lyme Treatment Guidelines found here:
"After a tick bite, serologic tests (ELISA. IFA, western blots, etc.) are not expected to become positive until several weeks have passed. Therefore, if EM [the Bulls Eye rash] is present, treatment must begin immediately, and one should not wait for results of Borrelia tests." (page 7)
Read all of page 7 to learn more.
Also, stay away from major medical institutions because they all take the position that lyme is RARE and EASILY cured with 2 weeks of antibiotics.
So, since your child got the mainstream treatment for lyme (2 weeks of antibiotics), none of them will help you anymore.
You now have to turn to lyme support groups, lyme associations, and lyme specialists who all believe that lyme is worse than an epidemic and that lyme is extremely DIFFICULT to cure.
If you can find any lyme specialist that believes this way and will treat a child as young as yours, take the child to that doctor. That is how you will get longer treatment and better treatment.
Also, the best lyme specialists have long waits for a new patient to get in. That is why you need to expect to travel and you need the help of those in the lyme community to find such a doctor.
What you want is NOT going to be easy to find. So, forget needing the doc to take insurance. Feel blessed if you can find a good lyme doc who will see your child right away and give you more meds.
See page 19 for the treatment Dr. Burrascano recommends for a new bite.
Look at pages 9-10 to see a list of common lyme symptoms. Be on the lookout for any of these. Make a list of any symptoms your child develops. You want to give that list to the lyme specialist.
You can also contact as many lyme support groups as are near you. See Support Groups on the left side of this page. Ask them if they know a good lyme specialist who will see a toddler and who can see her soon and who will prescribe more meds for a suspected tick bite.
Welcome to LymeNet! We will help you here all we can.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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Your little girl needs 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. She needs 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":
Read the books written by the top LLMD, Dr. H, titled, "Why Can't I Get Better?" and his new one, "How Can I Get Better?". They are an excellent source of information.
Read "Cure Unknown" by Pamela Weintraub. Check the local library or buy it used on Amazon.
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
Welcome to Lymenet. Sorry to hear of your little ones situation. Let's see if we can help.
First, here are treatment guidelines for a tick bite that can be printed out to take to a local doctor that will take insurance. There is a one-page document for children and one for adults.
I am sharing below a large list of Lyme treating health care professionals names and contact info for you to consider.
Narrowing down your choices by contacting their offices and reading their websites in advance may help pick someone more in line with your daughter's needs.
Some do take insurance and some charge MUCH less than others and it has nothing to do with their abilities.
If you go to www.MarylandLyme.org and look at the menu to your left you will see "DOCTOR REFERRALS".
Click there to find the names and contact information for health care professionals treating Lyme & TBD's in your state (or any state). You may want to review options in states near-by also.
There is also a page with support group information, one for alternative medical professionals, educational conferences across the country, labs and their contact information, one for mental health providers, MTHFR and Morgellons providers.
There is also a list of TBD with how to diagnose (testing), a list of symptoms for each disease and treatment info with links to the treatment guidelines.
Here is a "Help For You" page that hopefully you can find some cost-saving tips to help you out, if needed.
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!
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