Posted 11/6/2014 12:55 PM (GMT 0)
Before I found an LLMD, I went to an ER because I was having chest pains and a bout of extreme fatigue so bad I could barely walk and slept 18 hours a day.
When I told them I had Lyme, and knew it because I got the EM rash a year earlier, the ER doc said "Then you don't have Lyme Disease. It only lasts for a month or two." I told him that I had also been tested and
tested positive with IGM bands only a few months ago. He said "Just because you test positive for Lyme Disease doesn't mean you have Lyme Disease. I'm giving you a prescription for some antibiotics and steroids, and the nurse should have your discharge paperwork ready soon."
This problem has been set in place ever since the diagnosis of Alan Steere's "Lyme Knee". The Rheumatoid Arthritis Specialist have been given the job of treating anything that lasts more than just a few months, since "there is no such thing as Chronic Lyme".
They have always gotten any research funding provided by the government, as Lyme associated arthritis after the original short course of ABX is caused by auto-immune reactions of "Post Lyme Disease Syndrome".
The other place people suffering from Chronic Lyme are supposed to turn to are the Infectious Disease Specialists, 99% of which have gotten the memo that "there is no such thing as Chronic Lyme". And "is extremely rare outside of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania".
They are told to never waiver from these viewpoints by the leaders of their profession, and by the source of most of their paycheck...the insurance companies.
Unless they are ready to either not take insurance or probably get their career taken from them, they pretty much have their hands tied, but thankfully there are LLMD's out there who have decided to.
And the RA's and IDSA's probably didn't know that they would have to violate their hypocratic oath when they chose those professions, so their best bet is to plead ignorance or act like they believe what the CDC tells them.
So its really not their fault-they will get harassed and possibly get their medical license suspended for acknowledging something that us sufferers know is all too real, but the powers that be say is "nothing but a syndrome with a few minor unpleasant nonspecific symptoms that really are no big deal".
Tell that to somebody whose legs are getting stiff and weak and is so fatigued they can barely walk, or fall asleep as soon as as they sit down, or who can't get out of bed or their wheelchair because they are too weak,
or someone whose pain in their muscles and joints is so bad that they are miserable all day and can't sleep at night, or are afraid they will die any day from tachycardia induced
"anxiety attacks", heart arrythmias and murmurs, chest pains, sighing, and air hunger. Which reminds me-the IDSA also says there is no reason to treat Babesia and Bartonella-LOL