Seattle area people - looking for some personal experiences with Dr M R

Did she not feel like she was in good hands?

There is someone on this forum who is treating by Dr. M.R....hoping he will chime in.


I am aware of someone else who was seeing him...and after a few years he wouldn't treat him anymore, so just dropped him. This person has a very serious and difficult case of lyme.

I'm being treated by Dr. M R.  And he is pretty good. 

He has a "treatment recipe" which seems to be working for me.  If you view his webpage and read all his articles, you will feel like you will know exactly what he is going to do.  I like how he has emphasis on treating yeast throughout treatment, and making sure to stay on curcumin and ashwagandha.  I think this really helped me.   I continue to follow some of his basics in his treatment recipe to this day and I'm like 95%ish in my recovery... mainly because of a bartonella relapse.  I think treating yeast with nystatin, is very important throughout treatment with antibiotics. 

That being said I don't think he's a perfect LLMD...  But there probably aren't any perfect LLMDs.  I think the highest rating an LLMD can get is a 4 out of 5 as some people have a harder time getting well than others for a variety of reasons.  It is just the nature of being a Lyme Doctor.  Dr. M R will make a statement like "When treating Lyme there is a small group of patients that we can't get well... He says that it sits at about 10% and his colleagues have the same issue".   It's not really clear why that is the case... It could be some people don't follow directions and comply with treatment, they are not detoxing, or could be some other issue like mold exposure, bartonella, heavy metals, etc... Sometimes there are many issues so treating Lyme is obviously a challenge.  On rate MD.com he got a score of 3/5 I think.  I would give him maybe 3.8/5.   He made a statement that bartonella treatment takes 4-6 months to complete... I followed that advice and relapsed with my bart after 5 months as I thought it was finished.  So he lost a point there.    Also he has had a tendency to scold me over the phone telling me I'm not listening to his advice just because I got retested.   Sometimes he seems flexible with his treatment options, othertimes he got angry with me for making a suggestion as he said "I am the physician, you are the patient", so that was a little uncomfortable. 

The very first appointment was not too bad.  He focused on my symptoms and what was going on with my body, asked for history of health issues, family health history, drug use, cognition function, and went through different screenings for lyme, babesia, and bartonella... Of course he didn't say we are now screening for "babesia", he just asked symptoms but I identified them as screenings.  He doesn't care about erlichia or anaplasma as these are likely treated with your tetracyclines anyways in 6 weeks.   He then gave a physical like at a family Doctors checking blood pressure, reflexes, eyes, ears, and asks about any signs of red rashes.  There were no interruptions in my first visit, and there was no time where I felt rushed.  He asked to excuse himself once to use the washroom as it was a long first visit.  He suggests testing but will also immediately prescribe antibiotics and nystatin right off the first visist which I like as some Doctors don't do this.   Also his supplement recommendations are pretty good, his store prices are actually quite good too.  And he does have a treatment plan for those who wish to treat Lyme with no antibiotics.  (Assuming you have Lyme only) That is - Banderol, Samento, GSE, HMF Forte (probiotic), multi, Meriva, ashwagandha, lumbrokinase. 

Some of his principles are:  Don't prescribe more than 3 antibiotics at a time, always treat yeast, treat cytokines, treat with the least amount of supplements (as usually with Lyme we are taking a lot of stuff). 

He has made a couple mistakes though... Forgot half of my prescription one time.   Anyways he's not that bad.  But he's not a perfect Doctor.  I think if you are looking for a perfect LLMD you might want to consider the great Dr. H.  I think he has the best treatment recipe of all, however I think it overloads people though and seems to be a bit much.  We have to be greateful for the LLMDs that are around and what they are doing. 

LymePickle, thank you for your review of him. I've suggested him to people looking for a doc there, based on some people in our support group who have used him. So I'll let you direct them there if they want someone with experience with him.

GreenBlue, there are some Lyme patients who will go to more than one LLMD/ND before they find one they mesh with. I wish your mom lived in my area so she could see my doctor. He has several things in his arsenal and he's nice to everyone. He goes over blood tests and suggest things to do to correct imbalances and if something doesn't agree with you, he'll switch to something else. He'll send you in for testing if he feels something needs further attention. He's good with all ages of people. I'm in SW WA.

I can imagine how hard it is on you to try to help her long distance. Has she been tested for B12 to see if she gets enough? My memory when haywire for a while, forgetting things that were 2nd nature, forgetting names and other things. I was low on B12 and have been doing better since. I take a sub lingual form, along with folate.

I just came across this in my email. It's too late for tonight, but maybe you could get in on a future talk and ask him some questions for your mom. www.treatlyme.net/marty-ross-md-conversations/

Hopefully she'll find a doctor that will be better for her if she chooses to do that.

Ya I mean he is pretty good, but I can understand how sometimes things just don't turn out the way some patients would expect. And there are some things that doctors can't really control.

I like his principle of always treating yeast for the duration of being on long term antibiotics.

His dosing is pretty good. Some docs go even higher than he does but I think he has it adjusted so to be a higher end dose of any particular antibiotic while at the same time not going too high so that patients can tolerate it.

The good thing about him is he is like an open book... What you see on his website is pretty much what you get. He shares all his treatment strategies on his website and he openly shares his knowledge. They are pretty good strategies. Sometimes treating lyme seems so complex but he has a way of making treatment less complicated yet still effective.

As far as I know he's taking new patients. He's fighting his own health problem, so he's taking some time off each week to take care of himself, so that will probably make the wait longer to get in to see him, but there's a cancellation list to get on. He is in Vancouver. I can send you his website if you'd like.

He's pretty rigid with his appt. schedule, so there's never much of a wait to get in.

Let me know if you'd like me to send you info. on him

I was under Dr R's care for 8 months and whilst he is very friendly, I seriously doubt his knowledge and experience to treat Lyme & Co.

At my first appointment with him, he was confident enough to say that I had no co infections and in fact, co infections are 'rare.' This was a big red flag for me, but I still went ahead, as that time I had no other option to see a Lyme Dr. I had all the symptoms of Bartonella, Babesia, Mycoplasma and CPN, but as these were not 'classic' symptoms, he just treated me for Lyme. He put me on one antibiotic only - Biaxin! When I queried this with him, he simply said that that is enough and I am 'covered!' Lyme should always be treated on combination antibiotics. He never took the time to really understand my Neuro issues, I think I'm a too complicated case for him to handle.

After 5 months, when I was making no progress, I had an appointment with him and I suggested to him that I think I also have Bartonella. He agreed. Added Rifampin and Amoxicillin, but didn't change the Biaxin. I kept telling him that the Biaxin is no longer working and it should be changed. He didn't listen to me.
After 3 months on this protocol, I slipped further in my recovery and had another appointment with him. This time too, I suggested to him that I was showing signs of Babesia. He agreed! He simply told me to go and buy Mepron and take it with Zithromax!
During my entire time with him, he did nothing for my pain, sleep or check the supplements I'm taking. He also does nothing for biofilms, which is very important for the treatment to succeed.
His appointments are rushed, he takes other people's phone calls at the same time and also writes the notes at the same, which distracts him and he loses track of the conversation. Sure enough, Dr R is very friendly, easy to speak with and has a sense of humour, but he's not a great LLMD, in my case, he failed me and I wasted a lot of time and money seeing him. I finally 'fired' him, as I wasn't getting any better only worse.

I'm now under a different LLMD in America and he needs no introduction. what a difference in experience and knowledge. At my first consultation with him, he spent 3 hours with me, understood my Neuro problems and without hesitation told me and not vice versa that I have all the co infections! Babesia being the 'engine' of them all. In the 5 months, I have been under this LLMD, I have made more progress than I did under Dr R. I'm now finally on a proper Babesia protocol. I have a proper treatment plan, which includes pain meds and regular checking of all the supplements I'm taking.

My advice would be that if you can, it would be better to consult with another LLMD with more experience and knowledge. Dr R is very much interested in shamanic healing and I get the feeling that he focuses more on that rather than on properly treating Lyme & Co.

I don't mean to sound too negative but this is the experience that I had with him. Some people really like him and get better, but there are much better llmds out there to treat such a complicated disease.

All the best to your mother. I hope that she's soon on the path to

Hi Greenblue,

No, my new LLMD is not in Seattle, in fact he's on the East Coast!
If you would like more details, then please feel free to send me a PM, I will happily share with you all the details.

I'm sorry my last sentence was unfinished! I really wish both your mum and yourself well on this journey and I hope that she finds a good LLMD. My signature is also outdated, as I haven't been on this forum for a while, but I had to simply answer your question on Dr R!

All the very best!

Thank you Garden Peace! And thank you so much Unlucky! I really appreciate you answering. My son, my husband and I all have great (and different) LLMDs on the east coast. I wish I could transplant my Mom to my doc here but the logistics are too crazy. Hence my long distance search. Thank you all for helping me. The people on this forum are truly the best.

Unlucky that is interesting... 

Ya he is not top notch.  But sounds like you have had a far worse experience with him than I have.  He diagnosed me with bartonella right off the bat.   I am surprised he only had you on biaxin for such a long time.  He has a tendency to start off small with antibiotics, for example only doxycycline or biaxin.  I question a few things... He says rifampin treats lyme cysts.  I can't find anything on that. 

Greenblue...  I think the Seattle area actually has a few different great options.  I know there is Dr. K also in Seattle, but his methods of treating Lyme are radically different than most LLMDs.  There are a few other LLNDs in the Seattle area as well, and I think a few other LLMDs.  Seattle does have it's options. 

 

Thanks Girlie! I will check out the video. I love having both sides. No one doctor is perfect for everyone. That is one reason my husband and I have different docs. Essentially we get to know 2 docs at the same time. (I was going to say for the price of one but no...we're definitely paying for two. But I digress....)

LymePickle- I agree Seattle has some good options. My Mom just met a lady who is going to Dr K's clinic. They met randomly at a small health food store. They were both looking at obscure organic vegetables and got to talking. She thought Dr K sounded a little too involved for her but is keeping it in mind. There's an ND that we also researched together so that's an option too. And thanks to Garden Peace, she now has an option south of her too. Either way, she's going back to Dr R to get the results of some blood work so that may help her decide as well.

I'm just so grateful for all this great info!!!

Unlucky77 said...
Yes unfortunately, I wasted a lot of time and money on Dr R. If I had gone to my new Dr. a year ago, I would be well on my way to getting better. I'm based here in the UK and I didn't realise how easy it would be to go to America and get treated for Lyme Disease. If I had all the knowledge that I have now, I would have made better decisions.

I think Dr R is ok for simple Lyme cases (if there are any!), or for treating acute Lyme. However, I have doubts on his ability to treat chronic, complex Lyme cases. He also doesn't think 'out of the box' and just goes with the standard protocol of treating Lyme whether it's working or not.

My health deteriorated a lot under him and I seriously thought I was slowly dying. When I went to see my new LLMD in October 14, he said that he wouldn't be starting by Babesia treatment straight away, because I was so ill and my nervous system was so fragile. He wanted to stabilise me first and was surprised that I hadn't been given anything for my pain. He put me on 3 different abx, including pulsed Flagyl, which would cover Lyme and also keep Babesia and Bartonella at bay. He also gave me 2 Neuro meds. He said that I should never have been given Rifampin because my body was not ready and hence the decline in my health - all thanks to Dr R.

After 3 months on that protocol, I not only made progress but also slowly came alive! My symptoms got better and I started to feel better too. I started my proper Babesia treatment a month ago. It's a good thing that I never took the Mepron and Zith when Dr R had told me to, otherwise I think I would be dead by now - it was just too much for my body at the time!

My LLMD is Dr J in Washington DC. I'm sorry but I can't discuss my treatment plan here, as I've signed a document not to share details of this in public. But it is tailored to me and there's a proper structure to everything. Everything's done in order, when to target one co infection, then the other, then a proper attack on biofilms etc. My supplements have changed and new ones added in to help support me better. In my opinion, this is how a complex disease should be treated, from all angles, whilst looking after the body too. Yes, my LLMD is aggressive, but ironically, I'm actually taking less medication under him than Dr R!
The pulsed approach and every 1 week off in a month allows my body to detox and gauge my progress.

Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to share my experiences as it may help someone in the future. I wish, I too had known all of this a year ago, as my health paid for it greatly!

All the best to everyone! I know we're all struggling here by this awful disease and the more we can help one another the better it is!

Hi Unlucky77, I have a question to ask you. Would you mind activating your email under your profile so I can contact you?

Thanks in advance
-Courtney