Cubs109, Dr. B in Park Ridge is my Lyme doctor. I have been going to him for about
2.5 years. Here is my opinion of him:
Pros:
1. He is extremely knowledgeable about
Lyme and co-infections. He has written a number of articles, one which was recently discussed on this forum (link below).
2. His fees are reasonable and affordable compared to other Lyme doctors.
3. He works with me on prescribing a prescript
ion that I think will help me with whatever symptoms I might be having at the time.
4. His office sells vitamins and supplements (displayed on a wall), yet he has never pushed any on me. I get my supplements from the internet or a local vendor and he respects that.
5. He is very willing to work with my regular doctor regarding blood work, tests and diagnosis.
6. Each time that I visit, he writes up a follow-up plan for me to follow until our next meeting.
7. Due to monetary issues, I cannot see him every month. I appreciate that his office is not calling wanting me/harassing me to go see him so they can get my money.
8. His office is willing to renew a prescript
ion even if I have not been there in months.
CONS:
1. He likes to talk a lot about
the technical details of the disease and much of your appointment time can be spent on that if you don't stop him and put the brakes on it. I love to have these conversations with him but not when I am paying for that time. I found that if I bring a list with me and go over it, that it minimizes his "teaching time".
2. The people at the front desk are awesome folks and extremely helpful. However, for some reason, when you call, the call goes to voicemail and when I email them it takes a day or two before I get a response. I sometimes need to try a few times to get a hold of them.
3. He doesn't take insurance. He does give you a form that you can submit to your insurance for reimbursement though. because I have HMO and he is not in my medical group I don't get reimbursed so it comes out of my pocket.
4. He knows about
natural supplements and herbs but I get the sense that he prefers traditional medicine versus natural medicine (herbs and such).
5. Because he not only deals with Lyme but with other illnesses such as mold (he is also an authority on that) he sometimes likes to tackle other things first before he goes after the infection. he feels that sometimes you can't treat Lyme until you go after other things first (Candida, Mold, Bartonella, Babesia, Mycoplasma, etc.) first. I have read on this board that many doctors do that as well so I am not sure if it is a con or a pro. It is good that he considers other things too, right?
So let me tell you how I met him. I was infected and falling apart for a whole year visiting all sorts of specialists who just could not find out what was wrong with me. Finally someone on a board gave me his name. When I first contacted his office they email me Dr. Burrascano's list of symptoms. When I received it I felt like I had hit a homerun because here is a doctor that is not only willing to treat Lyme but that he is aware of Dr. Burrascano. I could not sleep that day thinking about
it.
I met with him a few days later and went over the list of symptoms. I had 48 of the 52 symptoms on the list. That's how sick I was.
When I walked out of his office that day I started crying from the emotion (I'm a guy) that I felt knowing that I had finally found a doctor that knew what I had and was willing to prescribe antibiotics for it. I immediately called my wife and told her "I got them Honey, I got them! He gave me the antibiotics!". We then both cried on the phone. I have said before that it is easier to get cocaine and other illegal drugs in Chicago than it is to get antibiotics. I hear of people doing canine abx as a last recourse.
It took about
two weeks for me to begin to see my symptoms recede. I think it was his knowledge that helped for me to not miss a day of work since he started to treat me. I am not 100% healthy again but for the last two years I am at 70-80% most of the time which I consider normal for me.
I encourage you to do a search for his name on Yelp and other websites to see what other people think of him so that you can have more to base yourself on. here are some links about
him that I found:
/sites.google.com/site/virginialyme/chronic-lyme/chronic-lyme-exists--2013-studyforums.prohealth.com/forums/index.php?threads/chicago-doctors-dr-keith-berndtson-dr-edelberg.195448/www.dovepress.com/review-of-evidence-for-immune-evasion-and-persistent-infection-in-lyme-peer-reviewed-article-IJGM