hmm where to begin? I am a chiropractor and I can tell you guys from experience the problem with Dr.'s of all types is directly related to their lack of education and awareness concerning this disease. They are taught the standard CDC view of the diseases compounded by the fact that when a person is in medical school they are inundated with so much information that it is impossible to assimilate or remember all of it, they are only human.
It is the same for us chiropractors We are a "portal of entry physician" so we have a very similar education to GP's minus a few classes like pharmacology etc.
Jus to give you a perspective for how bad it is, I was bit while attending school and didn't recognize what was going on even though microbiology and public health classes where fresh on my mind. I remember learning about
Lyme but you are given the same old canned responses that the MD's. are given. Lyme is rare, everybody gets a bulls eye rash etc., but to be honest it was just a foot note of information in a sea of knowledge. Forget about
co-infections they were mentioned but never in conjunction with Lyme.
My education failed me, and I have paid the price. It is not that Dr.'s are bad they really aren't taught that much if at all about
Lyme. I graduated with high honors while a lot of my classmates were cheating their way thru, so I think it is fair to say my knowledge represented what was taught and I missed it.
To adapt to the magnitude of possible disease conditions most med students and health care practitioners are forced to focus on probabilities. For example a patient walks into the office and has severe debilitating low back pain or a headache. In the general population what are the odds that this person has Lyme versus a sore muscle, joint pain or disc pain caused by an accident or bad biomechanics? You can see how Lyme is easily over looked when the CDC's view is the one taught in school, but there are clues if the Dr. is willing to listen. If the honest probability of Lyme was taught in school I think things would change.
To me a good Dr. is one that can look past their arrogance and admit that they don't have all of the answers, or that their education is biased. Theses are the Dr.'s that can admit they are ignorant and then continue to study what they don't know. I can tell you from experience that you guys know way more than 99% of Dr.'s when it comes to this disease, I was the same way.
It can be frustrating the last time I saw my gastro (most of my symptoms are GI related so I went to a specialist) I specifically asked him if I he thought I might have an intracellular infection and he just blew it off. This was before I diagnosed myself but I had come to the conclusion I had to be infected with something. Talk about
handing him the diagnosis on a platter, but like me he missed it.
Now I see about
one patient per week that I suspect has Lyme and I live in an area that supposedly doesn't have it. The problem I am having is nobody wants to hear it. People with chronic fatigue, MS, auto immune disorders, crazy neck/headache pain with "no cause", people who Labcorp already said are negative and on and on. They just blow it off too. This attitude of Lyme denial has somehow been inserted into the collective mindset. I feel a lot of them have too much trust in their MD so when I bring up a contrary opinion they dismiss it.
Anyway I will end my rant but just remember Dr.'s are people too, don't treat them so harshly but also don't just take their word for it, instead you need to take responsibility for your health.
Post Edited (gregkdc) : 9/19/2015 10:19:34 AM (GMT-6)