Convince Non-LL Doctor to help?

I have what I think is lymes. I am very healthy active 44yo male. I do a lot of backpacking/camping in San Diego mountains and deserts. I went backpacking in brushy area near game trails in the local mountains. A week later my knees started hurting like I have never felt-burning, then my neck became very stiff, headache, chills, night sweats, joint pain and stiffness moved to feet, elbows, hands, wrists, etc. This was all within 2 weeks of my trip. Saw a general doctor as I couldn't see my regular doctor. Told her my symptoms and mentioned lymes, she said there is no lymes in San Diego... I argued and she said lets do some blood tests and go from there. I will be seeing my regular doctor in 3 days and waiting for blood test results-not sure what she tested for. I am terrified that all this waiting, future appointmens, etc. is pushing me toward a point of extremely difficult recovery.

I don't have the money to see the few LL doctors in my area. I do have insurance and my medical group is generally pretty good. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can talk to him correctly about this?

What Girlie said is unfortunately true. Lyme is rampant in California and yet there are still practitioners that ignore all the studies and go with "there is no Lyme here". Your best bet is a LL doc and if my memory serves there is one in that area that takes insurance. That's rare. You'd need to call around. If you can't find one see if there is a functional medicine doc in group. They tend to be much more open minded.

If you haven't already read up on Lyme tests and false negatives it might be a good thing to do.

Girlie said...
Rocko9999 - Sorry, but it sounds like you have lyme disease.

So, it's only been a few weeks at this point?

I doubt if your regular Dr. will treat you long enough and with the right doses of abx.
Those symptoms you have - won't go away with a week or two of abx. You will need to be treated for months and maybe longer...you need to treat until all symptoms are gone...plus several more weeks.

I know it's not what you want to hear...and I hope your regular Dr. will be able to help you...but there are LL Dr.'s for a reason.

Here are ILADS guidelines - scroll down to antibiotic dosages...and also for minimum treatment time.
Show your Dr. these guidelines. The dosages are on page 18/19 and treatment time on page 20.





www.lymenet.org/BurrGuide200810.pdf

Thanks. I was camping on 2-3 to 2-4. Symptoms started on 2-7 or 2-8 with the knees. 2-16 is when the symptoms really ramped up-neck stiff/pain, headache, etc.

I started taking some leftover doxy on 3-2. Problem is I only have a couple left.

The CDC has confirmed cases (check county-level) of Lyme in San Diego.