Love My LLNP

I started working with an NP from here and I am SO glad I have started. As some of you know I had an awful herx reaction on Monday night. It was seriously awful, one of the worst things I have ever physically experienced in my life. I had not been through that before and trust me, I am in pain 24/7..but this was excrusiating and I woke up crying. It takes a lot to make me cry from pain because I'm so used to hurting.

Anyway, I am just so impressed with this NP. Not only does she know about Lyme from personal experience, but she is just so wonderful to deal with. My LLMD offers absolutely no advice or tips and spends 5 minutes w/me after driving 2 hours each way to see him. My NP spends time with me even AFTER my appointment with her. I was a little hesistant to start working with someone out of the area, but after speaking with her on the phone, I am SO glad I did because she is so thorough and just a lovely person! She doesn't just do it for the money. Not that I have a problem with someone making a living, but please have some compassion of what I'm going through and give me some helpful advice on how to make my suffering less and help me heal at the same time. My LLMD doesn't.

Not only has(NP) offered me many holisitic supplements (even brand specific and where to find them at the best pricing) but she has offered advice on diet as well as anything I ask her about. She talked me through my awful anxiety and herx reaction the other day. I was totally going out of my mind from pain and anxiety. It was just awful. She is such a good person.

BTW--she has no idea I'm writing this and I hope it's OK that I do, but I am just so tickled that she is working with me. I ask a LOT of questions and I do get very scared at times, but she holds my hand through it and has offered some amazing supplements. I trust her completely and I am honestly thinking about dropping my LLMD and going 100% holistic and herbal.

Don't hesitate to work with an amazing NP even if they're not local!! It's great that we have skype and phones now. Everything can be done via telephone. My LLMD barely asked me anything about my medical history and she spent 1.5 hours on the phone with me discussing all about my medical history and what treatments we were gonna do as well as emailed me a whole treatment plan and any questions I had were addressed. I never felt rushed. She has been almost like a friend to me. At least that's the way I have viewed it LOL!! I'm sure she's sick of me.

I think the best thing for us Lymies is to work with an ND or NP as well as a LLMD because I don't think the LLMD's are knowledgable enough on detoxing and herbal, kidney, liver support etc, ONLY abx. And I don't believe we can heal solely from abx alone..JMO..

Anyway, I'm not healed or anywhere even close, but before this awful herx reaction from the Bactrim, I was noticing small changes from only working with the NP for a few weeks..like I wasn't depending on my pain pills as much or my anxiety would lessen for an hour or two here and there, my head was a little clearer, not as foggy was something I noticed small things..then wham I got slammed with the herx and it's all back again. My anxiety is through the roof, the fog is just awful I am forgetting everything and can't think straight and my pain is insane still.  This Bactrim is NOT kidding around. Whew..knocked me on my bum.    lowered my dose of my Bactrim to once per day instead of twice and I see my LLMD tomorrow and will let him know. Fingers crossed lowering the dose isn't something he gets upset about me doing.

I hope everybody else on here is feeling well and I thought I'd share some of my thoughts and and update which I meant to share before my herx, but I got slammed so hard I wasn't sure what to say because any small progress I made has gone back, but hopefully I take a step forward again real soon.

 

Post Edited By Moderator (achievinggrace) : 4/28/2012 8:27:30 AM (GMT-6)

Does NP stand for Nurse Practitioner or Natural Practitioner? I have to say the the original LLMD I saw in the US, while very knowledgeable about Lyme, also spent very little time with me and charged me for every minute I saw him. I now see a doctor of naturopathic medicine and she is AMAZING. Luckily, in my case the ND is in my city and the LLMD was far away. I think it is so important to find someone who you can trust, who listens to you and who you feel comfortable with. I am not surprised that your person ended up being someone from these boards, as they are all so helpful and kind.

Oh, and in my opinion, you can weed out a lot of the not-so-good doctors out there by how they sell supplements. My ND does sell supplements directly, but that is because many of them are professional brands that aren't sold to anyone other than NDs. But she also makes sure to tell me if there are other, cheaper brands available. She is 100% aware of the costs of treating lyme. The LLMD I saw was not out to rip me off, but I think he was just slightly more out of touch when it came to those things- he had his brands he liked, and that was what he prescribed and sold.