The reason they stay "off the radar" is because Lyme disease and it's treatments - particularly chronic Lyme & it's existence - is a political hotbed right now. It's "war" between the IDSA (Infectious Disease Society of America) and ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society).
IDSA says that Lyme is hard to catch and very easy to treat and that chronic Lyme is actually "Post Treatment Lyme Disease" (PTLD) and is no big deal.
ILADS says that Lyme is easy to catch, hard to treat, that chronic Lyme is very real, but improvements can be made - or a state of being healed - with long term treatments. They have yet to acknowledge herbs will treat, but I think that's a good thing as they are fighting to be taken seriously right now, not labeled as a "far out" group.
Here are some links that will help "
open your eyes" about
the IDSA and it's stance on Lyme :
I like this one the best as it lays out the opposing sides and enough of the background for you to get a sense of what's going on.
www.clinicaladvisor.com/controversy-continues-to-fuel-the-lyme-war/article/117160/ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2901226/archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=226373 The LLMD's that get "busted" are the ones that allow people to use insurance - generally. It's usually the insurance companies that call a halt to the "unproven" treatments of long term abx for treating Lyme - even though Dermatologist can prescribe
open-ended script
s for people with acne for the
exact same Doxy amounts as we use and the insurance companies are okay with that.
Some LLMD's have lost all due to this. Many have lost their license to practice medicine, so have also lost their practice and that leaves many other patients in that area without medical care for their chronic Lyme. Other LLMD's are being "monitored". Each and every case must be presented to an overseer of some type for approval of each dose of abx that is written and every treatment given.
So they get a little shy about
being spoken of publicly. We wish to protect our doc's that are saving our lives (of course!) and so we keep the lists secret and don't
openly talk of who is treating us, hoping that our doctor isn't 'next on the list'.
But we have found lately that more and more doctors are 'adopting' the term LLMD, but have not had ILADS training. So that's an incredibly important distinction - but that alone doesn't make them a good doctor to see! That's why we have so many Lyme patients posting on Lyme forums - to make sure they are truly getting the best treatments possible.
Just remember, they will want you to come back, but it's more because they want you to heal and understand the very real risks of not getting enough treatment.
You have hired them. They are no more special than your Electrician or Plumber that you use. If they don't do the job right, get someone new that will. Not all LLMD's are created equal.
