Interesting first time appointment with my new LLMD

[Guest guest]

So yesterday afternoon I met with my LLMD. He kept me waiting for about a half

an hour, but I didn't really mind as to me it indicated he liked to spend time

with his patients. And for me, he spent well over an hour and a half.

He typed out our conversation as we talked because he liked to have it down

exactly as he heard it, but it was also so he could immediately print out the

entire meeting and hand it over to me. He said that many people with Lyme

disease or CFS or other such diseases have very poor memories and asking them to

remember the meeting, or to have to take notes was too taxing for them. I guess

right then, I immediately liked him.

Although I had provided him with a 26 page questionnaire, he still had many many

questions, such as when I felt I had first started to feel bad and where was I

living, etc.

I must admit that just the long drive there, about an hour and a half had me

exhausted, but I thought I was doing okay. According to his notes though I was

" very tired appearing NAD (no abnormality detected). Gets lost in thoughts as

talking and can be confused. " And here I thought I was being pretty articulate.

But that comes as no surprise as I have had increasing difficulty.

I found it interesting that he has also treated a Dercum's patient. There are

so few of us that it was a pleasant surpise. So I didn't have to spend time

explaining to him what Dercum's was.

He immediately diagnosed me with CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). No real

surprise there I guess. He also wrote " Patient with many symptoms that could be

Lyme also has risk of tick exposures in N. California, physical findings

consistent with Lyme too. The cognitive impairment does not fully fit with

Dercums nor does the tremors that she gets. (I don't think I have ever mentioned

that issue). Need to get Lyme testing to see if have supportive Lab evidence.

Get Igenex IGM and IGG western blot for Lyme. (There you go Aandraya!!). This

test will find Lyme if you have it, only 85% of the time...based on clinical

signs patient also likely has Bartonella. "

He diagnosed Bartonell based upon findings of: foot pain, tremors, cognitive

impairment, cervical nodes that come and go and abdominal pain when pushing on

stomach and day sweats

He did not believe I had Babesia!! Thank goodness

He discounted Babesia based upon: no regular night sweats, rare air hunger, has

frontal headaches and no racing or skipping of the heart.

I am including this as some background information for you all:

He wrote: " In these illnesses, there are increased cytokines. This can lead to

sleep disturbances and the cytokines interfere with the bodies hormonal systems

too. She has symptoms of low adrenals and low thyroid too. (Figures) Because

of the cytokines TSH thyroid levels are not indicative of true thyroid status.

(Multiple TSH labs have always come back as normal). Finally she also has strong

clinical evidence of yeast overgrowth in the intestines with a yeast screening

score of 360. I find that treatment for levels of 140 or higher is very helpful

(I apparently scored the highest of all his patients).

So besides the lab test (on Monday, he said I must not do it on a Friday as the

sample must be fresh) he is also starting me on:

Ambien 10mg (nightly 30 min before bed). He says this is non addicting and out

of your system by the morning.

For Thyroid - start Levoxl 50ug 1 pill in am 30 min before anything else

For the Adrenals - Ashwanganda (this is an herb) 500mg 2 pills in am and 2 pills

between 1 and 2

For yeast - HMF (an herb) 2 pills 1 time a day (probiotic)

Nystatin 500,000IU 2 pills 2 times a day and in 1 week add Diflucan 200mg 1 pill

daily for 30 days (Use nystatin to lower the yeast load to decrease die off

reaction chances, then continue with the diflucan to prevent resistance of yeast

to the diflucan)

To limit yeast related herxheimer die off reaction and to lower

cytokines...start Meriva (curcumin) 500mg 1 pill 3 times a day. This is an herb.

He told me that he is pretty convinced I have Lyme and is positive I have

Bartonella. He said, even if lab test came back as negative for Lyme, it would

not change his mind. He said that given my other issues, he is very concerned

about treating me with antibiotics as he believes I will have an immediate

Herxheimer reaction. He said that he needs to get me stronger so that he can

then treat the Lyme and Barts. I asked him if he would treat first one and then

the other but he said no, he would treat both at the same time with two

different antibiotics.

I mentioned the anti-fungal that Aandraya told me to ask for, but he said the

combination of the two anti-fungals he was giving me would work really well and

he had great success with it.

He believes I may have had Lyme while I was pregnant with my youngest son, in

which case there is at least a 50% change he contracted Lyme from me. And now

could have Barts. He had never heard of mites infesting humans with Bartonella,

but neither did he discount it as a possibility. I am going to see about

getting my kids tested through IGeneX as well.

I hope this helps those who are trying to decide about whether or not to see an

LLMD. I figured I could keep going back and forth between doctors who know very

little or go straight to the horses mouth.

This doctor had absolutely no hesitation in him. The amount of knowledge he

shared about the complexity of the human body was amazing. Everytime he would

say something, it would be like I was checking off boxes... " yes, that's right, I

have that too " ...This was a very worthwhile time...well spent...

Good luck to one and all, Terry