Re: Question about Dr. C in PA and Dr. J in CT

February 6, 2011

Dear Beth, my only comment would be based on my experience of one child, my

daughter was 8 when she started seeing Dr. J. in CT. She had a very severe case

of Lyme and Babesia. She had to be hospitalized for 1 month and her case got

comlplicated with Meningitis and Guillain Barre, a debilitating and paralyzing

autoimmune syndrome that affects the peripheral nervous system. After one month

in the hospital we left in a wheelchair, with IV antibiotics with a very angry

and depressed child.

We did only antibiotics for 2 years with Dr. J. She is now 13 and playing

soccer. We count our blessings and thank the Lord and all of those of you who

helped us through that ordeal.

I hope this helps.

________________________________

From: Beth Freishtat <beth@...>

Sent: Sun, February 6, 2011 9:36:12 AM

Subject: [ ] Question about Dr. C in PA and Dr. J in CT

I am doing some research for my sister who is seeing Dr. C in CT (as a

fairly new patient) for her 9 year old. Her understanding is that Dr.

C treats primarily with herbs. Is this other people's experience? She

is going to have a conversation with the doctor about future treatment

and plans on insisting on antibiotics, but I am wondering if this is

an issue anyone else has experienced in one form or another. Her

daughter has deteriorated significantly, but was only given herbs over

these past many months (until she insisted on having the intravenous

antibiotics resumed a week ago, but the blood clot prevented that from

working so she is still on nothing but herbs).

I personally see Dr. J in CT for my 4 and 5 year old and he ONLY

treats with antibiotics. I know some have criticism of this, but my

understanding is that he has decades of success in treating over 15

thousand patients and it is this experience that has led him to treat

as he does. Any comments on that as well? I see Dr. H in CA and Dr. S

in MD for my own treatment and both use herbs AND antibiotics. Neither

would consider taking me off antibiotics and have me only treat with

herbs. Dr. H would like my kids to be on GSE, but they are getting

well with the antibiotics and I hesitate to use herbs on them (as an

aside, GSE floored me with only 5 drops...literally had to stop taking

it).

Thanks so much for helping us navigate how to treat this very

confusing disease.

Beth

beth@...

February 6, 2011

My daughter is almost 21 and saw Dr. J from age 13 to 20. As you said,

it was all antibiotics except for herbs we added on our own. We would

tell him, he would approve, but he never was the one to initiate it. She

was on IV antibiotics for 2 years with Dr. J and many others over the

years. We switched to Dr. H in Hyde Park in Aug. because our daughter

was aging out of Dr. J's practice, and I also had a gut feeling that she

needed more help to get better than she would get from only abx. I had

felt for a long time that systems in her body were out of whack and that

this all needed addressing if she was to really get better. She had been

ill since age 2 and it took us so long to discover it was lyme that it

was different than those of you who get treatment sooner.

Anyways, Dr. H is aggressive, with herbs and abx. In Dec. he decided to

stop the abx and replace them with the Byron White Formula for Bart and

Lyme. My daughter is doing well on them with not setbacks and maybe

slight improvement. I always worried what would happen if we went to

just herbs, and can see now that the time was right to follow this path.

I do not know if they helps or not. If I were in your shoes or your

sisters, I don't know what I would do. Dr. J gave my daughter a life

after years of very few hours a day, but I think Dr. H is going to give

her HER life back, one where maybe we can say goodbye to these

infections. Maybe not all the way, but as completely as we can hope for.

Good luck in your search. Someone wrote to me the other day saying the

decisions we must make as parents of kids with lyme are so much more

than she ever thought she would have to make, and I could not agree

more. There are so many factors to consider and never ever clear cut

answers. It is mind boggling, but has to be done. All we can do is pray

and follow our heart.

Hugs,

On 2/6/2011 10:36 AM, Beth Freishtat wrote:

>

> I am doing some research for my sister who is seeing Dr. C in CT (as a

> fairly new patient) for her 9 year old. Her understanding is that Dr.

> C treats primarily with herbs. Is this other people's experience? She

> is going to have a conversation with the doctor about future treatment

> and plans on insisting on antibiotics, but I am wondering if this is

> an issue anyone else has experienced in one form or another. Her

> daughter has deteriorated significantly, but was only given herbs over

> these past many months (until she insisted on having the intravenous

> antibiotics resumed a week ago, but the blood clot prevented that from

> working so she is still on nothing but herbs).

>

> I personally see Dr. J in CT for my 4 and 5 year old and he ONLY

> treats with antibiotics. I know some have criticism of this, but my

> understanding is that he has decades of success in treating over 15

> thousand patients and it is this experience that has led him to treat

> as he does. Any comments on that as well? I see Dr. H in CA and Dr. S

> in MD for my own treatment and both use herbs AND antibiotics. Neither

> would consider taking me off antibiotics and have me only treat with

> herbs. Dr. H would like my kids to be on GSE, but they are getting

> well with the antibiotics and I hesitate to use herbs on them (as an

> aside, GSE floored me with only 5 drops...literally had to stop taking

> it).

>

> Thanks so much for helping us navigate how to treat this very

> confusing disease.

> Beth

> beth@... <mailto:beth%40nativseminars.com>

>

February 6, 2011

I experienced the same thing with Dr. C in PA. My son had been on abx with

another LLMD for 6 months when we went to see her. We thought we had seen some

improvement but it took a long time to get there. So, at the appt with her, he

was doing pretty well. She immediately took him off one of his abx (he was on

2) and added herbal and homeopathic stuff. She continued one abx for 6 weeks,

then took him off of that one too. She said we needed to give his liver a

break, even though all of his liver functioning tests were normal.

He slowly deteriorated over the next month or so. She increased the dosage of

the herbal stuff when he went off all abx, and things got really bad. I called

her office and asked about going back on abx. She thought it was a herx from

the herbal stuff. I told her I didn't think so because I don't believe a herx

would last continually for weeks.

She also said the herbs are more powerful than abx. I just don't buy this. I

do think herbs can be helpful, perhaps in combo with abx or as a step-down from

abx once symptoms are largely resolved, or perhaps could be effective if

symptoms were not that significant to begin with. I just have more faith in Dr.

J's approach (using abx) with treating over 10,000+ kids. Dr. C is nowhere near

as experienced as Dr. J. She trained with both Dr. J and Dr. B (in '03 or '04,

I believe), but seems to have largely disregarded their protocol in favor of a

more Klinghart type approach. I really wish I had known that before I spent

thousands of dollars to see her.

Honestly, I have to wonder if this new push toward herbs among many of the LLMDs

is simply self preservation. So many are being investigated by medical boards

that it seems that pushing herbs is an easy and safe way to proceed. Plus, it's

perhaps a money maker if they sell them out of their office, as she does. We

spent over $200 on the herbal and homeopathic formulas she wanted us to buy.

I actually noticed that an ingredient in one of the herbal formulas she gave us

is mentioned in Buhner's book as being contraindicated in late Lyme!

Yet, I've seen on many Lyme boards that quite a few LLMDs are hawking this

herbal formula (A-L Complex) but I haven't seen anyone raise this concern.

Anyway, just wanted to say, yes, we had a similar experience with Dr. C only

wanting to treat with herbs and I found it very dissapointing.

February 6, 2011

We see Dr. R in New York City. Treats with abx, but is open to and uses

homeopathetic to support. My daughter also had trouble with a mid line due to

several allergies, and she now has a chest port so that we can continue iv abx.

Charlotte

iamwhimsy@...

http://whimsy.t35.com

[ ] Question about Dr. C in PA and Dr. J in CT