Re: Looking for OTHER Infections

[Guest guest]

Again, my point is, if you have an obvious or semi-obvious infection, keep looking for doctors until one takes you seriously. My ENT (about the 8th one I've seen) is the first to do cultures and sensitivities as standard care, and she can't believe that none of the other ENTs will even consider it. They are all commiting malpractice, but that's the norm. And believe me, it will remain the norm, until enough people start getting serious in finding doctors to give proper care and word finally starts to spread. penny jellybelly92008 <herranenb@...> wrote: Penny, I have to agree here with Christi. Looking for other known possible infections isn't much easier then looking for someone to treat Lyme or Mycos. As I pointed out to Tony, what else can one do?I do think I have something in my sinuses and I will ask to have my sinuses swabed. But it doesn't sound like culturing always works, well in our case, it didn't work. In the area of treating staph, this is something I wouldn't just want to take the ABX recommeneded for staph if there is no staph. These are ABX, that are specific to some deadly bacterias, wouldn't want to over use them if they aren't neeeded. Much different ball of wax then say Mino.Since treating your new found infections, do you feel better? I am well aware of having infections that don't really cause symptoms. Years ago, I had had what seemed like a regular cavity filled.

No big deal. About a year later, I noticed that whenever a fork would happen to touch that tooth, I would get this little zap sensation. Other then that occasional incident, there was no pain what so ever. What I found out was that I had a seiously absessed tooth. So large was the absess, that the novicane was neutralized by the infection and they couldn't get my tooth numb. I was given 11 shots, which only managed to numb the whole oppisite side of my face and the top of my head, but the tooth in question was wide awake. They had to drill without novicane until they reached the root and shoot the nerve directly. Terribly painful, that high pitch sound of the drill still gives me the willies to this day. Hurt so bad, my head jerked at one point and the dentist dropped the drill and drilled through my lip.My daughter had a massive sinus infection that landed her in the hospital when she was 4. No symptoms what

so ever, other then her eye lid started dropping and the pupil in that eye was not responding in the same way as the other. It took 6 weeks of me really in trully screaming at doctors in order to get them to consider a sinus infection cause they couldn't see anything when they looked up her nose and besides a sinus infection would never cause those kind of eye problems. RIGHT. I finally literally feel into tears one day when her eye would hardly open, and insisted on a sinus exray. Doctor very smuggly said "FINE, if you want to waste your money". Had the exray and when we got home the phone was ringing, it was her doctor. My 4 year old had to be hospitalized IMMEDIATLY with a MASSIVE sinus infection and was put on IV ABX. She was in the hospital 3 days, for a stinking sinus infection.So I know what you are saying can happen, but getting treatment for something that has absolutely no symptoms or very

obscure ones is going to be next to impossible, when you can't even get treatment when you do have symptoms.In my experience it just isn't that easy. Heck, I have a Lyme and Myco doc that are treating. Insurance is a little tough at times, but the only thing I have been turned down for and I have had tons of tests is a sript for Diflucan with Blue Cross in NM. Blue Shield in California was no problem.I am going to pursue my sinsues at great lengths next. > Penny,> I am all for getting whatever diagnosis of infection will work. The situation is only getting worse. My original diagnosis was for mycoplasma. My

insurance was Blue Cross. It covered massive doses of antibiotics for years with no questions asked. Now Dr. Joe Jemsek is on trial today in North Carolina for treating Lyme in the southeast with high dose and longterm antibiotics. Blue Cross in NC has refused to cover longterm antibiotics for Lyme. My policy is with South Carolina. Will this new policy cross state lines as the ticks do?> > I never had any evidence of bone or dental infections. I certainly have none at this point. Originally my insurance did whatever any doctor suggested. Now some nurse at the insurance company diagnoses me sight unseen, something which Dr. got in big trouble for and is currently on trial – gave a prescription over the phone and then saw the patient a few days later. Unlike aspirin this is a no no. > > I think we may have to all move to Chine to get any drugs at all.> > a> >

> > What would be simpler for everyone is if people would attempt to get dx'd for infectious diseases that are acknowledged by medicine and paid for by insurance. Instead of focusing all our efforts on controversial infectious diseases that are hard to test for (like lyme and mycoplasma), why not go after dx's that are pretty uncontestable? For example, the sinus and bone infections that so many of us have (among others). Insurance companies will pay to treat these diseases indefinitely, once you can get the dx. One, because they can't argue the existence of sinus infections, and two, because osteomyelitis (bone infection) is considered life threatening. > > > > It takes work to find doctors who want to be bothered to dx chronic infections and treat appropriately (even longer to find ones willing to do bone biopsies) because not only is it labor intensive, long term treatment is

expensive (why do you think lyme docs are under attack?), but once you get one of those kinds of uncontestable dx's, you won't have to worry anymore about your docs being stripped of their licenses or insurance limiting treatment. It's a matter of finding the right doc and the right diagnosis that in the end will get you the testing and treatment you need.> > > > Our problem is that we're not choosing our battles wisely. We should be fighting for acknowledgement that chronic illnesses have an infectious basis, period, rather than getting side tracked and obsessed with arguing about one or two infectious diseases that are heavily contested in the medical community. Believe me, the insurance and pharmaceutical companies are happy that we're spending our energy on a losing legal battle over lyme doctors, because that means they can continue to deflect attention from the huge scope of the real

problem, which is treatment resistant organisms are the underlying cause of multiple chronic illnesses.> > > > If we started getting thousands of patients demanding proper treatment for common chronic infections (and not settling for things like sinus surgery), they'd no longer be able to hide from the truth.> > > > penny> > > > > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________>