Looking for OTHER Infections

[Guest guest]

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?

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> 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.

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> I think we may have to all move to Chine to get any drugs at all.

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> penny

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