THE TICK THAT BIT ME

“Persistent Infection With Lyme Disease” Dr Phil – YouTube 04/20/2012

If you missed the April 13 episode of Dr. Phil on which Lyme Disease was discussed, you can watch it on YouTube.

“Persistent Infection With Lyme Disease” Dr Phil – YouTube.

Here are my reactions:

9:24 When she says she is positive for 4 strains of Lyme, I assume that she means that 4 bands (out of 10) on her western blot were reactive (positive). The word “strain” is misleading because it makes it sound like she has 4 different infections. Lyme Disease is caused by one species of bacteria named Borrelia burgdorferi. There are, however, other bacteria in the Borrelia genus that cause Lyme-like symptoms–B. hermsii being one of them.

9:41 She has a PICC line, which is more convenient for the doctor because she doesn’t have to stick her with a needle every day, but the risk of secondary infection is much higher than getting a new IV in the hand everyday.

9:45 Five IVs a DAY?!?! WHY?

9:52 Why is she being treated with IV Zithromax and not Ceftriaxone? (Zithromax/azithromycin is what you take orally when you have Strep throat.) I guess this explains the 5 IVs per day. Maybe if they used the right drug, she could cut back to one IV per day.

10:16 That freaks me out that she’s speeding up her own drip. Only the doctor is supposed to do that! (If the drip goes too fast, you can have a nasty adverse reaction.)

11:57 I wonder which tests she got, and in what order.

14:30 Here’s Dr. Auwaerter’s CV, if you’re curious. Scroll down to the publications.

15:08 You can read the text of the monkey study Dr. Bhakta alludes to here. BTW, Dr. Bhakta’s residencies were in Respiratory Therapy and Anesthesiology. She is not board certified in California. To read more about board certification, go here.

What were your thoughts on this episode? Drop me a comment.