Matthew Goss's Lyme Disease Information

Introduction

How I got it

Types of Ticks that Carry Disease

Definitions and Terminology

Symptoms and Tests

Drugs

Herxheimer Reactions

Vitamins, Nutritional Supplements, and Herbs

Bacteria and Yeast

Diet

Costs of Treatment

Is There a Cure?

Is it Sexually Transmitted?

Links

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The drugs alone can be expensive. But the situation is further complicated by the fact that many insurance companies do not believe that Lyme Disease is a chronic illness, and think that 3 to 6 weeks of antibiotic treatment are all that is necessary to cure the disease. As a result, insurance companies may refuse to pay for treatment beyond a short course of antibiotics.

Another complication is that some doctors who specialize in treating Lyme Disease are no longer willing to battle insurance companies to pay for treatment, and require cash payment up front. Neither one of the two best labs for testing will bill insurance companies.

And this is to say nothing of the fact that many people with chronic Lyme are not able to work, and as a result may be left without an income or medical coverage.

However, all that being said, oral antibiotics are for the most part inexpensive. Even if you must pay all of your costs out of pocket. Doxycyline and Amoxicillin are cheap. So is Bactrim. So is Flagyl. So is Plaquenil. Those are most of the pieces of the puzzle for many people.

The place you will run into expenses is with the macrolides (Rulid, Zithromax, and Biaxin), and Mepron, if you have Babesia. Intravenous (IV) drugs are also very expensive, although many LLMD's are moving away from the use of IV drugs. And you can spend a fortune on blood tests if you want to. And you can spend a fortune on nutritional supplements if you want to.