my painful story

[MikeC]

Dr Zeegers services are 630 Euros; he indicated that it takes him 3/4 of a day to complete with a Skype video call as well. Also the patient must fill out one long questionaire (18 pages) and the one shorter one; only 12 pages! He seems very thorough.

[Harrison]

As I recall (from several years ago) Zeeger's evaluations were very thorough. In the history of this forum (since 2004), he's the only spine doc that ever identified Lyme disease in a spine patient! Of course, he probably found others, it's just the one I heard about.

After many years of research, I have no doubt that Lyme (Borrelia Burgdorferi) and other microbes play a central role in DDD. Presumably, doctors like Zeegers understand this etiology. I try to have (or should say, "had") this conversation with MDs but they are not interested; though the university PhDs have known this for years.

My point is, try to have a thorough consult and work-up sooner that later, and ideally get a doc that treats the whole patient...not just the critical space in your body with DDD.

[Boxer78]

Wow that's interesting about Lyme and DDD!! I have been tested but not sure if tests are reliable?? I really feel that zeegers genuinely cares about helping people and leaves no stone unturned

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Boxer78

Wow that's interesting about Lyme and DDD!! I have been tested but not sure if tests are reliable?? I really feel that zeegers genuinely cares about helping people and leaves no stone unturned

I have a friend who is suffering from some sort of auto-immune issue. Lyme test are definitely unreliable, i.e. you can have false negatives and positives and can have one marker be positive and another be negative. :/

[Boxer78]

Scary that Lyme can cause DDD??? Jeezus

[Harrison]

Just for the record, few docs would say that Lyme arthritis can cause DDD. However, once you talk to docs outside of orthopedics, you may get a different opinions and acceptance.

This notion of bugs (of different kinds) causing spinal disc infection -- both acute and chronic -- is old news. See this long (seven page) topic:

http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f44...l-causes-9218/

If you are curious or motivated, go to the Lymenet discussion board, use their search function to search for spine pain -- there are hundreds of topics unfortunately:

LymeNet Flash: Medical Questions

And for example, one of many topics on this subject (note Babesia, a co-infection of many that can accompany a tick bite):

http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/ultimat.../119958#000000

Anyway, docs that diagnose and treat the whole patient tend to understand the multifactorial causes of DDD better than specialists. It's a sad symptom of our system that has 131+ specialties...and counting. Who is left looking at the big picture? Only a few professions, and the most helpful person that knows best....YOU!

[Boxer78]

Wow thx for the info!!!

[Boxer78]

So how does one know if they have an infection like this?? Would MRI detect inflammation?? Scary

[annapurna]

Originally Posted by Boxer78

So how does one know if they have an infection like this?? Would MRI detect inflammation?? Scary

Rich has good info about testing on his other site but there really isn't any good way to detect it using imaging techniques until it's so far along it's basically irredeemable.

[Boxer78]

So would the person show symptoms??