All Posts Tagged With: "pain"

Linda’s comments:  These types of stories make me mad as hell….This poor woman suffered unnecessarily thanks to IDSA and the medical boards….This statement along >>>>“He wouldn’t give me a test for it,” she said. “He said my symptoms weren’t Lyme.”<<<<is criminal in my book, but we have the CDC, IDSA and the medical boards to thank for this kind of thinking from doctors….THIS MUST STOP…WE MUST CONTINUE TO FIGHT THIS MENTALITITY….

Link: http://www.kccommunitynews.com/miami-county-friday-community-living/28257976/detail.html

Excerpt:

Kathryn Puvogel never saw the tick that infected her, but she felt the effects of its bite long afterward — losing her job, most of her health and much of what she knew of as her life.

Linda’s comment:  When I worked in Cancer Research, the feds gave us marijuana to give to the patients for pain and vomiting….it amazes me that the Feds are making such a big deal out of this.  This was distributed through VA hospital….I know the family they pay in Tipton, Indiana to grow the Feds pot….

Dr. Gordon’s Comments: It appears that marijuana is going mainstream! This NY Times article shows that the Federal government is beginning to go with the flow. If the state permits the use of medical marijuana the VA system will no longer refuse to continue to treat the patient.

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/health/policy/24veterans.html?_r=1&pagewant

Excerpt:

DENVER — The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years. 

A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states. 

The policy will not permit department doctors to prescribe marijuana. But it will address the concern of many patients who use the drug that they could lose access to their prescription pain medication if caught. 

Under department rules, veterans can be denied pain medications if they are found to be using illegal drugs. Until now, the department had no written exception for medical marijuana. 

This has led many patients to distrust their doctors, veterans say. With doctors and patients pressing the veterans department for formal guidance, agency officials began drafting a policy last fall. 

Full article: http://www.aldf.com/pdf/Armins_Published_paper_in_Brain.pdf

Excerpt:

Some Lyme disease patients report debilitating chronic symptoms of pain, fatigue, and cognitive deficits despite recommended courses of antibiotic treatment. The mechanisms responsible for these symptoms, collectively referred to as post-Lyme disease syndrome (PLS) or chronic Lyme disease, remain unclear. We investigated the presence of immune system abnormalities in PLS by assessing the levels of antibodies to neural proteins in patients and controls. Serum samples from PLS patients, post-Lyme disease healthy individuals, patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and normal healthy individuals were analyzed for anti-neural antibodies by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. Anti-neural antibody reactivity was found to be significantly higher in the PLS group than in the post-Lyme healthy (p<0.01) and normal healthy (p<0.01) groups. The observed heightened antibody reactivity in PLS patients could not be attributed solely to the presence of cross-reactive anti-borrelia antibodies, as the borrelial seronegative patients also exhibited elevated anti-neural antibody levels. Immunohistochemical analysis of PLS serum antibody activity demonstrated binding to cells in the central and peripheral nervous systems. The results provide evidence for the existence of a differential immune system response in PLS, offering new clues about the etiopathogenesis of the disease that may prove useful in devising more effective treatment strategies. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Full article: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/court-grants-lyme-disease-autopsy-20100719-10hyx.html

Excerpt:

A SYDNEY woman has been awarded a Supreme Court injunction to have her dead husband tested for a disease the Health Department says does not exist in Australia.

Mualla Akinci’s husband, Karl McManus, died last Wednesday – three years after he was bitten by a tick she says carried Lyme disease, a bacterial infection which, if left untreated, can cause profound neurological damage.

Mr McManus, 43, from Turramurra, was bitten on the left side of his chest during filming for the television show Home and Away in bushland in Waratah Park, northern Sydney. Within six weeks he lost mobility in one of the fingers on his left hand. That quickly spread to paralysis in his left arm and across to his right arm.

Mr McManus was diagnosed with multifocal neuropathy after testing negative for Lyme disease, but Ms Akinci, a pharmacist, insisted he be tested again at clinics in the US and Germany. Both tests returned positive for Lyme disease.

She argues that Australian tests are inadequate because pathologists looks for antibodies in the blood, rather than for proteins in specific bacteria within tissue.

”Lyme doesn’t usually live in the blood. It lives in tissues unless someone’s system is flushed with it so it stands to reason that every test will come back negative,” Ms Akinci said.

The Health Department maintains that no case has been transmitted in Australia and the organisms that cause it – three species of the genus borrelia – are not carried here by wildlife, livestock or their parasites.

The NSW Health Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, said in May there was not enough evidence to support the existence of ticks carrying the borrelia organism.

”Until there is solid evidence to indicate that locally acquired Lyme disease is a significant public health matter in Australia, specific measures to educate the general public or clinicians are difficult to justify,” she said.

Full article: http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fulltext&file=000209229

Excerpt:

Lyme serology was positive for both IgG and IgM (ELISA, Enzygnost
Borreliosis , Siemens, Dade Behring, Germany, and blot,
Euroline WB , Euroimmun, Germany). A punch biopsy of a papule showed a dermal perifollicular ( fig. 2 ) – and occasionnally perineural – infiltrate of lymphocytes and plasma cells, consistent with a borrelial infection. Borrelia burgdorferi DNA was amplified from fresh tissue obtained from a skin biopsy performed on a peripilar papule, using a specific real-time PCR according to Mäkinen et al. [1] (culture not performed). The erythema resolved after a 3-week doxycycline treatment whereas arthralgia and dysesthesia persisted.