quote:

Originally posted by drwes:
As Lane can also tell you, there is always some confusion between Lymes disease,, and tick bite fever. Why,, they come from ticks! For us deer hunters and deer ticks we have Rocky Moutain Spotted fever, a bacterium from the Rickettsia family,, here in the states, Rickettsia ricketsi and in Africa,, Rickettsia africae,, tick bite fever. And as Bill stated the initial infection usually leaves a bite mark like a spider, then rash, then all the other symtoms jump on you and take you down,,,treatment--Doxycycline Lymes disaese from the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi It can have the same initial symptoms, but it can have 3 stages of the disease. Stage 1 1-4weeks rash, bite mark, etc, fever, all the flu like symptoms etc. but many cases have no rash at all and many patients can not recall any bite. Stage 2 1-4 months persistent , reoccurring flu like symptoms but you can add, memory problems, heart problems, arythmias, etc, facial paralysis, finger-toe numbness tingling etc. and stage 3, or late stage and that is where you can have permanent joint damage, heart and or neurological damage. Treatment __once again Doxycycline. Most in stage 1 should have daily doses for at least 14 days! When you get to Stage 2 you are looking at Iv's and longer duration of meds and their complications
Are you seeing Lane's point with taking the Doxy with him?

There are serological tests for both! For Lymes the ElISHA Test is the most common, if positive they confirm with a "western blot" it is an antibody titer test and to confirm a stage 3 PCR they lood for The bacterial DNA in joint or spinal fluid. It is nothing to mess around with,, push for the tests,, I will take The squirts from too much Doxy just to be on the safe side..

quote:

Originally posted by 404WJJeffery:
Duke Medical called and said I could not schedule with the infectious disease doc unless my primary care physician called with a referral and diagnosis. That is the problem, the primary care docs say each time- probably a stomach bug- probably your prostate- but if it is not better in 10 days come back...

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
All of this stuff is the reason I choose to take Doxycycline for malaria prevention...cause it is also the cure for most of these and can prevent them as well.

quote:

Originally posted by MopaneMike:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
All of this stuff is the reason I choose to take Doxycycline for malaria prevention...cause it is also the cure for most of these and can prevent them as well.

Ya-but.. What if Doxy makes you sick a Hogans Goat??

quote:

Duke Medical called and said I could not schedule with the infectious disease doc unless my primary care physician called with a referral and diagnosis. That is the problem, the primary care docs say each time- probably a stomach bug- probably your prostate- but if it is not better in 10 days come back...

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Originally posted by MopaneMike:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
All of this stuff is the reason I choose to take Doxycycline for malaria prevention...cause it is also the cure for most of these and can prevent them as well.

Ya-but.. What if Doxy makes you sick a Hogans Goat??

I have found that if you eat something like some toast ahead of time no problem. I get up in the morning...take my doxy capsule with me to the breakfast table...after about 2/3's done...swallow it and keep eating a bit. (toast with some Bovril...and no prob) Never had a problem doing it like this. But...if I swallow it on an empty stomach watch out!!!

Also...need to apply some good suncreen and stay covered if you can as the doxy makes you burn easier.

Have medicated a sick appy or too for tick-bite fever with doxy while their. Usually works like a charm if started early.

Doxy just makes sense to me as you kill multiple birds with one stone.

JudgeG ... just counting time 'til I am again finding balm in Gilead chilled out somewhere in the Selous.

quote:

I calendered all the times I was sick - 12 times since June 2008, wiped out, high fever, as sick as I have ever been....12 ties in less than 3 years.

quote:

Originally posted by 404WJJeffery:
Very disappointed. The GP nurse called today to say that the Infectious Disease doc will not giv eme an apointment "based on the chart notes, there is no basis for a referral".

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
Where are all those cheerleaders saying "America has the best medical sytem in the world." and how would they care to explain this one?

Take a flt to South Africa with a pre-scheduled visit after a bit of research.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
It's frigging outrageous that you have to jump thru all these hoops to try to get decent medical care, especially considering it would be paid for. Where are all those cheerleaders saying "America has the best medical sytem in the world." and how would they care to explain this one? Bah, humbug. Take a flt to South Africa with a pre-scheduled visit after a bit of research.

quote:

Originally posted by Austin Hunter:
I got African tick fever in 2006; felt like shit. Had some doxycycline on hand from the trip, took that, was good.

And don't look to African or tick diseases all the time either. Lots of things folks overlook - vitamin deficiencies, thyroid issues (just because a test says you are normal, doesn't mean you are), heart issues, etc.

Everyone over 40 should have a thorough physical every year - full blood work, labs, treadmill, artery check (ultra-sound and stethoscope, not scan), etc. And do the colonoscopy ever 5 years (or more) if your doc recommends. And if you get blood in your urine, even a spec, go to an urologist. I waited 18 months and then had two tumors (benign) removed.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Did you feel a slight tingling/burning in your central abdomen off and on? I hesitated to wade in here, but I had a similar reaction by time my flight from Jo-Berg got to refuel in Dakar December 23rd of 2008.

I had been in Zim for ten days hunting Cape Buffalo. It was 108-116 degrees every day and rained. I went from 227 to 217 in eleven days. I marked it down to just not being shape to hump the hills 12-15K a day in the heat and rain at age 58. By time I flew out to Denver I was running a good fever. I was afraid to say anything to anybody, they had used the word "Cholera" in Harare. I called my oldest and had him pick me up at the Boise Airport and take me to the VAMC ER. I was burning up so bad, and scared, I rode the four miles in the bed of the P/U. My fever was 103, and I felt very lightheaded. Luckily, the ER Doctor had just returned from Africa and figured it out. They gave me Doxycycline for ten days straight with a needle, and kept me overnight. They never did actually explain it, just said "some malarial-type fever." Dengue Fever maybe?
Every six months or so, you just feel like somebody ran you thru one of those old fashioned wringer style washer units... Just enough fever (100-101) to make you listless.

I am retired, so I can get this same guy to prescribe me some sort of multi-purpose antibiotic and say flop for a week. It goes away in about that time. I made one trip to the Seattle VAMC, every test you can imagine, but no answers. If you knew what it was, even if there were no cure, you could deal with it. I just keep praying it is not contagious...

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
It's frigging outrageous that you have to jump thru all these hoops to try to get decent medical care, especially considering it would be paid for. Where are all those cheerleaders saying "America has the best medical sytem in the world." and how would they care to explain this one? Bah, humbug. Take a flt to South Africa with a pre-scheduled visit after a bit of research.

Actually, America does have the best medical care in the world but people don't want to pay for it. The run around is what you get with HMOs hoping to save money. This "managed care" model also known in some circles as mismanaged care, is what Obama and others wish to bring to all of us. Believe it or not, there is a reason Canadians come to the U.S.A. for gallbladder surgery and why wealthy Saudis donated a lot of money to the Cleveland Clinic.

Try getting care in RSA if you have no insurance or money to pay; you'll be out of luck. Even if you have no money, go to any ER in the USA of a facility that takes public funds and you will get care mandated by Federal law.

Since the logical disease that would cause recurrent fevers of an infectious disease nature would be a blood born parasite, all that would really be needed would be to make a peripheral blood smear during the time the fever, etc. was occurring and have the smear sent to a reference lab competent in tropical diseases. Said slides could be sent to the CDC or to a lab in RSA with specific instructions to check for malaria, babesiosis, trypanosomiasis, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Did you feel a slight tingling/burning in your central abdomen off and on? I hesitated to wade in here, but I had a similar reaction by time my flight from Jo-Berg got to refuel in Dakar December 23rd of 2008.

I had been in Zim for ten days hunting Cape Buffalo. It was 108-116 degrees every day and rained. I went from 227 to 217 in eleven days. I marked it down to just not being shape to hump the hills 12-15K a day in the heat and rain at age 58. By time I flew out to Denver I was running a good fever. I was afraid to say anything to anybody, they had used the word "Cholera" in Harare. I called my oldest and had him pick me up at the Boise Airport and take me to the VAMC ER. I was burning up so bad, and scared, I rode the four miles in the bed of the P/U. My fever was 103, and I felt very lightheaded. Luckily, the ER Doctor had just returned from Africa and figured it out. They gave me Doxycycline for ten days straight with a needle, and kept me overnight. They never did actually explain it, just said "some malarial-type fever." Dengue Fever maybe?
Every six months or so, you just feel like somebody ran you thru one of those old fashioned wringer style washer units... Just enough fever (100-101) to make you listless.

I am retired, so I can get this same guy to prescribe me some sort of multi-purpose antibiotic and say flop for a week. It goes away in about that time. I made one trip to the Seattle VAMC, every test you can imagine, but no answers. If you knew what it was, even if there were no cure, you could deal with it. I just keep praying it is not contagious...

Rich

quote:

Actually, America does have the best medical care in the world but people don't want to pay for it.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:

quote:

Actually, America does have the best medical care in the world but people don't want to pay for it.

Actually it's not even close, we spend more money with less results than many nations who provide better care with better results for their citizens at substantially lower per capita cost. It's a damn shame really.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:

Actually it's not even close, we spend more money with less results than many nations who provide better care with better results for their citizens at substantially lower per capita cost. It's a damn shame really.

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:

Actually it's not even close, we spend more money with less results than many nations who provide better care with better results for their citizens at substantially lower per capita cost. It's a damn shame really.

Pray tell:

1. Which nations provide better care than the U.S.A.?

2. Which nations get better results than the U.S.A.?

Lower cost? Yes, that's easy. As I said, in the U.S.A., they want everything but don't want to pay for it.

quote:

The Most Expensive Health Care System in the World
America has the best health care system in the world, said Bob Dole and the other executioners of health care reform. Once upon a time that claim was true. Now what America has is the most expensive health care system in the world, in spite of the fact that it leaves one-third of its citizens un- or under-insured and ranks 17th of the 24 industrialized nations in life expectancy.

The major reason for the high expense and poor performance is that we are moving rapidly toward an unholy combination of government and corporate health care management. That trend is well documented by Robert Sherrill in the January 9/16 issue of The Nation. Sherrill draws together 11 recent books and articles on drug companies, insurers, hospitals, and doctors. He shows a system that views patients as consumers to be manipulated, health workers as costs to be minimized, and taxpayer support as gold to be mined.

Here are just a few of Sherrill's startling statistics:

- The top executives of the the nation's four largest hospital chains earned a combined one-year total of $14 million, while they were firing housekeepers and nurses and working the remaining nurses 80 hours a week, so as to pay only one set of benefits for the equivalent of two workers. These hospitals rent "temp" nurses, when patient loads rise. The temps may be unqualified, but they don't get benefits and can be laid off quickly.

- Four corporations own seven out of ten of the nation's for-profit psychiatric beds. They treat only insured patients. The treatments take, with remarkable regularity, 28 days -- the cut-off for most employee insurance policies. Some of the major investors in these psychiatric hospitals are insurance companies.

- Private hospitals close emergency rooms to keep out uninsured patients. Meanwhile at public emergency rooms like that of the Los Angeles County Hospital, the average wait is three hours, and 40 percent of the patients are uninsured.

- In the 1980s 550 community hospitals failed. Meanwhile the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation grew from 30 to 311 hospitals in just 14 months. Columbia/HCA's goal is to own a fifth of the nation's hospitals by the year 2000.

- There were 7,000 deaths because of poor hospital care in one year in New York State alone. About four percent of all hospital patients are injured in some way by the hospital. The medical staff in one hospital made mistakes in drug dosage one out of every three times.

- Medicare and Medicaid fraud by hospitals, doctors, and drug companies costs taxpayers $100-$130 billion a year.

- Hospitals routinely bill Medicare, insurance companies, and patients $8 per aspirin or $20 per box of tissues. More serious overbilling occurs at for-profit hospitals than at public hospitals. One private hospital in Georgia charges on average $14,582 to treat a stroke victim; a nearby public hospital charges $6,735 for the same service and same length of stay.

- In Florida 40 percent of the doctors own their own testing facilities. Patients of lab-owning doctors are subjected to almost twice as many tests as patients of other doctors, and the charge per test is more than twice as high. Doctors who own MRI imaging equipment order four times more MRI scans than doctors who don't.

- American doctors are six times more likely to perform cardiac bypass operations than doctors in Europe; two to three times more likely to perform hysterectomies, twice as likely to do cesarean sections. American doctors take more X-rays per patient and give higher doses of drugs. This medical aggressiveness does not produce higher survival rates, only higher costs.

- Only one in eight of the patients who experience medical malpractice actually sues; only half of those who sue receive settlements. Malpractice suits account for less than one percent of the soaring cost of U.S. health care.

- The average wholesale price of drugs in the U.S. is 32 percent higher than it is in Canada. Almost 40 percent of medicines are sold to people over the age of 60, and 40-50 percent of those medications are unnecessary or even harmful. Each year more than 650,000 elderly Americans are hospitalized because of reactions to prescribed medications.

- Two drugs are used to counter blood clots in coronary arteries: streptokinase at $200 a dose and t-PA at $2,200 a dose. The larger seller is t-PA, not because it is more effective, but because it is better marketed.

- Of every dollar in health insurance premiums Americans pay, 37 cents goes to insurance company overhead.

- Canada's national health care system covers 25 million people using fewer administrators than Massachusetts Blue Cross, which covers 2.7 million. The average American doctor hires twice as many people to handle paperwork as the average Canadian doctor.

- The answer to soaring costs is supposed to be health maintenance organizations, or HMOs. But premiums in American HMOs are rising twice as fast as costs, patients' choice of doctors and treatments is limited, waiting times are increasing, and services are cut to the bone. HMOs are not "managed competition;" they are anti-competitive monopolies.

Our health care system is wildly profitable for its owners, at enormous cost to patients, workers, and taxpayers. If it is the best health care system in the world, it is so only because the more one knows about it, the more one resolves to take very good care of oneself, in order never to have to go near it.

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.)


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