How to find a Lyme Dr. in TX or LA?

[tylermom]

i looking for a Lyme dr. in Tx or La. i would love to get tested and have my kids tested as well. there's reason to believe that we could have it. i will need a referral with my insurance i know that my dr. would give me a referral but my kids pedi will probably give me trouble. so i'm wondering if the testing for Lyme is really expensive if i had to pay out of pocket for the kids if the pedi would not refer us?

 

jen

[MichaelTampa]

To get a recommendation in your area, I would recommend going to www.ilads.org, and following the "contact us" path to request a list of ILADS trained doctors near you. If your insurance requires referral, perhaps then you can request your doctor/ped give a referral to someone you select from the list you get from ilads. Lyme testing, particularly for kids, is difficult, there are a variety of tests that can be done, none are perfectly reliable. For a couple hundred dollars you could get an IGeneX western blot. My insurance partially covered it, I imagine everyone's insurance experience is going to vary. If you're concerned about the cost of tests, you might just start out with an appointment with a lyme doctor and see what they recommend. I imagine some doctors like to do a lot of testing while others not as much.

 

Michael

[lyme_mom]

i looking for a Lyme dr. in Tx or La. i would love to get tested and have my kids tested as well. there's reason to believe that we could have it. i will need a referral with my insurance i know that my dr. would give me a referral but my kids pedi will probably give me trouble. so i'm wondering if the testing for Lyme is really expensive if i had to pay out of pocket for the kids if the pedi would not refer us?

 

jen

You can get a cd57 test from labcorp and find out pretty quickly if lyme is likely for you. It doesn't work for kids. Ilads or a local lyme group is a good way to find a good lyme doctor. We did tests 188 and 189 through igenex for 200. Thats a good place to start. A more complete lyme test is available from Igenex for more money but you might get the info you are looking for with the igg and igm antibody tests. To save money you might want to get the cd57 test for yourself (which insurance should cover) and get igenex tests for the kids and go from there. The cd57 test will not show whether coinfections are involved.

[SearchingMom]

i looking for a Lyme dr. in Tx or La. i would love to get tested and have my kids tested as well. there's reason to believe that we could have it. i will need a referral with my insurance i know that my dr. would give me a referral but my kids pedi will probably give me trouble. so i'm wondering if the testing for Lyme is really expensive if i had to pay out of pocket for the kids if the pedi would not refer us?

 

jen

 

Dear Jen,

 

I e-mailed ILADS just yesterday to find out about drs in TX area. They referred me to another e-mail address to request a list of doctors. I've gotten no response yet, but I would be glad to send you a personal message with any info I get if you'd like. If you want the e-mail address I was referred to, I can send that along, too, in the meantime.

 

Angela

[justinekno]

Have you tried posting on Lymenet and asking for a list to be sent to you? I did that and received a ton of info.

 

i looking for a Lyme dr. in Tx or La.

 

[JTs-Mom]

You can also get referrals from the lymediseaseassociation.org website, though be cautioned these are NOT all ILADS trained docs and not all believe in long-term abx, but they will at least be more familiar with Lyme than your average doc and may be a little more open-minded, just not as fully versed as ILADS docs.

 

I would use this as a back-up option if you don't get any responses from ILADS or LymeNet, but I think you will.

[NewBeginnings]

Yes, Lymenet.org is a great reference for a lot of things. You can make a post under Seeking A Doctor and they will send you a lot of info.

 

There are no LLMD's left in Texas and there is 1 in LA.

[tylermom]

thank you all for your info. i'm going to try to find a lyme dr. i feel that i need to be tested because i was bit by tics several times as a child. i'm wondering if i have it if i could have passed it to my children thru breastmilk. my 2 sons have tics, adhd, OCD and my 4 y/o ds has horrible tempers and autistic like features. my dd is 8 and has chronic fatigue since a baby but she does not have tics. i think it would be good to rule out lyme. can someone tell me what the dr. in Alexandria, LA name is. that is about 4 hours from where we live and i would be willing to drive 4 hrs to go to a dr. that knows lyme. thanks.

 

jen