He had impressive credentials. As I looked around the office wall of the Kaiser office, I saw a diploma in Public Health from Harvard, the brief bio boasted of a professorship at the Stanford University Medical School. Maybe, just maybe, he would agree with what my LLMD had discerned from my IgenX results-that I had Lyme and Babesia Duncani.

The Doctor extended his hand to me. He was not cold, but congenial. Maybe, just maybe. He was, after all, the top Infectious Disorders Doctor at Kaiser, and he seemed nice enough. Did I have a rash, did my joints ache, did I have a fever? No, no, no. Nightsweats? Yes, sometimes. What else? Persistent insomnia, fatigue, mental “fog”, short-term memory problems, feelings of imbalance. Nothing seems to help very much.

“Well”, he said, “I honestly don’t think it’s Babesia microti”

“Babesia Duncani”, I responded.

“Yes”, he went on, “now what would you like to know?”

“Why does one doctor think there is Babesia based upon a test and another one doesn’t”, I asked.

“Medicine is inexact.”

Well, that sounded very honest, at least.

He continued, “Babesia is rare. However, if you like, we could put you on Doxycycline for a month to see how it goes.  Would you like to try that?”

I declined. He handed me his card as I was waling out the door. I had the clindomycin and quinine (prescribed by my Lyme doctor) at home but hadn’t taken them yet. My visit to Kaiser, armed with the test results and a note from my LLMD, was carried out with the slim hope that the HMO would pay for any future medicines.

No prescriptions or further exams were forthcoming, however, my Kaiser visit did raise doubts in my mind. How am I to know who is right? I don’t have a background in medicine. Perhaps my LLMD is like the proverbial child with a hammer in his hand who sees everything as a nail. Only in his case, everything is Lyme or a co-infection. Lyme is his gig, his bread and butter. After all, alternative reasons could be given for my symptoms. Weren’t the tests prone to error and subjectivity?

Having suffered for years, seen numerous Doctors, Homeopaths, Acupuncturists, even a goddamn Qi Gong master, with no resolution, I am desperate. Desperate, you are prone to try anything, believe anything.

It might be Lyme or it might all be bullshit.

And with that thought, I opened the bottle, took out two capsules of Clindomycin and washed them down with water. God help me and good luck to all!