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Comment by switch007 | Hacker News Reader

I got Lyme when I was 26 (in an area with it, after handling an animal famous for ticks). GP refused to believe Lyme could be a possibility. Eventually got a test (probably an inferior one, knowing our health service), which came back negative. But I had a bullseye rash, flu-like symptoms etc. I'm convinced I had it. I wasn't prescribed antibiotics because the test was negative

The 2 years following I had bad muscles pains - particularly in my wrists (I've been using computers since I was 12... never had RSI), bouts of flu-like symptoms/body aches, decreased mental ability. Can't really tell if I've still got residual issues what was getting older and my body generally falling apart more and more. Then again, since then, I've been to the GP for various symptoms and many blood tests coming back negative, time and time again.

I'm still annoyed by the GP denying even the possibility of it.

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I had a very similar story that I’ve shared on here before. I fortunately very much knew it was Lyme because I got it in Europe where the bullseye rash is much more common. My PCP, in his infinite wisdom, said it was a skin rash and wanted to refer me to a dermatologist instead. Why? Because he couldn’t be bothered to Wikipedia Lyme disease and learn that the European one takes 8 weeks to appear, and because the gestation time didn’t line up with his knowledge of American Lyme disease, well, surely it’s not Lyme disease, even though it was an extremely obvious bullseye rash right where I had gotten the bite. It didn’t matter to him that I told him that I had gotten it in Europe AND that I had looked it up and noted that the European variant takes longer.

I live in Texas and I was lucky/smart enough to tell my PCP to piss off and walk into an urgent care where a nurse who was born in Maryland immediately diagnosed me and gave me antibiotics. If you get a tick bite do not ignore this. It will fuck up your life if you do. It’s insane your doctor didn’t just proactively prescribe antibiotics. The long term effects of Lyme disease are bad enough that it is absolutely something that is worth giving antibiotics for even if you aren’t 100% sure.

The incident has made me have a pretty strong skepticism of whatever doctors say. I now know that you, and only you, are responsible for your own medical care unfortunately. It is insufficient to trust someone simply because they have the letters MD after their name

I suddenly had alopecia areata. If you don't want to Google it, there were coin-sized areas of my head spontaneously losing hair, starting with my beard.

My GP said "this is not a health problem, if you want a fuller beard use rogain". I was embarrassed enough to go home and try to tough it out.

Within 6 months the whole left side of my head was completely bare, except for splotchy outlines here and there. My right side had hair but it was spreading fast. I looked like a hyena. It was not a great experience.

Went to a dermatologist, got steroid shots, and my hair grew back in a month.

You get quotes for housework, apply to multiple jobs, test drive cars, but when it comes to health, we trust the first asshole with availability? Never again.

Roughly half the doctors are below average and probably more than half of GPs are below average...

For a while I had a GP who did his med school in the Caribbean. He was fine. I knew he did it there.

During one exam he asked me where I did my grad school. I respond and reflexively ask him and his response was “Blah blah school of medicine in The Grenadines. But the guy who graduates last in his class there is still called ‘Doctor’”.

I would rather have the last in his class doctor from some Caribbean country that listens to his patients than the ego doctor at the top of his class at John’s Hopkins that doesn’t.

To add to that list, I’ll take the IMG doc over PA or NP mid levels that did a fraction of schooling compared to traditional medical school.

You had not heard the phrase "second opinion" before this experience?

Even for HN, that's a tone deaf response to a thread of stories of mistaken trust in GPs

What's tone deaf about it? Should the comment offer hugs and kissing before offering obvious, practical advice that anyone at all can take?

Pardon my ignorance, but does antibiotics even do anything? I thought there was no cure once you’ve been bitten by a tick?

What role does the antibiotic play?

I cannot understand why you wouldn’t get antibiotics. What possible risk could your doctor be imagining that would come from you taking antibiotics?

Our approach to medicine is so depressing.

The primary objective of the NHS is to save money, it can seem. Therefore they create policies that reduce costs, write advice on nhs.uk that results in lower costs, restrict access to tests/drugs etc.

I DO understand the arguments about excessive diagnostics, antibiotics etc - but they certainly hide behind those arguments _a lot_.

Honestly it is so stressful and time-consuming to get anything other than a basic blood test or an ultrasound for any kind of issue. They will happily gaslight you in order to dissuade you ("Lyme does not exist in this area of the country". "These links say it does". "No")

There's a reason why private healthcare spending is on the rise ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/317868/private-healthcar... ) but AIUI private GPs leave a lot to be desired - they seem to be just for single-visit issues, and aren't included on anything except the most expensive private healthcare plans

The price of (most first round antibiotics) is so low that it doesn't really make sense to avoid prescribing them from a cost avoidance perspective.

It costs next to nothing for one person. A different policy that applies to a population of 67m is a different order of magnitude

NHS policy isn't about the individual

About a year ago I had the same attitude to antibiotics as you, but a basic antibiotic prescription led me to develop a Clostridiodes difficile [0] infection. People need to be aware that C. diff is AWFUL, and can easily occur after antibiotic treatment. It's totally debilitating, can even kill you, and is difficult and expensive to treat, often recurring after treatment.

I'm very fortunate in having a daughter who's a doctor, but had to use a $5,000 antibiotic to get cured.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/cdiff/what-is.html

Antibiotics can be really awful for your body. So many very important things are done for us by our bacterial microbiome but some doctors give out these dangerous medications like candy even for viral infections with no indication of secondary bacterial infections. [0]

The body is like a hotel for bacteria. Under good conditions the rooms are filled with bacteria that don't harm us and may provide useful services. But take a broad spectrum antibiotic and suddenly all the rooms are empty and ready for colonization by nasty bugs like C. diff.

Antibiotics have also been a wonderful invention for preventing death but they should be used much more sparingly in humans and much more sparingly for agriculture.

0: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2782166

Not handing out antibiotics left and right is a way to counter antimicrobial resistance, a serious threat to the bigger population if gone out of control.

It should only be used when absolutely needed. Seeing how casually some use it is quite shocking. Lyme is serious and should of course be treated if it’s identified as such.

"Eventually got a test (probably an inferior one, knowing our health service), which came back negative"

This is fairly common, even with provider ordered tests.

I know a few doctors that will actually send samples to two different facilities, or perfer one facility or test type over another due to fairly common false negatives.

Sorry to hear that a friend of mine could tell a very similar story it’s weird some doctors refuse to consider Lyme

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