To all the Canadians…

[torontogirl]

Hello,

I’ve noticed from reading some posts that there are a fair number of Canadians on this board. I am really curious about how you have found an AP doctor and whether your treatment is covered by your provincial health care plan. If you were not able to find a doctor in Canada willing to prescribe antibiotics, did you travel to the US? If so, what were the approximate costs involved?

I live in Toronto and I do have a list of the AP doctors in Ontario, however the 2 in Toronto are not actually prescribing AP anymore. (See my other discussion “An Introduction and Questions about Scleroderma + Lyme” for details on my history and my experience with these doctors.) The one in Ottawa has a 2-year waiting list. I haven’t investigated the one in Mississauga, but I read some things online that made me wary of him. Anyway, I’m not having much success here, so I’m really curious about what other Canadians have done. It seems that our universal health care system (which I love and strongly support) really puts up some barriers to seeking out unconventional treatment. The “environmental doctors” here cannot bill the province for many of their services because they are not approved so they have to charge patients directly. And that sets up a situation where these doctors are operating outside of the system.

Feel free to send me a private message if you want to discuss specific doctors.

Thanks!

Zoe

[kathy1963]

Hi Zoe. Its Kathy from Burlington Ont. I tried a couple of years ago to find an AP doctor in Ontario with the same results as you. I ended up going to see Dr S in Ida Grove. He wrote me a presription which I showed my doctor here and was able to convince the doctor to give me IV clindy. I did find a doctor in Toronto to prescribe minocin for me which I have been on for about 3 year.
After all of this time my sclero has slowed down but continues to progress. Right now my main meds are methotrexate (which I believe is doing nothing), prednisone 30mgs daily, IVIG monthly( from bedridden to doing light house work), minocin and IV clindamycin. I really dont know how much AP is doing for me, but I have invested so much time in it I dont want to give it up. I know cytoxan is the drug that was reversing the sclero a couple of years ago but after 18 months the doctors dont want me on it again unless its a life or death situation.
Back to info about AP doctors. I found the waiting lists were extreme or they were not taking new patients or really didnt know much about AP but were willing to do various IVs for substantial fees. There is one doctor just over the border in the Niagaria area that seemed to be the best I could find. He has an office in St Catherines as well. The initial consultation must be done in his US office. The Ivs are done in Canadian office. Its been a while since I did the research on him so I dont know if things have changed. Dont know if this is of any help or just addes to the confusion. Kathy

[marg]

HI Zoe,
The rheumatologist my daughter has is a young East Indian woman. She is not taking new patients as she has a young family. We were lucky that she was willing to let my daughter try AP and subsequently prescribed it for some other patients with good results. Not sure what we would have done without her!
marg

[Kats]

Hi Zoe,

I’m in Vernon BC (but an original Torontonian too!). I have been see to Dr. F in Riverside California twice now. I take what he recommends and tell my incredibly accommodating family doctor about it, and he in turn writes the prescriptions for me.

I even do Clindamycin IVs which he prescribes. However working out the logistics of doing the IVs was a bit tricky. My family doc had no idea who could give them to me. I found out there is a “home IV” team at the hospital who put in lines and train patients to give themselves IVs at home. The home iv team usually takes care of everything for a patient including getting the medicine. However since this isn’t an accepted protocol, they couldn’t get the meds for me. I then found a pharmacy that can do IVs and so they make my prescription. So I visit the team at the beginning of my 7 day clindamycin cycle and get a “saline lock| put in my arm. I can then go home and do the IVs myself. The saline lock shouldn’t stay in for 7 days straight, so I go back on day 4 or 5 to get a fresh one.

So it is possible (not easy) to do this without a close-by AP doc. I think this is really preferable to going to a more local doc who doesn’t have much experience. The meds and the traveling are all out of pocket for me though.

If you can’t find a Canadian Doctor to prescribe the meds for you, you can have American prescriptions filled at BuyLowDrugs.com which is a Canadian company and used by many people on this board. You couldn’t get IV meds that way though.

Good luck and good health!!

Katie

[Author]

Posts