TOUCHED BY LYME: Helpful book about everything to do with PICC lines now available free on the internet
Links to this gem of an e-book showed up on a few on-line Lyme support groups this week, and pretty much “went viral” in the Lyme community. Linda Slocum, its author, told me INFUSING FOR LYMIES had clocked 2400+ unique visitors within a few days. I’m sure it’s much higher now.
It’s the most helpful PICC-line information for Lyme patients I’ve ever seen. When my family went through this a few years ago, the best we came up with was a handful of photocopied pages from the infusion company. I don’t think the situation has changed much in the meantime, until now.
INFUSING FOR LYMIES is a 58-page e-book, available for free on a website called Issuu.com. You can read it on-line at the website, download it to keep your own copy on your computer, and print all or part of it in hard copy, if you prefer. (Click here to see the book.)
It’s the work of a southern California Lyme patient who has been undergoing IV treatment for about a year now, and passes on her hard-earned lessons as a gift to the Lyme community. The information is useful on a variety of levels.
The book does a very good job of explaining the steps of getting a PICC line, how to keep it clean and dry, etc. But what’s really remarkable about INFUSING FOR LYMIES is Slocum’s explanations of how to save money and still get the care you need.
Many Lyme patients may start out using an infusion pharmacy and a home health nurse, which is certainly the easiest way to do it. However, once insurance coverage runs out (oh, and it will), the expense of such services can quickly get out of hand. When you read INFUSION FOR LYMIES on-line, you are provided with clickable links to the least expensive source of generic Rocephin (Walgreen’s pharmacy), saline bags (Drugs Depot) and other needed supplies (Infuserve America). (The beauty of the on-line book is that the author can update the material easily, so readers can always get the latest information.)
Getting low-cost supplies is only part of the challenge. Figuring out what to do with them is next. She walks you through the steps, with clear explanations about how to mix the medications, set up your IV pole, and infuse. Instead of being overwhelming, it all seems, well, manageable.
The author recommends sharing this e-book with your doctor, to confirm that the instructions for mixing and infusing medications are in line with the way he or she wants you to do it.
There’s also lots of useful information for Lyme patients who aren’t using a PICC: clickable links to Lyme information resources, helpful advice about managing Herxheimer reactions and detoxification, and dealing with insurance denials.
INFUSING FOR LYMIES is truly a gift to the Lyme community. Thank you, Linda.
Update from author of book, as of Jan. 25: UPDATES have been posted to the sections on buying medications from the pharmacy, and pharmacy discount cards.
Apparently not all are having success with their local Walgreens for ordering. DO NOT attempt to order via their 800# or their infusion service, those are not the same thing.
If Walgreens pricing is not available to you for some reason, then order from the secondary pharmacy in the ebook, or try your local pharmacy to see if they can get low pricing for you. Costco and other large pharmacies have been known to carry low-cost rocephin as well, but not all of them will order for you.
Each pharmacy, whether Walgreens, Costco or other, has some degree of independence, so not all will be the same in their ordering and pricing.
