Patient Testimonials

From a letter to Dr. LaCava: 

“your advice did him a world of good. He has not been on any medications for over a month - not even inhalers”

As you know, B.. is a 4 and a half year old boy who has been suffering from asthma for 3 and a half years. His symptoms include cough, nasal congestion, headaches, upset stomach, and wheezing. He also has eczema. He has been on many medications since then, including inhalers. Whenever he came down with a cold, the wheezing would start and eventually he would end up with an asthma attack and an emergency room or office visit would be necessary.

Upon his last visit to your office when he was experiencing difficulty, you ran some blood work for food allergies. The results were normal with the exception of a slight indication of corn allergy. At that time, I found out that B..'s daily diet consisted of a lot of corn or foods made from corn. We decided to put him on a corn-free diet for a month. I was very skeptical of this, but decided to give it a try.

I am very happy to say that your advice did him a world of good. He has not been on any medications for over a month - not even inhalers. His cough is gone as well as his other symptoms. He still maintains a little eczema, but not as bad as it was.

 

 

"Dr. LaCava is the ONLY physician to diagnose and successfully treat my

chronic condition.  I feel better than I have in 40 years!"

 

 

 

"Dr. LaCava's thoroughness and perseverance in finding the root(s) of the problems."


"That Francis Holistic Medical Center provides services
no one else does within 30 miles, such as IV Chelation."

 

 "Unfortunately, we are forced to find a new doctor for our children due to our insurance provider, United Health. We learned a lot from your expertise and probably will never find a doctor again of your caliber."

"This is a story of the horror I have been going through for a long 13+ years with little or no results until December 2010 when I was just a step away from giving up completely.  I had been diagnosed too many times as being screwed up mentally, wanting attention, childhood trauma, not wanting to work, making up excuses so I would not have to visit relatives, etc.  It has been a long, long, journey, but whoever reads this, DO NOT give up until you find the doctor that can give you the proper diagnoses such as an LLMD.  I certainly did not make up any of my symptoms as many others thought.  Trust me, these are real.  Read on and you will see by the time you get to the end of my journey and the difficulties I have had to live with. 

 

I had MANY trips to the local hospitals, ER, Boston hospitals until they thought that I was some sort of an addict or just wanted attention or just plain needy.  But not being on any drugs because of no diagnoses they thought they would test anyway and found no drugs in my system.  Why take them when you don't know what is wrong and you have no diagnoses.  The blood test showed nothing... I was finally admitted to the hospital.  They did MRI's of my brain, two colonoscopies, two endoscopies, sonograms, EKG's, upper and lower GI Barium, etc., and nothing could be found.  Consequently, after three days the doctor came in and told me with all the tests and blood work they did on me, nothing could be found and I could go home.  I was feeling lousy with nausea and barely could walk and still unable to eat.  I had to have help just to get dressed.

 

Homeward bound I went.  My husband helped me to walk into the house.  I headed for my unmade bed.  I didn't know whether to lie there or run for the bathroom hoping I would make it sooner rather than later as I felt like I would vomit all over anyone that just might be in my way.  I made it but all I ever have is dry heaves which ends up making me feel worse. I continued like this day after day and still not one physician could help me.  I had one gastroenterologist tell me that he would never discharge me as a patient until he found out the reason I was having such distress with nausea.  Well, he gave up and said he could NOT find anything wrong with me.  He, too, said to try and get over it.  So, I lay there in bed and wondered and asked God if it is worth going on with my life as I live and/or maybe He could just take me home, as no one would miss me here.  It is difficult.  How do you explain this to your family that the doctor tells you to go home without any diagnoses or anything that would make any sense to them?  I spent a great deal of my time crying uncontrollably and many times just lying there all alone in tears as I truly could not go on like this the rest of my life.  The weakness in my body was overtaking me and I could do nothing about it.  It would be so much easier for death to take me then to be worthless to anyone around me.

 

I remember the day I was all alone and felt so, so sick I laid there for eight hours in the fetal position for fear of moving, let alone having the strength to just turn over.  I peaded with God to PLEASE TAKE ME HOME.  But, I didn't get any response.   Guess He felt it was not my time yet.  At the time I hardly managed to crawl to the bathroom.  Being alone I did not have the strength to stand up.  That was about the toughest ordeal to go through for me at that time.  On my way crawling,  I collapsed a few times but I managed somehow to once get up on my knees.  I remember looking up and the bathroom looked like it was too far for me to get there but I worked on it and finally made it.  Of course my next thought was how was I going to get back to my bed.  I pleaded with God to give me some sort of strength to make it back.  Finally that ordeal ended but I did not leave that bed untill the next day.

 

(These occurrences happened many times for a long 13+ years.) 

 

Once again, day after day, I was so ill and only consuming a small amount of ice to keep me from dehydrating - bit by bit - just so I would not vomit it up.  I was too ill to talk and too weak to stand, but was able to scribble a note to one of my family members in the house to call an ambulance.  Within 10 minutes they bounded into my territory with a stretcher where I had been living week after week and month after month, which seemed forever because these long drawn out episodes went on for so many years.  The ambulance, along the way to the hospital, almost took out four cars, but I kept saying, "Who cares? I feel like dying anyways."  The first thing they did was to pop a baby aspiring into my mouth and do an EKG!! "Why," I asked myself.  "I don't have any symptoms that would entail any symptoms of my heart."  Oh well, they seemed to know better, I guess?  They took me into the ER and I am on the slab for about 3/4 of an hour when a nurse comes in and does her usual native dance of taking all the vital signs and information.  Another hour passes by and the doctor comes in and wants me to repeat the same information to him/her.  Why, he has all the information from the nurses in front of him?  I felt like I am ready to vomit in their face and it is all I could do to even utter a word, let alone a sentence.  The doctor said, "Well, we will put you on an IV and get some fluids into you as you look pretty dehydrated."  After putting up my many previous hospital records it was very obvious that the doctor felt there was something emotionally wrong with me.  It was obvious that what he had read about so many previous ER trips nothing was ever found how to deal with the nausea.

 

About two hours later they thought it be best if they admitted me for observations and called in my gastroenterologist for further testing.  Don't mind me, I had only been seeing this doctor several times in his office for a colonoscopy, endoscopy, swallowing the camera in a capsule for 12 hours just to take pictures inside.  Oh my, that was exciting!  With all those tests nothing could be found but they thought it was only right to do more of the same tests.  To that they surely did.  You just know the insurance company surely loved that one.  Anyway, after being in the hospital for approximately three days, I had not been able to eat.  However, I was barely able to get some fluids down.  The nausea was incredibly bad but nowhere was the doctor to be seen.  So, on the third day, in came the doctor.  He took one look at me, threw up his hands and said, "Miss, you can go home now, we can't find anything wrong with you."  I left terribly ill again, but he did write a prescription for some nausea medicine that they give cancer patients to help them.  This was NOT covered under my insurance.  I could not get it filled as it cost $20.00 per pill.  Also, why use me as a guinea pig again as they had tried every nausea medicine on me including that one and nothing would stop it.  He really didn't care as long as he got rid of me in the hospital.  I left for home so, so ill.  I told my family that I couldn't go on living like this as I am getting so sick and losing so much weight.  Up to that point I had lost 45 pounds.  After all this and still suffering daily, some days worse than others, it was not until I saw my Holistic Physician, Leonid Gordin, MD that he suggested I go and see Thomas LaCava, MD, LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor).  Both wonderful doctors to say the least.  This was my last hope.  I did not care if I had to travel 100 miles, I decided I had to go, as Dr. Gordin had never let me down in all the many years of knowing him.  I trusted this physician so explicitly as he seemed to know that I was really suffering severely as he talked with me.  When I walked into Dr. LaCava's office and did all the necessary paperwork, he looked at me and said, "Your symptoms are very much like Lyme Disease.  Has anyone ever suggested it to you or tested for Lyme disease?"  I said emphatically, "NO."  Dr. LaCava said, "I would like you to have the Western Blot and other tests to make sure, not just because of your symptoms you have, but to be proof positive."  I returned to the doctor's office when the results came back.  He told me that he had good news and bad news.  So, he gave me the good news first which he said the proper diagnosis for you is all the other doctors were wrong in all that they did and what they had said to you all these years.  Then he said the bad news is the blood work that came back says you have Lyme in every cell and tissue of your body.

 

There are so many diferent types of pathogenic bacterias.  I get tested every six to eight weeks.  Lyme likes to hide... so many tests get repeated.  Sometimes different labs that deal with lyme are utilized as I have written below.  Everytime I have an appointment, he has me retested for various reasons.  Do I still suffer from nausea?  Absolutely yes, but it is what I refer to as underlying nausea.  I can eat once again, but not too much, as it has been difficult for the appetite to return.  I finally understand what people go through with anorexia.  You cannot even force food into your mouth.  I am not one year into treatment and the doctor is one fantastic physician.  I would recommend him to anyone.  He is thorough, confident, and compassionate with a positive attitude.  This helps me in many ways being so ill.  He knows as he sees so many, many people that have gone through similar experiences of going from doctor to doctor to doctor.  I can honestly say that he has saved my life.  My first appointment was for 1/2 to 1 hour.  But he kept me for 3 1/2 hours on my first appointment, as he was so concerned with not only my symptoms but also other tests that he was doing for me and how ill I was.  He said he knew the instant I walked into his office and took one look at me that something was seriously wrong with me.  My question is, "Why didn't any of the other multitude of physicians recognize that something was wrong?"

 

The most important thing when one has lyme is to use the proper lab.  One very prominent lab is Igenex.  Their website is www.igenex.com.  Another good lab is Pharmasan Labs and their site is www.pharmasan.com.  You cannot use the local labs like Quest as they only test for ONE type of bacteria and regular MD's will only treat you for 10 to 15 days and NO FOLLOW-UP FOR RETESTING!  It is important to see if you are improved or if you were given the correct antibiotic for the type of pathogenic bacteria one has.

 

I owe this doctor so much for giving me back my life.  I truly thought I was dying.  As I stated above I was losing the will to live as well and to continue on.  This is such a tough and discouraging way to feel with this illness.  I have a husband, 4 children, 16 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren.  Remember, this has gone on for 13+ years.  Here I am trying to help others not to go through the same illness.  Not only is this disease devastating but extremeley debilitating.  It is so imporant not to give up even though it is very tempting.  You get so weak and feel so ill; you do not want to continue to fight the illness anymore.  These words are easier said than done.  I will always be grateful to Dr. LaCava for helping me through all the agony, torture, unfairness, and unprofessionalism I had been put through for so many years by other specialist MD's.  The most important thing to me was going into Dr. LaCava's office and HE BELIEVED ME... he knew I was sick... he didn't say I was crazy and go home... and he was willing to spend his time to get me back on my feet.  Again, I say he spent 3 1/2 hours on my first visit and never pushed me out of his office as if there was something more important for him to tend to.  I was treated with dignity, compassion, and understanding.  Dr. LaCava never made me feel that he would let me go without some sort of an answer as others had done to me.  He gave me at least some hope and faith to cling to at that time."

 

 

"Willingness to provide treatments that work best."



"Both of my children have had health issues that began at birth and I myself have
struggled with chronic issues as well that only Dr. L was able to help us with despite years of
visiting other so called experts. I appreciate that Dr. L expects you to be responsible and
do your part in regards to your wellness...his manner could be described as abrupt, but
we have never found him off putting. He is no nonsense with adults and straight forward,
but highly supportive.  With my children he has always been terrific..they love him and
everyone on the staff. I will be forever grateful to Dr. LaCava for giving my children a healthy
start in life and for supporting our wellness choices." 



"Dr. LaCava is an excellent doctor who really listens
and addressed mine and my daughter's needs."



"Dr. LaCava actually took my list of issues and questions
to study them.  No other doctor has ever done that."



"Dr. LaCava is an excellent physician who uses a wide range of lab tests to determine
the person's individual problem and treatment plan rather than attempting to apply
out-of-the-box treatments based on a few clinical symptoms. Dr. LaCava is one of those
rare doctors who actually tries to solve people's medical problems rather than just
put band-aids on it. While he can be occasionally abrupt to adults, he is always
patient and engaging with his pediatric population. I really think he is a great doctor
and our family continues to visit him even after moving a bit of a distance away from his office." 



"This was the best medical experience of my life."



"I suffered from one of the most common and easily diagnosable female ailments for years.
I saw an Ob/GYN, PCP, Endo; I nearly gave up. He spent 2.5 hrs with me at our first
appointment. He diagnosed me instantly, as every symptom was classic. Although he
ordered a multitude of blood tests, he treated me immediately. I found relief within weeks, for
5+ years of 'mystery' ailments.  I've never seen anyone else since. He saved my quality of life,
and I recommend him to everyone I know. He runs late sometimes, because he spends
quality time with his patients; and he's worth it. I'm so grateful. He's a great listener, and I trust his judgement."