Re: Blood Tests for Lyme

[Guest guest]

No.... no test is conclusive for Lyme.... it is based on tests (multiple) and a

physical, history, and all from a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor only..

Hugs,

[ ] Blood Tests for Lyme

Hello, I was at the psychiatrist today for basically an update. It

was a new doctor for myself. Anyway, she did order a lyme test just

to probably ease my mind. Although since my sister has been telling

me about her symptoms and we did grow up together I'm thinking I have

it now. Anyway, the question is, the doctor said that she is having

the lyme titers checked. She said that they will do that first and if

there is a question then they can do the western blott. Does this

sound accurate?

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

my daughter of 24 had Quest, Labcorp, MDL, Stoneybrook and Igenex western blot.

Only Igenex picked up a band. I have CFS for 24 years and I'm thinking the

thought is I have lyme and I passed it to her in utero. Reason why we did all

tests. MD was sure is was chronic lyme.

[ ] Blood Tests for Lyme

Hello, I was at the psychiatrist today for basically an update. It

was a new doctor for myself. Anyway, she did order a lyme test just

to probably ease my mind. Although since my sister has been telling

me about her symptoms and we did grow up together I'm thinking I have

it now. Anyway, the question is, the doctor said that she is having

the lyme titers checked. She said that they will do that first and if

there is a question then they can do the western blott. Does this

sound accurate?

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

in my opinion..definitely " NO " .Heres why...

to test for lymes in the us, mainstream doctors run a screening test

for lymes. its called an " ELISA " type and measures ones total antibody

load to lymes. it is felt by the lymes community to be notoriusly

inaccurate. (ie many false negetives... ive read estimates that range

from 30-70%). this is exactly how many of us never got diagnosed for

many years. our doctors thought they were running " the test " for lymes

unaware it misses so many. ive read it almost always is negative if

you were infected over 3 years ago.

only if this screening test is positive do they then run a western

blot test.

this is " the " controversy in lymes diagnosis. theres alot of info on

this subject.

so...perhaps the answer to ur question is... if you read the training

manual for mainstream md's (like the cdc etc) ur doc is following

standard medical training (similiar to cdc's webpage etc). but newer

info/research questions that doctrine.

hth

cfsguy

>

> Hello, I was at the psychiatrist today for basically an update. It

> was a new doctor for myself. Anyway, she did order a lyme test just

> to probably ease my mind. Although since my sister has been telling

> me about her symptoms and we did grow up together I'm thinking I have

> it now. Anyway, the question is, the doctor said that she is having

> the lyme titers checked. She said that they will do that first and if

> there is a question then they can do the western blott. Does this

> sound accurate?

>

> Thanks,

>

>

[Guest guest]

I had Lyme titers done first too and they came back negative, as they do in many

Lyme patients. There are a few reasons for this occurring. 1) the titer tests

your doctor ordered are to check for antibodies against the Lyme bacteria. Since

the Lyme bacteria have a tendency to be able to " hide " from the immune system's

natural defenses of sending out antibodies to kill the bacteria, many titers

come back negative. 2) the Lyme bacteria, and this is especially true if you

have had Lyme for a year or longer and/or any of the co-infections, the Lyme

bacteria actually use up many of the white blood cells and then kill the white

blood cells off. The Lyme bacteria are actually able to change the mitochondria

in the White Blood Cells to invade the WBC's and therefore are able to use the

WBC's as a shield so that the immune system doesn't recognize the bacteria as an

foreign invader. 3) the antibody titers only test for the antibodies against one

strain of the Lyme bacteria and there are approximately over 100 different

strains of the Lyme bacteria, therefore even if you have a more common strain of

Lyme, but a different one than the antibody test tests for, then the titer will

come back negative even if you have Lyme.

As I said the Lyme titer came back negative on me, but when my LLMD in LA did

the Western Blot, the CD57, and a few other tests to rule out other disease that

may cause the similar symptoms, etc, the Western Blot came up positive for one

of the other more common strains of Lyme. I also found out that I have the

co-infection Babesia, so that even lowered my ability to produce healthy white

blood cells to fight the Lyme bacteria. I highly suggest that you IMMEDIATELY

seek a LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor/Professional) that will help explain

Lyme much better and will test you properly. You want to have the LLMD send your

blood samples to IGenex Labs in CA. I'm not trying to sell you their services,

but they are the best lab and are dedicated to only Lyme Disease testing and use

better techniques than other labs. I do not recommend Labcorp because they only

use one antigen (strain) for their Western Blots, whereas Igenex uses a minimum

of 3 antigens to increase the odds of detecting the 3 most common strains. As

any LLMD will tell you is that despite the tests, Lyme Disease is a clinical

diagnosis. The labs are done just to help confirm it to insurance companies,

etc. The test results also depend on how long you may have had Lyme; I've heard

of some people being bit as a child and not suffer the symptoms until early

adulthood. there are many more factors to consider than your present doctor is

willing to take into account. Sounds as though she is following IDSA's

guidelines which are not accurate. Again, go see an LLMD. If you need help

finding one, just post a request to the group with your city and state of

residence and perhaps how far you are willing to travel to see a Lyme

specialist. I travel about 8 hours driving time to see my LLMD in Louisiana and

I live in FL. Hope this helps!

Barbara

[ ] Blood Tests for Lyme

Hello, I was at the psychiatrist today for basically an update. It

was a new doctor for myself. Anyway, she did order a lyme test just

to probably ease my mind. Although since my sister has been telling

me about her symptoms and we did grow up together I'm thinking I have

it now. Anyway, the question is, the doctor said that she is having

the lyme titers checked. She said that they will do that first and if

there is a question then they can do the western blott. Does this

sound accurate?

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

Regular insurance (if you have it) should cover all of these. And the

ELISA and Western Blot, if positive (especially the WB) are considered

definitive for Lyme.

The problem is that they're inadequate tests that don't catch *all*

cases of Lyme. In fact, they may miss as many as 40% of us. So if

these two come up negative, our LLMDs usually follow up by re-doing a

Western Blot from Igenex, which is a more complete test that's not

covered by insurance. That's the one that costs $200.

If you've already tested positive on the first two, save your money.

You don't need an Igenex text to know you've got Lyme.

Sara

On Oct 24, 2009, at 1:53 PM, a wrote:

> Hi,

> I just posted that my dr. wants a $200 test. I just did some

> research online and I was wrong, cause I had the Western Blot test

> done. I assume that there is another test that costs $200, but

> which one is it. From what I have seen these are the tests for Lyme:

>

> ELISA

> Western Blot (IgG)

> Antigen Capture (LDA)

> PCR

> Igm

>

> Can someone tell me which of these is the expensive one???

>

> Thanks,

> a

>

>

>

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