Lyme Disease?

[friday7]

I'm just curious if anyone has been diagnosed with Lyme disease? I had a test done and I have one abnormal result. I have no idea of what this means.

( I can't talk to my doctor because she left without disscussing the results with me and I have to wait until I get a new doctor to find out what it means. I'm not even sure if she saw the test results before she left.)

I'm just wondering if anyone is familiar with Lyme testing.

[kmichaelson]

Hi Friday, Do you know in what way your test was abnormal? I can't believe your doctor didn't discuss it with you! I'm actually just starting lyme treatment. It's been a very very long story up to this point, but basically I tested positive for acute lyme twice (IGM antibodies were positive but not enough IGG to be considered CDC positive). My general doctor ordered the tests and determined that he didn't think lyme was responsible for my symptoms (dizziness, fatigue, numbness, and so on). My sister and nephew are actually being treated for lyme and coinfections, so I know a bit more about it due to them and they suggested I see a lyme specialist. He was absolutely positive that lyme was causing my symptoms. It's pretty rare to have two positive test results with lyme, and false negative results are FAR more common.

If you find out that you just tested positive on one band (like 41 for example) I might not be terribly concerned because that can mean that the test detected any kind of spirochete (like strep for example) in your body... i.e., it's not as specific to lyme as other bands are. Sorry if I'm going to far into depth here! I've been so immersed in trying to learn more about all of this that it's hard to remember where it all began.

Essentially, I would say that getting a doctor's advice on what the test means would be important because lyme can definitely cause POTS symptoms in many cases, and the whole testing process for it is extremely confusing. Most doctors just look at the lab work (which is wrong almost half the time!) rather than considering a clinical diagnosis based on symptoms. I'd be happy to *try* to answer questions if you have any, though threre is so much that I don't know and so much that is disagreed upon by doctors. Someone on this site referred me to this lyme site once: http://www.ilads.org/ so that might be a good place to look too.

[friday7]

HI dizzy.

thanks for answering.

The test did have only one band that was abnormal.

It was "IgM p23 Ab".

It says "present" and abnormal.

I'd really like to talk to someone because ,even if it's not Lyme,then what is causing that abnormal result?

I have had increased symptoms lately..the ones you described so I'm trying to find out what's causing it.

Oh my BP has also dropped drastically lately..That hasn't happened in years since i started to take salt tablets. So It's not "normal" for me.

Thanks for the link . I'll try and look at it when I'm not too dizzy.