Hi Motoxchic!
Welcome to the forum!!! You are a very special sis for joining us for your brother!! Not enough of our families have a good enough understanding of what we are going through to be this involved! As for me - none of my family has the desire to help in this way!!!
I'm really sorry about
your brothers health!! Although you have chosen the best place to get not only info on LD, but support & understanding as well!! If you have time (or if your brother is up to it) you should really check out the "newbies- check this out" thread.
It contains soooo much info & the mods here created this thread in order to help newbies to LD understand a lot of what may be going on!
Negative Lyme results are very common - unfortunately. It took a full year on very strong antibiotics before I tested positive. It's just the 'nature of the beast'.
Despite what many say about
the evidence of a bite, only about
40% of those who are infected actually had the 'bullseye' rash. He may have had no rash at all or maybe a rash of unknown cause - these are actually more common.
Also, he could have been bit on the scalp or the back of his neck & not noticed.
I, personally, believe that there is so much misinformation being passed around that it's a wonder sometimes that we
do get any help!! The absolute best thing your brother could do for himself is to go to a knowledgable LLMD. I would suggest (if you haven't already) going to CALDA's website.
This is the California Lyme Disease Assoc. website. There is a wealth of info there for any Lymie, and they have info on the LLMD's in Calif. You can still get info on LLMD's through sites like this one as well.
Have you or your brother gone over any of the symptom lists for LD? One that I like to refer people to is
www.anapsid.org/cnd/diagnosis/mastersymptoms.html Unfortunately, if your brother has LD or other tick-borne illnesses, depression & anxiety is something most of us have to deal with. Very few people understand the amount of devastation to one's life once they have been infected - unless they have either chosen to really be there for someone who has LD or they themselves have experienced it.
My biggest suggestion for your brothers' situation would be to pursue knowledge about
possible Lyme or other TBI's, as this (as apposed to RA) is curable most of the time.
Sorry if I am starting to ramble a bit - I am definitely in a long phase of "Lymie brain" right now!!
Feel free to ask any ?'s you may have, we have some very intelligent members here who are very knowledgable!!!
Good luck to both of you & welcome once again!!!
Trav