Wresten Blot results

I think Lyme is different for everyone. The co-infections also play a large part in symptoms. What symptoms do you have? Can you list the bands that were positive on the test?

I work outside in very hot weather, but I definitely get extremely fatigued and find it very difficult. I also have a ton of other symptoms. I was diagnosed based on a western blot through Igenex and a very low CD57 combined with a clinical diagnosis.

The western blot is not a direct test. It picks up antibodies and can show positive just from being exposed to Lyme even if you don't have an active infection. If I had no symptoms but only a positive blood test, I'm not sure that I would spend money to see a LLMD. On the other hand, if I had symptoms of Lyme, I would definitely want to be treated for it before it got severe and in that case, a LLMD is the way to go.

Also, I do not know if anxiety is causing this all for me.

Hi Jon - I was able to get to the picture but it was too small to read even if I magnified it. On the Western blot you have the IgG (antibodies for exposure) and IgM (antibodies indicating an active infection). I'm not sure if it's the same for igenex and whatever lab you used, but for the tests I've had done (through igenex) you need 5 of the starred bands to be positive, and the more plus signs, the more reactive it is.

Like Summer said, though, even though we're sort of trained to believe a test is either positive or negative, they're really not the be all and end all of diagnosis. It's just like anything else in life - proof is nice and makes things easier, but your LLMD will (or at least should) make a diagnosis clinically (not just relying on tests).

Lyme affects everyone differently - while it does seem to be more common for people to report fatigue, it's not exactly a requirement. It sounds like you're pretty active - that plays a huge roll in all of this; how sick you get, and how quickly it progresses has a lot to do with your overall health before getting infected. I'd look into the coinfection bartonella, as well - definitely bring up the anxiety to your LLMD. There's a lot of overlap between bartonella and neurological lyme - I have a lot of the same symptoms you mentioned in your original post. To me it does sound very much like tick-borne illness - I really hope you get some insight from the LLMD - hang in there until then! Best of luck!

I'm not really sure about the technical terms when it comes to heart symptoms - all the standard tests have always been normal, but I get episodes of my heart racing, pounding, etc., and I'm pretty sure I have some randomly irregular beats. It's usually during episodes that I call physical panic attacks, because it's all the physical symptoms of a panic attack but without any anxious thoughts or any kind of mental component (until, of course, I start freaking out that I'm having a heart attack!).