Hi Avid4life!
Welcome to our little community!!!
As Springsjean has already said, testing isn't all that it's cracked up to be for these diseases! There are many reasons why you may not be testing positive for Lyme and Babesia though. The tests only look at 4 or 5 of the 100 strains of Lyme, plus the immune system can be fooled into not recognizing the bacteria as it can change it's surface proteins.
As for the Babesia, one very well known LLMD (Dr. James Schaller) has stated "No blood smear will be positive for Babesia unless you have a profoundly massive number of infected red blood cells, which is rare. Therefore, no blood smear should be considered negative unless it has been examined for thirty minutes.
www.personalconsult.com/posts/babesia-checklist.html I was on very strong antibiotics for a full 12 months before I tested positive for any of the tick-borne infections! The most knowledgeable LLMD's will treat based on symptoms, not on a faulty test!
If you haven't already, it would be helpful for you to start with reading through the thread at the top of the forum titled,
"New to Lyme?...Start here!!", as it is packed full of important information, symptom lists (as Lyme rarely occurs by itself), helpful links and pdf's, how to detox when one has these infections, and a list of questions that you can ask any doctor that you are seeking treatment from!
We also have a pretty good search function on this forum to help you narrow down your search for information from past posts. We must be our own health advocates now and the best thing to arm yourself with is knowledge about
our infections and the different ways to treat them!
I've lived with those incredibly tight muscles for a long time, as well as muscle cramps and twitches (I was infected for 37 years before I was ever diagnosed) - my acupuncture therapist has bent needles while trying to insert them in my back/neck! LOL!!
In the "New to Lyme?" thread, you will find symptom lists and you will see that lots of muscle issues are indicative of Lyme.
The fact that things got worse when you started your abx actually confirms your Lyme infection! It's known as a herx and happens because when taking any kind of abx - natural or pharmaceutical - the bacteria put off toxins as they die, which can and will overwhelm the body, making healing slow or even stop all together. For some people, herxing can be severe enough to be life threatening. Detoxing is the key to surviving the die off though. We have some great suggestions for detoxing listed in the "New to Lyme?" thread!