Antibiotics affect test results?

Hi I am new to the site. I have not yet received a diagnosis. I am certain that I have lyme disease. I was bit a few months ago and have all of the symptoms you all talk about. My worst is the severe pain in my back and hips. Tingling in my legs arms and feet. Dizzyness. I have had ct scans mri's you name it all normal. I finally found a LLMD but appointment is not for several weeks. I took it upon myself to be proactive and called IGENEX and ordered a test kit which I just received today in the mail. My regular Dr is helping me with drawing the blood ext.. He knows nothing about the disease but has been helpful. He put me on a round of doxy which I finished 2 weeks ago. I seemed to be feeling a little better but just a few days after stopping them started to feel horrible. couldnt leave the bedroom for two days. He put me back on them last week and slowly getting a little better again. I am trying to find out if these antibiotics will affect my test results? Thanks for any in put!

Thanks I did and they said they recommend three weeks for the complete lyme test. It can affect the pcr. This sucks because I know I will get really sick once I quit taking them.

Wow, Justinj, I made the same call today. I just posted elsewhere here about starting on doxy (yesterday) for three weeks then going off for two for the test (they told me two weeks). Anyway, I have already noticed my headaches easing up and was hopeful the doxy will help for awhile, but after reading your post I'm not looking forward to going off for the test.

If it is an antibody test that you are going for then antibiotics may actually help, but they definitely would not hinder a result.

For whatever it's worth, I continually read that Lyme is a clinical diagnosis (based upon symptoms). That's what Dr. Burrascano says, that's what my ILADS-trained LLMD has repeatedly told me.

You got bit by a tick and have classic Lyme symptoms. You're going to see a LLMD (hopefully trained by ILADS). It will be OK.