Igenex questions

I may be doing Igenex testing and have several questions.

Do you guys recommend I take an antibiotic or herbal provoking agent before having blood drawn for tests in order to increase the chance of positive test results? [My LLMD did not mention this.]

How sensitive are the co-infection tests at Igenex? [My LLMD said about tests for co-infections: “I do not usually order them because of the cost and the number of positives (few) that I have seen.” But she confused me since in an earlier email she wrote: “Doing the Lyme western blot, babesia microti and duncani tests would be good as well as the bartonella tests.”]

Background: I’ve been sick since May 2014. At NO point during my illness have I taken any antibiotics. In mid April, a LLMD clinically diagnosed me with MSIDS and put me on Cowden and Biobody PC Liquid.

Noteworthy blood test results:

LabCorp:
ELISA and Western Blot - negative (only band IgG 41 present)
CD57 - 26 - Low
TGF-b1 - 2660 - High
DHEA-Sulfate - 58.5 - Low
All LabCorp co-infection tests - negative.

Quest:
C4a - 6983 - High

I'm now on day 38 of Cowden and have seen some improvement in my energy and function level, so that now I'm at about 25%-35% of my former active, pain-free self.

My LLMD believes Babesia and/or Bartonella are key problems for me, particularly since my primary symptom for the first 8 months was severe headache. Since Cowden has been somewhat helpful, we are planning to continue Cowden for the second month. After that time, I would begin a rotating course of antibiotics to better address suspected co-infections.

Last week, an infectious disease doctor pronounced that I do NOT have Lyme, any co-infection, or any infectious disease. So, I'm kinda wanting more confirmation/clarity before going the antibiotic course.

But, I hate to waste money on additional tests that seem to have a good chance of false negatives. I’m guessing that the only potential effect on my treatment plan of Igenex testing would be any identification of a co-infection. Otherwise, the only benefit is to hope for positive Lyme result for more peace of mind that I am on the right path.

Thank you guys for weighing in. Lisa

Yes, thanks for this, SLML. Mold has been raised as something to consider. I don't know whether I have the genetic type that you refer to. I DO know I have the MTHFR 1297 CC mutation, which I understand makes me worse at detoxing?

Labcorp is not a reliable lab for tick-borne infection testing, so don't worry about having had negatives from them. I had to be on strong abx (even for Lyme) for a full year before I tested positive through labcorp.

And that's a VERY typical response from an ID doc. They believe that Lyme is hard to catch and easy to treat.

The fact that you are seeing symptom relief using Cowden shows that you are on the right track. As for co-infections, your doc is right, the testing isn't good, even at Igenex.

I happen to feel that the best thing to do is to take a look at the symptom lists and see what symptoms you have that can be explained by what infections. Don't worry about how the symptoms overlap, when you find a symptom that does, mark down that you could have any of the infections that show that symptom. Then see how many symptoms you have for each infection identified. If you have more than 3 or 4, you need to consider that you could have that infection. Then you use the right protocol for each infection and watch for a response -if there is improvement in symptom severity, then you know that you have that infection and need to continue treatments.