Need Advice - Band 41

I believe band 41 is usually gut related. 41 band is flagellin protein.It means the body is making antibodies against the spirochetes. But the spirochetes could be from a number of different ailments, dental included. I am thinking the vaccine activated your sons immune system so it was fighting back whether it was to the vaccine or the bite. Seems like this was all caught fairly early, so hopefully the amoxi will do the job. Just remember if you test later for lyme it is likely the 41 band will still show up on the IgG for a while. As long as your son isn't symptomatic there may not be a need to retest too soon, it may not give you answers.

kyo-you could treat longer and then retest. The purpose of retesting would be to see if the antibiotics got his immune system fighting and more antibodies showed on the second test. Even if your Dr won't extend your rx see if he will retest after 3 weeks.

Lyme disease loves the mouth as well - and since Borrelia (of which Lyme is a strain of) is one of the few spirochetes, assume that it's Lyme. I know that my dental health has been heavily impacted by my infections- and I still have issues today.

Never underestimate where these bacteria can get to and the amount of damage they can cause, given enough time.

As Goingjag pointed out, 3 weeks of ammoxicillin isn't enough. First of all, it would have to be a very recent infection, and ammox needs to be combined with probenecid in order to stay in the blood stream long enough to be effective against the Lyme bacteria.

And I agree that the evils of Lyme far outweigh the 'evils' of being on abx. I was first infected at the age of 7, but didn't get effective treatments until the age of 47. It will suck the life out of a person's life, believe me!!

The probenecid holds the ammox in the blood stream longer. And yes, it can be used in children above the age of 2: www.drugs.com/cons/probenecid.html

"Probenecid has been tested in children 2 to 14 years of age for use together with antibiotics. It has not been shown to cause different side effects or problems than it does in adults."

Astragalus is a good choice, but not just for treatment, for yearly protection as well! I live in Arkansas, and I stay on astragalus all year long to make sure that I never have to live through another infection. I've had enough of them.

IgG happens when the immune system is overwhelmed - which can take years, or weeks according to what I've read.

"Also, I know I am also worried about the fact that possibly I had this when I had my kids. If that was the case, would he have made antibodies to more bands? "

Not necessarily - again, it all depends on the strength of the immune function. He could have been weighed down with most any other thing, and the Lyme got ahead of his immune function, so it can no longer make antibodies to it. That's fairly common in the adults that believe they have been ill for a while - and it happened to me.

Remember, the Lyme bacteria inhibits the immune function, so it can't make antibodies to the bacteria. That's why there was a campaign for a few years to "Treat the Bite" - as you can't be too careful with these infections. They are very hard to detect and the devastation to a person's life can be really bad.

Hey kyo07,

I'm not trying to follow you around, it's just that here again something I have come across in my studying about Brucellosis stands out to me.

I'm not very well-versed in the meaning of each band of the western blot, but I have looked extensively into Brucellosis and have come across info that shows correlation between band 41 and brucellosis. I even printed this article out (along with one about band 31 and brucellosis) and showed it to my doctor.

I don't know if it proves anything about anyone's WB results, but it may be information to take into consideration.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16817909

I have Horowitz book on my kindle. I will try to locate the page and show it to pediatrician. If I have evidence then I feel she will be more likely be open to it. I was also thinking of asking her if we should just treat until lymph nodes go down. I don't know if that is a good strategy or not, but in my mind it would be the infection is gone. Strangely one day they are a bit better and then the next they swell back up.

I just talked to pediatrician and she is willing to do 5 wks. He was also positive on band 66. These were both IGG nothing on IGM. Not sure why she didn't tell me that the first time.

I am able to get into a pediatric Lyme Doc in the next few weeks. Because he is not very symptomatic, I am not sure if I should wait or not. Or, is it better to treat before he's symptomatic?

Interesting update on Band 41. Through Labcorp western blot, my son had IGG 41, 66. My daughters also tested as follows:
Daughter 2 IGG 41, 58 (and strangely had positive IGM value 1.33 but NO IGM bands on blot)
Daughter 3 IGG 41

They have exact same bands as me except I also have 31 and 39 IND. Those wouldn't show up on Labcorp.

I know Labcorp is not sensitive. However, this leads me to believe either 1) healthy people show 41 and it's likely some other bacteria or 2) Our whole family has Lyme. On Dr. Jones Kids website it says when band 41 shows alone, think E. Coli.

My pregnancies were not difficult like those I have read about on here. I carried all 3 full term and never had a miscarriage. All 3 kids are fairly healthy. They were not sickly as babies with ear infections, strep, etc. However, it is hard to tell what's normal or not. Daughter 2 is probably the healthiest but tends to get sports injuries a lot (broken wrist, hurt other wrist, hurt heal right now). Both girls have complained of "heart pain" before and pediatrician said it is likely muscles. Daughter #3 is sometimes shaky and has red,hot palms and feet. Liver function on CBC was ok. These could be normal things or not. Would like to hear your opinions on if I should:

-test with Igenex or try culture from Advanced Laboratory
-or, since nobody has glaring symptoms just wait and watch

Happyjo - I am kicking myself for letting them talk me into the vaccine. I just hope his body can repair the damage. I have upped his Vitamin C intake and have him taking detox baths. What else can I do to help him? Unfortunately he is having some days where he is having trouble sleeping now.

I hate that there is no definitive answer! Especially when my kids are involved. I will, however, not let it go until I feel I have a good enough answer. You can rest assured Traveler that I will not turn a blind eye. Which means, more testing at this point. I don't want to jump into treating with only these bands on Labcorp WB. Has anyone had experience with Advanced Laboratories and the culture test? I can do Igenex, but I really want the most accurate testing possible for them. Then I also have to find a doctor to order it.

YES vaccines can and DO activate the entire immune response to any and/or all dormant infections!!! In fact, there's current bio-research linking vaccines VIA virus to CAUSING gene mutations, which can inhibit effective treatments!!! Read the book, 'The virus within'

It's what happened to me = I contracted Lyme in June of 2004(unknowingly)....then in September of 2005, I 're-did' all my childhood vaccines(to prepare for overseas move) and added in the 'then New' hep-b series...

My first symptoms were severe vertigo, severe stomach pain that was diagnosed as GERD but no pharmaceuticals helped, bouts of sinus pain,and migraines diagnosed as being caused by allergies(IGm allergy tests later were negative). I moved overseas in Oct of 2005, & up until 2014 I was told symptoms were stress, anxiety, allergies, sinusitis, & GERD.

If you'd like to know more about the dangers of vaccines, Watch YouTube videos of Dr. TENT! He's kinda a goof, but just listen to his historical account on how disease was eradicated by modern plumbing, well ventilated clean, dry, housing, and water treatment system, oh and of course modern scientific discoveries of pathogens.
Another good source for vaccine awareness is Dr.Garth Nicholsen, who PROVED that 5% of vaccines get contaminated sometime between harvesting the pathogen, manufacturing of the vaccine, and then storage & distribution!!! He's famous for discovering the causal link of Gulf-war syndrome to vaccines!

Kyo, I would not put much stock in the results from the dogs testing negative for Lyme.

When I was waiting for my results from Igenex, my dog came into the house and I saw her scratching. While I watched, something flew through the air and I flipped out when I found out it was a tick.

Like Traveler, I have been sick most of my life and it does suck everything out of your life. I was in my teens and my kids are 16 and 23. My 16 year old son is symptomatic. Our pediatrician agreed that if I tested positive, then he should be tested.

Back to the dog. So I called my vet the next day and left a message asking to speak with regarding tick prevention. I could not handle the thought that she could bring ticks into the house. He called and we talked for a long time. He was very interested in knowing about the latest info about Lyme testing for humans. He said that he tracks the human cases because wherever you see people with Lyme there are always dogs with Lyme.

He said that for dogs they use the same type of two tiered testing as the tests for people (ELISA/WB) and he has suspected for a long time that the screening test (dog ELISA) was missing a lot of real cases. Dogs would test negative and then later on would have chronic pain type symptoms (along with other chronic problems). Now I'm pretty sure that my first dog was infected. He had a bite, I removed the tick, there was a quarter sized red raised rash and we had him tested, but it came back negative.

So even if your dogs test negative, especially if they tested negative on the screening that does not mean they are clean for Lyme. I would ask your vet if they ran only the screening test or the more specific test (equivalent of the WB).

Vaccines. I rarely discuss this because it is so controversial. The vaccines are designed to introduce into your body a small number of dead cells to rev your immune system up to produce antibodies so that if exposed to the live organism it will be able to fight it off. Pediatricians tend to be a conservative group and don't adopt new vaccines unless there is a lot of evidence that they are safe. They only adopt the use of vaccines if the organism can do serious damage.

Most of us are to young to know the damage that can be done by things like polio, or the mumps or the measles. They have been virtually eradicated. But we've all seen pictures or video of FDR. He's just one of a very small number of people who became disable or died from polio. All of us know about the outbreak of measles that started at Disneyland recently. It was likely brought into the country by someone who lives in a country where vaccination is not required. They passed it on to people who were unvaccinated.

Meningitis is a very bad thing to have and it does kill. We are seeing pediatricians recommend it earlier and earlier because it it being passed to younger and younger kids. My son just got the vaccine. I don't want him to get it and possibly give to someone else. I understand your concerns, but getting the diseases can be worse than the vaccine.

I like you had symptoms when I was pregnant with my kids. My pregnancies were fine with exception that I had lots of allergic reactions. I never had any miscarriages that I know of. My daughter was 7#13oz and my son was 10#2oz, so they were born very robust. Both kids had chronic ear infections, chronic strep and also lost lots of ground on the growth chart. Both ended up below zero, but that could have been the ADHD medication's effect on appetite. Each had issues with puberty. My daughter ended up having a thyroid problem and my son growth hormone.

As I said, my son is symptomatic and we are going to address it. My daughter (who is 23) has no symptoms at all, but from 10 months to 3 years she was on antibiotics prophylactic for the ear infections so its possible that the Lyme would have been put into remission.

Get your kids tested. It's the best thing you can do for them.

Just my two cents,
Kim

There are a group of people who don't have a choice about being vaccinated. They are either too young or immune compromised and for them someone else's choice not to vaccinate is a life or death decision. I had a friend who's son had childhood leukemia. She could not bring him anywhere in public, even the grocery store. How many times have we seen a parent with a sick kid in the grocery store. It used to happen all the time with chicken pox (now there is a vaccine). People would even intentionally expose their child to someone they knew was sick so they could pick the time their child got sick. But for my friend, even chicken pox could be a death sentence for her son.

We've all heard of the controversy about vaccines causing Autism. If you read the stories of some of the moms here, many have children have been diagnosed with ADHD and/or Autism Spectrum Disorders. Some have seen the symptoms associated with those condition, either improve or disappear (rowing mom's K comes to mind). My son has been diagnosed with both.

I'm sure that when his tests come back they will be positive. I have been sick for 35 years and had full blown symptoms when I was pregnant with both kids. about 15 years ago I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and just recently had good reason to look into Lyme. My test came back positive for both CDC and Igenex. I chose not to have my doctor run the test that goes to Labcorp because I didn't want to have a negative test on my record.

I have high hopes that we will treat him and a lot of the symptoms will go away. He has fine motor deficits that make it impossible for him to write much more than a sentence. After talking to others on the forum, it is possible that the deficits will go away.

I'm also a person who usually gets "the flu" when I get the flu shot. Now I know that its the result of my immune system going into high gear. Before I had the Igenex test, someone recommended that I take Olive Leaf for a month to kick up my immune system and force my body to form antibodies to the Lyme. It kicked me off my butt. I was completely slammed and other viruses popped up because the Lyme was not top dog. I had a fever blister start and it was the worst I've had. I had not had a fever blister in something like 6 years. But when my immune system started attacking the Lyme, it stirred everything up and there was a fight to see who would takes its place.

T