That is great that he's seeing him first-thing. He's taking this seriously, too or at least taking your concerns seriously.
I see a typical bullseye center in the 2nd photo so I'm not sure what you're seeing - it doesn't have to be a literal bulls eye. relatively clear center (or a red area for the bite then a white clearing and a reddish ring around that is representative of the immune response or an EM.
OK - here's the crash course about
Lyme testing if MD or insurance Co. is going to insist on testing - you can do a "DNA Connexions" urine test on your own w/out MD's order for $500 (order it online) takes a few wks but MD and/or insurance might not honor it.
For the official testing - here are the cliff notes:
First,
the only CDC-approved Lyme tests are serology tests, which measure immune response to microbe, not the presence of microbes. But the Borrelia microbe has the capacity to disable the immune system - some of the sickest people end up with false negatives because their immune systems aren't functioning. This is one reason why the WB Lyme tests are about
50% accurate.
Another reason is the
CDC testing guidelines are designed as "surveillance data" to measure disease trends, not to be used solely to diagnose but in conjunction w/ clinical evaluation. MDs often misunderstand or know how to clinically diagnose- a good MD will know how to clinically diagnose. Buried at the very bottom of the CDC's webpage is their recommendation that LD be a clinical diagnosis... took me 15 minutes to find after having been all over this CDC website for 2 wks:
www.cdc.gov/lyme/healthcare/index.htmlA third reason for the unreliable tests is the CDC requires a two-tiered approach that tells MDs to first administer an ELISA test. But this is a very unspecific test that will only indicate if his immune system is fighting something, not if that something is Lyme. The CDC tells MDs that only if the ELISA is positive, then test with the Western Blot to see if it's Lyme. Lyme specialist generally ignore this and either start with the WB or administer the WB even if the ELISA is negative.
And another reason why the tests are inaccurate is that
the CDC's interpretation methodology is also strict for surveillance purposes (requiring a minimum number of specific IgG and IgM bands) and MDs don't understand how to correctly interpret results. You can share this with him as well - all you need is one Borrelia-specific band. It's like being kinda pregnant vs pregnant.
lymetwistontherocks.blogspot.com/2011/01/western-blots-what-do-all-of-those-darn.htmlPush for ONLY IgeneX Western Blot. The IGeneX is superior to a regular WB for these reasons:
IGeneX processes over 20,000 Lyme tests a year, and can adhere to a more specialized structure than the CDC regulations. IGeneX includes band 31 in their testing, and also offers 30-31kDa confirmation-these bands are often positive due to cross-reactivity with other viruses, and IGeneX uses highly specific recombination antigens to validate results. In addition, IgG needs only 2 bands present (instead of 5), and the IgM needs 2 (like the Western Blot).
Here are 22 Reasons tests are only 50% accurate - you can share w/ your MD:
whatislyme.com/22-reasons-why-your-lyme-test-may-be-wrong/Tell your MD that you don't have time or money to spend on tests and a process that isn't geared toward optimal diagnosis that will help get him treatment ASAP.
Please let us know if any of that is unclear. You don't need to understand it thoroughly, as long as he does or at least respects that there is more to the discovery than a blood test and a "false" or "positive". Again, this is really only if he's not on board w/ EM dx.
-p
Post Edited (Pirouette) : 5/17/2017 4:48:34 PM (GMT-6)