Cant afford testing..

Hi Yugomama - welcome to our community.

I'm sorry but it looks like you do have lyme disease (engorged tick, followed by multi-systemic symptoms).
Since lyme rarely travels alone, it is likely that you do have Babesia and/or Bartonella coinfections.

I'm Canadian, so I can't offer suggestions for financial assistance.
There are some resources for prescription med help - in our "New to Lyme?..Start Here!"
Take a look in there - the thread has a ton of other useful information as well.

You asked about herbals. Not everyone chooses to treat with antibiotics. There are several popular herbal protocols that people on this forum are following.

You should ask your Dr. to test you for lyme - with whatever your insurance will cover. If you get a negative result...then you can re-test with one of the facilities that specialize in tick-borne disease testing
One lab is Igenex Lab in California. (You call them and they will send you a test kit)
Maybe your insurance will cover that testing as well.
You can get a Lyme WB IgM and IgG for $250 total with Igenex.

Please any questions that you have. This is a knowledgeable and supportive group here. We'll help you through this.

Hi and welcome to our forum ,

Sorry you are facing this but I would try this website for financial help, it does list Lymetap but also many other links that may be helpful .

/lymelightfoundation.org/about-lyme/resources-adults-lyme-disease/


Yes herbals have helped many. Remember we all are different and it can take different approaches and combinations sometimes to heal.

Many use ABX and Herbals.

There are good books out there: Buhner's "Healing Lyme" 2nd edition, "Unlocking Lyme" by Dr. W R
and others.

If you get a chance check out our"New to Lyme" thread at the top of the page.

It has very important and useful information to help you on your way to getting better.


Take care and I wish you the best of healing, Jo

Welcome Yugomama. I had lyme. I was given antibiotics while waiting for my test to come back. My lyme literate medical doctor did not think the test was a sufficient enough positive. I moved on to the next lyme literate medical doctor. I was sick from the antibiotics so I asked him for herbs.

He gave me Beyond Balance MC-BB-1 and Tox Ease GL. I started out with just one drop and moved up in those quickly and in a very short time I was feeling better.

I figured if I could feel better with that, maybe adding in more herbs and I could heal???? So I started on Buhner's herbal protocol.

I had not had lyme for very long. I think this really makes a difference in healing time.

I was a huge detoxing person before I knew you should do that because of lyme. I did it for my innards on a regular basis for years. Another huge plus in my favor.

I am a perfectionist and stuck to my protocol to a T. Again, another huge plus for me.

I healed comparatively fast. I estimate my cost of tinctures was about $3,000. I had many herbs leftover that my husband then used to treat. This amount does not include vitamins and supplements.

All the while both of us did Stephen Buhner's core protocol from his book, Healing Lyme, 2nd Ed. We did not do his protocol that is on is website which is only 3 herbs.

And, we did Beyond Balance throughout our treatment.

He is healed also. In June it will be 2 years of no more herbs. March will be 2 years symptom free. Hubby is almost a year healed.

edited for a typo

Yugo - sorry to hear all of that. I and many others here can relate to much of what you've been going through. I can only second some of what's been said already about testing, I am not an expert. But it's not a simple, clear-cut matter. Most of the Lyme patient and "Lyme-literate" medical community seems to agree that the Western blot test is the better one to get.

My own tests have come up negative a couple of times, with the Igenex WB finally showing some bands but not "CDC Positive". (CDC positive is a certain minimum threshold / combination of the sub-tests / bands on the Western blot, to be considered Lyme positive.) But numbers of folks will tell you that almost any positive on that means you're infected (though some bands may cross-react with other issues, IIRC). Mine was a couple of positives and an "indeterminate", my doc told me if it was just a little more it would have been CDC positive. Which whole thing is weird because even the CDC says that Lyme is clinically diagnosed - signs, symptoms and history. As Girlie mentioned, you have those.

But even a "mainstream-accepted" diagnosis doesn't necessarily help :-(. I don't know about financial help either, I may need to learn about that myself soon.

bluelyme - I am intrigued by your comment - can you elaborate on what / how to see it under a microscope? Are you referring to any particular protocol / stain etc? Or literally just looking? I know I had a microscope test that showed biofilms or something similar, but it was with some special DNA-highlighting stain or somesuch. Any tips on whom to find / where to go?

Hang in there!