IGeneX Test Results

Hi everyone,

I recently joined this forum and have made a couple of posts about what I have been experiencing in regard to my health lately and have suspected Lyme disease as of late because I've ruled out most other potential causes.

Here is my original post about my symptoms and timeline:
https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=4312929

I just received my results for the Lyme ImmunoBlot IgM and Lyme ImmunoBlot IgG tests from IGeneX.

IgM Results:

VIEW IMAGE

IgG Results:

VIEW IMAGE

I would really really appreciate some help in interpreting the results based on my symptoms/timeline/etc (or just in general). My personal interpretation is that I was not recently infected by Lyme's disease, but I have had it in the past (apparently without knowing it) and it has been dormant until being recently activated for whatever reason and causing my new symptoms.

Potential triggers: Tetanus vaccine, flu vaccine, heavy metal toxicity (recently had my 1 amalgam filling removed safely), mold, ... something else, idk.

Let me know your thoughts. Thank you so much!

I couldn’t view your test results.
Could you try again?

Garzie - you can see the IgM?

DanglaGT said...
Really? They are both working for me.

Can you try these ones?

https://ibb.co/m6rr0dk
https://ibb.co/qpzr2nk

Otherwise, is there a better way to post links/attachments on this forum? I just found a free image host.

The links are working now.
You have Lyme “specific “ bands showing up.
It certainly backs up your symptoms of lyme and CO’s.

“I wonder what it means that the IgM test has 2 bands that are IND (indeterminate). I suppose those could technically be positive as well, but for whatever reason, the test couldn't determine it.”

It means something showed up but not enough to be a positive.

You have enough on that test result to back up a clinical diagnosis for Lyme disease.

that's a clear positive result

the IgM early / IgG late rules of thumb do not apply to lyme and other chronic infections for a variety of reasons - as i think i mentioned in your last thread

getting some bands positive and some negative or IND is pretty normal for people here -many people have chronic lyme and do not light up all the bands for even Igenex positive

there are also many other species of atypical spirochetes that do not show up well on even the igenex tests - but still cause Lyme disease or lyme-like disease - eg Borrelia miyamotoi and Tick Borne Relapsing Fever

the CDC criteria for lyme thing is a nonsense - it is designed for disease surveillance purposes and the CDC specifically says that it i not supposed to be used for clinical diagnosis. i have no idea why NYC still require that.

its is probably a moot point though as you are unlikely to get any conventional doctor to treat you properly for long standing lyme infection and will likely find the entire process extremely frustrating and waste valuable time. eg even if you have a totally unequivocal positive test incl an ELISA they will rarely if ever prescribe more than 28days of abx - which is v unlikely to do the job

other than its positive for lyme - i would not get too hung up on the meaning of the test - and therefore move forwards with treatment.

many people have recovered with herbs - but probably more with antibiotics

personally I would not worry too much about the abx - we are told all sorts of stuff about how bad they are for our gut etc - but lyme is really bad for your gut too - and mine actually improved after abx.

a lot depends on how ill you are and how much time you feel you have to get on top of the illness

perhaps if you are pretty functional - you could try herbs and see how you get on
if you are more sick and concerned about back sliding - you may well be better finding a LLMD and get treated with ABX

Yes, I am very functional at the moment.

I have mild sensory neuropathy in my legs, constant muscle twitching, joint pain that maybe feels like arthritis or something, and phantom pains in various parts of the body. It's mostly manageable pain and annoying symptoms, but I can still function perfectly fine (and people probably don't believe I'm not feeling well).

I think I like the idea of trying herbs and a holistic approach to see if that helps and then consider ABX if I'm not seeing the progress I would like to see. My main hesitation with ABX is that I have Vitiligo (in hindsight, I wonder if that's related to Lyme at all) in some parts of my body and I'm worried that ABX would cause it to spread (potentially to my face).

Decisions, decisions...

Very cool! I am fortunate that my skin is pretty pale (live in MN) and mine is pretty mild so far. So, most people don’t know I have it unless they look at my hands when I’m tan in the summer.

Given that I have constant muscle twitching as a symptom, I probably have bartonella too.

Honestly, ABX probably doesn't make it worse/spread. I took ABX for a sinus infection in December of 2021 and the following Spring I noticed a new spot on my wrist after it was pretty stable for a while. It could have been a coincidence and it's been a while since I've researched it because it's been pretty stable since I made lifestyle changes and whatnot. Don't take my word for it!

I'm just finishing up the book, "Unlocking Lyme" by Dr. Rawls and will probably read the Buhner one next. I appreciate the recommendations! I will probably self-treat until I can afford and/or find a Lyme specialist to help me out.

Before my test results came back, I actually started treating it as Lyme because I had basically ruled everything else out. It's early on, but it seems like it has helped my joint pain a little bit already at least. Here's what I'm doing:

* Samsara Tick Immune Support from Amazon
* Monolaurin from Double Wood. Will probably upgrade to Lauricidian or w/e after this bottle.
* Omega 3, Vit D, Vit C, Vit E, B-Complex
* Probiotics
* Milk Thistle
* N-A-C
* Glycine
* Taurine
* Was taking Magnesium, but heard that could make Lyme symptoms worse for some.
* Reverse Osmosis water filter with remineralization cartridge
* Air purifier's in home
* Healthy eating
* Daily fruit/veggie smoothies
* Almost daily sauna
* Exercise (walks outside or indoor bicycle)
* Dabbling in essential oils
* Trying to get enough sleep

That is my current dilemma. I'm not sure if my symptoms were due to a recent tick bite or if I've had it for a long time and my immune system had been keeping it in check. I didn't have any "known" tick bites recently, but I do live in Minnesota and golf a lot (walking through long grass to search for my ball), and I have never really checked myself for ticks (that's going to change). I also have an English Bulldog that likes to snuggle and could be harboring ticks and go up north to cabins a lot in the summer.

So, I very well could have been infected recently and just didn't know it. Based on my limited research, it sounds like the IGM antibodies are present for like 4-6 weeks maybe, and being that I didn't have any known tick bites, the process of elimination for other causes of my symptoms lasted longer than that before I finally decided to get tested for Lyme.

I did talk to my mom about it and she said that when we were kids, she had pulled ticks off of all of the kids at some point or another. I don't think I ever had the bullseye rash and was treated for Lyme when I was a kid, but pretty sure my sister did.

It is my understanding that antibiotics are only effective in the early stages of Lyme, so I'm torn if I should do a ~30-day course of Doxycycline or not. I suppose that it's probably worth a shot, right?

Yes, I have been reading the responses to my mold post and I've been meaning to respond, but I haven't gotten around to it because work has been busy (my Lyme test results have now taken a priority over work, lol). I will respond to that post today, but I've been living in this house since July of 2021. I don't think those spots in the garage are mold as I did a Q-tip bleach test on them and they didn't change color at all. Someone in the other post said that it could be spray paint and I think they are right. I recently bought an air purifier for my house and in all the rooms that I spend time in, the air quality is consistently near 100%, unless we are cooking or my wife has been using hairspray/perfume/cleaning products. I feel like if mold was the major culprit, the mold spores in the air would be much more prevalent and the air quality would be lower. I know that's probably not the best test/indication, but it gives me a little bit of peace of mind in regards to mold.

Post Edited (DanglaGT) : 2/10/2023 6:38:17 AM (GMT-8)

@girlie, how long did you take antibiotics?

In other news, this morning I took a shower upstairs and then came downstairs to find water leaking through the ceiling right below the shower. So, maybe mold is part of the problem...

DanglaGT said...
@girlie, how long did you take antibiotics?

In other news, this morning I took a shower upstairs and then came downstairs to find water leaking through the ceiling right below the shower. So, maybe mold is part of the problem...

Grab a seat, this will take awhile.. lol

My timeline:

2013 - Woke up from a nap in excruciating pain - and my left arm was limp and in excruciating pain - level of pain I had never experienced.
My husband took me to the ER.
Was given strong pain killers that only took the edge off and made me “loopy”


Over the next several months I kept getting more and more symptoms - from head to toe: Weakness, flaccid muscles in arms and legs, weight loss (skin and bone) short term memory loss, muscle fascitulations (all over my body - biceps, triceps, legs, etc, waking up every couple of hours in the night gasping for air, pulsatile tinnitus (swooshing sound in my ears), sore feet - felt like I was walking on rocks.. etc etc

A year of testing with my doctor - nothing came up (tested autoimmune conditions, and everything she could think of.)
She tested me for Lyme - negative. We didn’t know that the Canadian Lyme test was useless.

A Naturopath suggested the Igenex Lyme test .
It was positive.

That was in 2014.
Treated with the ND in my Province - for a couple years - but I plateaued.
He was licenced to treat Lyme and Bart but not legally able to prescribe Mepron.

Still had some symptoms. I wondered if not treating Babesia was holding me back from healing.
I saw a video (Under my Skin) and I talked to my husband about DrJ and I wish I could go there but it’s too expensive.
He said “let’s go”.

I started with Dr J in 2018.
Treated with him for just over one year - Babesia for a few months and then Bartonella/Persisters (the Bartonella treatment was rough on me) and I think it was 8 months long. It was scheduled to be 6 months but at the end of six months Dr J and I decided to do two more months.
After that , I have been on “Maintenance “ since.
I am now stretching the weeks off. (Dr J treats with a pulsed schedule ) -
Maintenance started as one week on three off.
Then after awhile , one week on, four weeks off.
Keep stretching the weeks off.


I’m now at 25 weeks off and I haven’t had a flare.

I am planning to do a week on abx and see if I herx.
I’ve been planning this for awhile….

DanglaGT said...
Wow! Do you still have muscle fasciculations or has that symptom gone away? And when you say "treated," do you mean with ABX among other things (like herbs)? Thanks for sharing your story. We have a couple of overlapping symptoms, but yours sound a little worse! I hope you can get off ABX without issues soon!

No more fascitulations - completely gone.
Treatment mostly abx but a few herbs - he had me on Cryptolepis and Enula when doing the Bartonella/Persisters protocol