New...Please explain false negatives...I HAVE to have Lyme, but doc says no.

I have never been so sick or so frustrated in my life. I have hosted numerous symptoms for lyme, live in a tick infested are, live on a farm, have actually found a tick on me, my dog and in my bed, have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia but know it's not that and am now actually experiencing some muscle atrophy. I am becoming weaker by the day and don't know what to do. Quick symptoms: headache, eye pain, muscle aches, white film on tongue, tremors, burning sensation in feet that spread to whole body at times, weak fingers, muscle twitching, intolerance to noise, body jerks, knee pain, buzzing and tingling sensations throughout body, feeling of heaviness in legs and lower back, depression/anxiety, neck pain....

So I just got results of blood testing...negative. Here were the written results that I got:

LYME IGG/IGM AB VALUE 0.02 <0.91 INDEX
LYME G/M COMMENT Lyme screen negative,per CDC guidelines Western blot testing not performed.

According to this test, I an extremely well below whatever it is that that they're testing for, yet I just know in my heart that I have lyme. How can the reading be so low and it still be possible for me to have lyme?

What steps can I take from here? I don't know how much more of this I can take. Honestly. Thank you so much for your responses in advance. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about this.

Hi Hazel,

Unfortunately as you will find on this site. Doctors blow. Very few folks on here have gotten a positive labcorp or quest test, myself included. I actually had a confirmed EM rash w/ deer tick bite and never tested positive through these agencies. I work in research and do western blots and elisas so I am very well versed on them and realize that physicians are arrogant in their reasoning on these tests when they obviously do not understand them at all.

The tests pick up on antibodies in your body. However, if your immune system is overwhelmed or suppressed which is more common then not with lyme...YOU WILL NOT PRODUCE ANTIBODIES...or not enough to be picked up on a test....so if you aren't producing antibodies...how can the test be accurate...? It can't. False negatives are very common. False positives would be extremely rare despite what blasphemous non-academic and non science based word physicians are spreading.

I'm sorry to hear all the trouble you are going through. You will have to go to a lyme literate medical doctor that is Ilads trained and get a test through Igenex. I would recommend you start a new thread, " Looking for an LLMD in ________" to get you started. My doctor gets a lot of amish farm folk for lyme.

There are also a lot of affordable things you can try in the meantime, herbs, detoxing and healthy diet. Ask lots of questions!

~beth

The Lyme screening test misses more than 50% of cases...very, very inaccurate. Need to consult LLMD or LLND for proper testing & diagnosis.

Hazelbird, The Lyme test currently in use in the United States is based on ONE strain of the Lyme disease. There are 300 strains. On top of that, the one strain that the test is based on was pulled from the gut of a tick and not from a human being so you can see how inaccurate the test can be.

I have heard of some success in taking the Lyme test after being on antibiotics for two weeks. The dead Lyme protein/toxins are "floating" in your blood and so your chances of testing positive are increased. You also need to be tested for co-infections such as babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, bartonella, mycoplasma, STARI, and tularemia. It is possible to have one of these infections without having the Lyme (borrelia burgdorferi) spirochete infection.

Lyme spirochetes are seldom seen in the blood. They hide in the brain, tendons, eye tissue, and so when a blood test is done, they most often don't find any Lyme spirochetes in it.

They also found that I have distorted neck disks and when I had a MRI with contrast done of my head, they found three tiny dots in my brain. My Neurolost called them "freckles" and said they were normal.

Please don't give up no matter what. When I first started feeling the symptoms, I was diagnosed as having Fibromyalgia. If I had accepted that diagnosis, I would have suffered unnecessarily and would have probably shortened my life span.

Post Edited (Healing98) : 7/26/2013 1:01:23 PM (GMT-6)

Thanks everyone for your responses!!! You have all been very helpful.