3 years no relapse you are in the clear?

I just read in the stickies from one of the lectures that if you haven't relapsed in 3 years, then you never will. I was surprised to read that. I had lyme in my early 20's that was never came out positive in the bloodwork but responded very well to doxycycline. 17 years later I have been dealing with a progression of symptoms that is reminiscent of lyme but add the neuro symptoms. I am still waiting for Igenex results but I thought since I have been a citydweller most of my adult life and have limited exposure to grass, that the likelihood of reinfection was low (especially since symptoms started in the middle of the winter) and rather that this was a reinfection of something that occurred in my 20's. Anybody have thoughts on this?

I agree with Marie - so many other insects have been documented as infecting people with Lyme. No one certainly has to have ever laid a foot on grass their entire life, and can still have these infections - all it takes is one mosquito or biting fly to get it.

And it's hard to know for sure which of the over 100 strains that have been proven to cause human illness a person has been infected with if they haven't ever tested positive. I assume that I have had several different strains (after being infected and untreated for over 40 yrs), yet I got reinfected last summer - 2 years after I had completely healed.

We will have to have greatly improved testing before I believe that we will know the answer to that for sure. Just because they can show these things in a lab, under highly controlled circumstances, surely doesn't mean that's how it works out in the world.