I understood that you hadn't had a WB or the ELISA, but it would depend on which part of the protein was being picked up as to how accurate it would be. On the Western Blot, although not sensitive enough, will show if your body is producing antibodies to the part of Osp C that is specific for Lyme or not - as in badn 23 is OspC as is band 25, but only band 25 is specific for Borrelia Burgdorferi - the one strain of Lyme (out of 300 world wide) that everyone has chosen to focus on.
You're symptoms do seem to be in line with having Lyme disease, though. I would encourage you to take a look at the symptom lists and see if they describe your symptoms fairly well. You don't have to have all the symptoms to have Lyme, but if you find that you find a majority of your symptoms in the Lyme symptom lists, then the probability is pretty high.
If you don't have a LLMD to evaluate you, you will need to enable your email option in your profile in order to receive any recommendations, as we don't allow doctor's names and contact info to be posted on the forum for several reasons. You can enable your email option in your profile, under 'edit profile'. Be sure to click the submit button to actually save your preference.
You can send me an email by clicking on my screen name or the small blue envelope under my screen name. I may have contact information for some LLMD's in your area as well. Please include your state (or province) and area that you would like to find a LLMD in and I will see how close I can get to your
location.
You can start a new thread titled something like "Looking for LLMD in the
(insert the nearest larger city & state) area". Members can email you about
the LLMD's that they see in that area if you have your email enabled. We don't allow doctors names to be posted though.
You can email the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance at
[url]
[email protected] for LLMD referrals and you can go to
tbdalliance.org to learn more about
these infections.
You can go to The Lyme Disease Association and search for LLMD's 3 times in a month. You have to register first. Here is the link:
www.lymediseaseassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=277&Itemid=74
ILADS has their own referral system as well:
ilads.org/ilads_media/physician-referral/ You will want to find an ILADS trained doctor, not one that has self proclaimed themselves as a LLMD or an ID Doc (Infectious Disease Doctor), as ID docs believe Lyme is hard to catch and easy to treat, and don't believe in the reality of chronic Lyme. Go to the ILADS site to read the new (2014) Treatment guidelines to get you started on your healing journey:
http://www.ilads.org/lyme/treatment-guideline.php