First LLMD appt - Awaiting Dx after Labs

I'll try to make this as short and to the point as possible and in a way you can understand.

This year I will be 41 years old. From as far back as I can remember I have always struggled with some sort of "not feeling well" whether it be sleep, mood swings, anxiety, depression, body and joint aches and pains, unexplained headaches, heightened allergies out of nowhere, heart palpitations (PCA), inflammation, back an neck pain and stiffness, weight gain, near fainting spells, dizziness, involuntary eye movement, hearing issues with ringing in the ears, memory problems, lack of focus and losing ability to multitask, struggling to find right words, misspelling words, extreme bouts of fatigue, then bouts of feeling great with unbelievable energy I forgot I once had. This is all off the top of my head but the list is honestly... quite endless, really. My brother lived in Clarksville, TN on a farm when we were younger and I recall many times pulling swollen ticks off of each other, more specifically, I remember them being pulled off of our heads.

After the last 3 years of increased and new symptoms an seeing about 5-6 different doctors/specialists, even for second opinions, all I can get is "everything came back great" or "I have no logical explanation for your symptoms," I was finally messaged by someone and recommended that I see a LLMD bc it sounded much like symptoms of Lyme.

The LLMD is over an hour away in another state from me but I'm finally feeling like someone is getting somewhere! I had an appt on March 20th, 2016, first available and my appt was made in December. They did send me a lab requisition so that I can get my labs done closer to home before my appt with LLMD. Low and behold, they called to let me know the results were in and they wanted to move my appt from 3/20/16 to 2/02/16- over a month ahead of the first available appt I had. I asked if all was ok and was told yes, no need to worry. I pulled my labs bc I thought it was odd to move an appt so far ahead when you're booking out that far- I worked as a medical secretary so I know how difficult it can be to book appointments for a busy office. Sometimes almost impossible.

Anyway, my lab results came back as follows, and I'm only listing what came back "High" or "Positive/Abnormal"

On the Lyme, Western Blot, Serum Test
Lyme Ab IgG by WB:
IgG P41 Ab. Result is "Present Abnormal"
IgG P45 Ab. Result is "Present Abnormal"

Lyme Ab IgM by WB:
IgM P23 Ab. Result is "Present Abnormal"

CMV Abs IgG/IgM
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Ab, IgG Result is ">10.00 High"
*Positive if result is >0.69

EBV Ab VCA, IgG Result is "181.0 High"
*Positive if result is >21.9

ALT (SGOT) Result is "44 High"
*Normal range is 0-32

Does anyone have any interpretation to these labs?

Post Edited (Mama-T) : 1/18/2016 9:30:01 PM (GMT-7)

Mama- T

Just curious, were your tests done thru Igenex, or a local lab?

Hi MamaT!
Welcome to our community! I'm so glad you found us!

As Girlie suggested, if you haven't ​yet​, it would be helpful for you to start with reading through the thread at the top of the forum titled,"New to Lyme?...Start here!!", as it is packed full of important information, symptom lists, helpful links and pdf's, how to detox when one has these infections, information on probiotics and much more. And this is another good list of possible detoxing routines: www.tiredoflyme.com/detox-methods.html

Considering the doctor didn't use what we know to be a very reliable lab, I would question if they are ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) trained, or if they are a self-proclaimed LLMD. 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.

As for your test results, here is the site that I use to help interpret them:www.oocities.org/hotsprings/oasis/6455/western-blot.txt You can go there to find supporting Pubmed articles showing what these bands represent.

An IgM result means that you have an active infection. It once was thought to mean an 'early' infection, but has since been revised. IgG means that the infection is at a later stage.

A "Lyme specific band" means specific for Borrelia Burgdorferi, sensu stricto - Lyme disease in the strictest sense. There is only one on the over 300 known strains of Lyme that is considered Bb, ss. Nothing else will turn a Lyme specific band positive other than Lyme disease - - even though there are over 100 different strains of Borrelia in the US that cause human illness.

AS Girlie said, Band 23 is Lyme specific, so you do have Lyme.

Band 45 is indicative of Ehrlichia: "45-kDa antigens as early, persistent, and specific markers of HGE
infection." www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=9620365&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b

I can't find anything on band 46 - so they likely have no idea what it means.

Also as Girlie said, you are positive for CMV and EBV. EBV is a very commonly reactivated with untreated Lyme, but 97% of the American public has EBV.

According to this site, approx. 80% of adults in the US have CMV: www.envita.com/lyme-disease/cytomegalovirus-a-chronic-lyme-disease-coinfection-and-cancer-causing-agent