Lyme Help in NYC

Hi there,

Hi everyone. It's nice to find a place like this where people can share information and help each other.
Around november of 2015, I had some blood work done after a bad attack of depression of anxiety that I hadn't known before.

Everything seemed to be fine. One of the lyme bands came back positive. Two lyme bands, actually.

lgG 41
lgM 23

My doctor and I said maybe it's a false positive and lets give it a go again.

I didn't get another test until Feb (recent) and some new positive bands.
lgG 41
lgM 23
lgM 41
And a positive for lgM WB Interp this time.

So I'm guessing generally this means a positive for lyme, although I'm not sure how long I've had it.
Recently I've developed a bit of light headedness at times. I started taking Doxy 3 days ago.

Anyhow. I wanted to know those in NYC who had similar situations to mine on how they chose to proceed. I'd like to mix alternative treatment and I've looked into different herbs such as a cats claw and such.

Just wanted to get some opinion in here and some guidance if possible.

Thanks :)

R.

Welcome RSima!

Sorry for the reason you're here but glad you found us.

I'm amazed yet happy for you that you were tested for Lyme when you presented with the symptoms you did. All too many people are referred to psychiatrists and such.

And, yes, your lab results show that you have Lyme - sorry.

I'll let our NYC members share their experiences with you.

In the meantime, you might want to read through our "New to Lyme? Start Here" thread that sits at the top of the forum.

It contains lots of useful information including symptoms lists, help with test interpretation, detoxing tips and more.

And, on the topic of detoxing? Are you doing anything regularly to detox? If not, you might want to consider starting a daily detoxing protocol that you will continually add to. The site I'm linking below explains the need for detoxing and then has quite the comprehensive list of detoxing methods:

www.tiredoflyme.com/detox-methods.html

What are your doctor's plans for you in regards to treatment? Has he/she had any ILADS training?

bump

Rsima, if you click on my name in blue on the left hand site, my email is there.

" My doctor is a D.O. and since it's a recent infection (we think because of no LgG) "

This is actually not true. The more you read about Lyme you will learn. I have a very long term chronic lyme case and no IgG bands.

I also wanted to know more about Igenix. I'm confused on what tests to take to identify co infections.

The thing is I haven't really had a feverish attack. I've always been tired in many cases but aside from bouts of the common cold, I haven't had severe aches/attacks that have indicated a severe co-infection.

Most of my symptoms are mental (if they are symptoms) and deal with anxiety and depression.


Does this make sense?

The testing for co-infections is even more unreliable/inaccurate than the Lyme testing.
You could test for Babesia and Bartonella if you wanted to spend the money. But, there are many false negatives.

For Bartonella, there's another testing facility - Galaxy Lab - that is supposed to be better, but it's expensive.

The choice is yours - many of us just test for Lyme and then get clinically diagnosed for the coinfections by our LLMD.

Everyone's symptoms are different, not everyone gets flu like symptoms (I never did)....or pain. Your symptoms can be predominately neuro and still be Lyme.

Unfortunately, no. Lyme is a bacteria. MRIs don't detect bacteria.

Sometimes people with Lyme disease are misdiagnosed as having M.S. because of plaque showing up on the brain MRI.

But, having plaque show up on the brain MRI isn't diagnostic of LD...I wouldn't run out and have an MRI for that reason.

I don't think the majority of people with LD have plaque/scarring on the brain.

bump

Is it also an idea to see an infectious disease specialist in a setting where it can be covered by insurance? Or is an llmd really the best route.