I had many Lyme symptoms including a rash about 2 years ago. I don't know if it was an EM rash although it looked like one - I noticed numbness which started spreading 10 days prior to the rash. Which is contradictory.
I tested neg for all the common Lyme and MS tests on blood and spinal fluid. Also had MRI which showed a few lesions but not enough for neuro to dx MS. I think I was pos. on one band of second WB I took.
Hooked up with an LLMD through the great people at this site. Took a Bowen test which was pos. for BB. Did 3-4 months rocephin IV abx. Then about six months of zith/flagyl and 6months of ketek/flagyl.
Took another Bowen test and it was more positive than the first.
My symptoms which included numbness, muscle weekness in arms, and floaters, improved greatly prior to going on abx. Since treatment I have seen only slight improvements and actually numbness which had gone away in my feet came back.
I never really herxed (at least I think) through any of the treatments. I had no neg side effects from abx.
I stopped taking the abx last week because I felt like I tried that long enough and LLMD agreed. Symptoms are still the same no better or worse.
What do you guys think? Should I trust the Bowen test results and try some different treatments or wait and see what my body tells me?
Posted by Michelle M (Member # 7200) on :
Hello, Slave to Fishing.
Man, why didn't I think of that name???!
The rash you describe sounds pretty diagnostic by itself. Did you photograph it or have a doctor examine it? The numbness is a bit odd 'prior to the rash' -- you got me there.
You had a few brain lesions. Not felt to be from MS. Are they frontal lobe lesions? Smallish? What's the radiologist say about em?
You say you had only one positive band on a "second" western blot. Surely this wasn't an IGeneX western blot? Which band? How 'bout equivocal/indeterminate bands? What about the first western blot? Let us know your bands, and what lab did em.
You note only slight improvement after 9 months treatment, and little or no herxing.
Some people (especially men!) don't herx much, yet definitely have lyme.
What is your coinfection status? Have you been tested? Failure to progress sometimes means coinfections, even if you've tested negative for them.
I would tend to trust Bowen for lyme, though not for coinfections. I'd prefer IGeneX for everything, but it's hard to argue with the Bowen results on lyme.
My .02 cents. Hope others will come along with some ideas for you.
Tight lines,
Michelle
Posted by Jadedemolush (Member # 9090) on :
Why is lyme spelled wrong on their website... has been that way for months. Thats scares me a bit.
Well I'm not sure what band it was. I suppose I could find out. Was not Igenex WB. Never pos for co-infections on the Bowen or otherwise that I was told of. I think I remember the largest of the lesions was 2 sonometers. I don't know where they were found in the brain. I had my MD look at the rash and he said it was ringworm, he also says there's no Lyme in FL. Posted by Carol in PA (Member # 5338) on :
Up for more comments.
Posted by Truthfinder (Member # 8512) on :
Like Michelle said, I trust the Bowen test for Lyme but not for co-infections.
While it is pretty strange that you were more positive after treatment than before, just remember that any test can only tell you what is going on in your blood, not your tissues. Your treatment may have driven the bugs out of hiding and now there are more in your blood. I swear I can sometimes feel them going into different areas to "get away" from the treatment.
Identifying co-infections can be a real challenge because there are so many possiblities, many of which are not tick-borne diseases.
The Bowen website has been messed up for months. But rest assured that if anybody knows about Lyme Disease, it is Joann Whitaker who basically runs Bowen Research (or used to). I know that Joann had a stroke about a year and a half ago, and I wonder how much of an impact that has had at Bowen.
Tracy
Posted by Nancy-FL (Member # 7986) on :
There is quite a lengthy discussion about the Bowen at:
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