Both my daughter and I have had the unfortunate luck to contract lyme disease. I had the deseminated form left undiagnosed for 14 years. I was treatede with IV antibiotics for over a year and 4 years later I am back at work full time and have made a 360 degree turn around. 100% no way, but I have my life back.
My daughter is pregnant and was treated for lyme back in 2004. She was tested for syphilis and the test was positive. She was told in the past she had syphilis as well and with further testing they told her it was her lyme disease a few years back. Now she is in the battle of her life with her OB/GYN and an ID doc who is insisting on treating her with penicillin shots "just in case" with no further blood work.
she is only 19 so her OB doc is treating her like she does not know what she is talking about. She watched me suffer for years and go through treatment and then was diagnosed herself at 14 with lyme. So she is educated in the facts and her doctor is acting as if she just is in denial about having syphilis. The baby's dad does not and that is the only man she has been with--so where did she get it??? Any input appreciated.
Cathy
Posted by dbourne (Member # 13833) on :
Syphilis tests are known for showing false positives. I learned this the hard way and through research. The biggest category for this is small framed young white women.
Anytime I am given a blood test I always test positive-even before lyme. It takes a secondary more specific lab to see that it is a false positive.
When I went to get my marriage license we had to do a blood test and I failed because of the positive. Because the blood test has to be done so close to the marriage date (old rules that have now changed) there wasn't time to send my blood off to be retested.
I had to go through HIV testing and my soon to be husband and to sign a waiver agreeing to marry someone with an STD. I also had to go through a serious of shots in my hips. It wasn't until halfway though our honeymoon that we got a call that said I was negative.
Sorry, I don't have any other info other than that. Just that I have always tested positive although I am actually negative. Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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This link may hold some information:
From BettyG at another thread in General Support:
posted 11 July, 2008 04:37 AM
and in case it applies, for women with lyme who are/want to be pregnant AND for moms who have kids born with congenital lyme. (doesn't seem very active, but maybe check archives if nothing else?
I had a false-positive syphilis test, however just the basic (EIA) syphilis screen was positive---my doctor than ran a more specific test the MHA-TP test, which is the "Gold standard"-Confirmatory test, and it was negative. So, he concluded my initial positive Syphilis antibody test was just from cross reacting Lyme spirochetes... It was pretty interesting, though!
Posted by adamm (Member # 11910) on :
This topic could be the basis for some very good discussion.
One of the more significant problems we face in getting diagnosed,
in fact, arises from Steere's use of serum from syphilitics as a
constituent of his control in the initial studies
that he did on the Western blot. It is because of this that
the authorities were able to exclude the presence of several
antibodies stongly indicative of Lyme from their criteria.
Posted by griswoldgirl (Member # 5365) on :
thank you for your responces, just bumping it up to the top again to see what else is said
![[dizzy]](graemlins/dizzy.gif)