My husband recently got negative test results for borrelia (the Western blot) from Quest Diagnostics. An LLMD sent the blood there, but in reading up on the various bands that may be related to an infection, I don't even see many of those bands listed.. ??? This LLMD has said she doesn't think my husband has Lyme (after this labwork came back, on our 2nd visit, and after initially telling us that many of my husband's symptoms did sound "Lymey") and is bouncing us to the next random specialist. Here is my question: Do we try to find a doctor who will send the blood to Igenex for another attempt at a Western blot, one that hopefully examines more bands? We are at our wits end with trying to get a diagnosis and treatment for my husband.. he has been sick for the past 6 years and we really had hope for a possible treatment when we started to look into the possibility of Lyme/tick co-infections. Has anyone had good/bad experiences with Quest Diagnostics? Has anyone had a negative Western Blot for Lyme, and negative antibody screen for other tick diseases, and then later gotten a positive Western Blot?
Posted by cheffer (Member # 28737) on :
IGENEX is the best lab. And often people who are very sick don`t test positive until into treatment. Your LLMD doesn`t sound like a good one if she is rely on a test. I`d look further into it.
Posted by ktkdommer (Member # 29020) on :
I'm confused. Did your husband have ANY positive bands on his western blot? Do you have a copy of the labwork?
Some do have negative blots for a while only to show up into treatment.
You may need to get to a good LLMD and go from there. Remember Lyme can be a clinical diagnosis. Lab work may show signs of a chronic infection or even coinfections.
Your doctor may have gotten scared and changed her mind so she wouldn't have to treat with long term antibiotics. She might have just wanted out. This happened to my family only in a meaner way.
You could post seeking a doctor for NC in the seeking section. Where are you in NC? I used to live in Rocky Mount for 3 years.
Keep advocating for his health!
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
quote:Originally posted by fighting4them: My husband recently got negative test results for borrelia (the Western blot) from Quest Diagnostics. An LLMD sent the blood there, but in reading up on the various bands that may be related to an infection, I don't even see many of those bands listed.. ???
This LLMD has said she doesn't think my husband has Lyme (after this labwork came back, on our 2nd visit, and after initially telling us that many of my husband's symptoms did sound "Lymey") and is bouncing us to the next random specialist.
Here is my question: Do we try to find a doctor who will send the blood to Igenex for another attempt at a Western blot, one that hopefully examines more bands? We are at our wits end with trying to get a diagnosis and treatment for my husband..
he has been sick for the past 6 years and we really had hope for a possible treatment when we started to look into the possibility of Lyme/tick co-infections.
Has anyone had good/bad experiences with Quest Diagnostics? Has anyone had a negative Western Blot for Lyme, and negative antibody screen for other tick diseases, and then later gotten a positive Western Blot?
--
breaking this up so all are able to read it
Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :