I know there are some people who did Lyme blood culture test at Advanced Labs.
How fast your doc did get a test kit available after requesting from the lab? Was it difficult to arrange for?
My doc�s office staff told me more than 2 weeks ago that the kit was ordered.
And yet somehow they still don�t have it and at all cost avoiding to tell me when should I come to draw the blood. Sounds strange to me�
Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
Sounds strange to me. I would expect my lyme doctor to have the kit and take my blood the day I went to see the doctor as part of my first appointment.
I got rid of lyme almost 8 years ago now, but my lyme doctor had the Igenex kit or requirements right there in the office and drew my blood at the end of my appointment. I would expect the same for Advanced Labs. (Advanced Labs wasn't around when I was going to lyme doctors.)
In fact, good lyme doctors only make new patient appointments on certain days of the week so that the patient's blood can be drawn and sent to the lyme lab that very day, to be received the next day. (So, no new patients are seen on a Friday, for example. Don't want their blood sitting in a post office somewhere over the weekend. )
This doesn't sound like a real lyme doctor to me, or the office is in a total shambles and needs a good office manager so that they always have kits on hand and don't have to call folks back to the office for an Advanced Labs blood draw.
As a general rule, the best lyme doctors see lyme patients 100% of the time. They don't see any other types of patients. They are specializing in lyme disease, in other words. Such doctors offices would not run out of Advanced Labs kits, etc. because it is all that they do. They are routinely testing a large number of their patients through this lab or other tick borne disease specialty labs.
Posted by Alild (Member # 36860) on :
It's not a first appointment but follow up. Doc learned from me that such a test exists (B. blood culture).
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Yes, TF... but not every Dr uses Advanced Labs. If you already have a positive Lyme test you don't need another test.
Do you know how long you'd have to be off abx before the test?? Or does it matter??
Posted by Alild (Member # 36860) on :
4 weeks according to Advanced Labs
Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
If the doctor learned FROM YOU about the Advanced Labs culture test for lyme disease, that is not a good sign at all.
When you know more than your doctor about lyme disease, it is time to move on.