I saw a LLMD not too long ago and finally spoke to him today.
My igenex lyme only showed band 41. But he also did a blood smear to look for babs, which he confirmed I had.
We are still waiting on labcorp to send back all my other labs, so he's not going to have me start anything new until we get those back.
I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis by my rheumy and when the lyme stuff all came up, I thought maybe I was misdiagnosed. He thinks I actually do have as... But clearing up any infections I have will probably help with my as symptoms.
He said it's pretty uncommon to have co infections without lyme, so he's going to treat both... But based on igenex, he's doubting lyme and just covering it to be safe!
Does anyone else know of anyone who has coinfections without lyme? Just curious! :-)
Posted by DaveNJ (Member # 17362) on :
i'm sure others will chime in...but i thought band 41 was a definite marker for Lyme.
Dave
Posted by BoxerMom (Member # 25251) on :
If your infections came from a tick, Lyme will be in your mix. Many of us test negative for Lyme. It's a stealth pathogen with many mechanisms that help it evade our immune systems and subsequent detection.
Treating for the "big 3" - Lyme, Bart, Babs - is the way to go.
AS has both a genetic marker and infectious cause. If you are positive for the genetic marker, you should be tested and treated for Klebsiella. If your symptoms aren't severe, the condition can completely reverse.
Posted by gmb (Member # 23562) on :
Just because Igenex came up negative (this time)doesn't mean you don't have it. Band 41 is also common to other Filagia (sp?) type bacteria.
Having a positive Babs Dx helps. Most LLMDs will treat on symptoms and do trial Rx combos to gauge your reactions to Babs, bart and lyme protocols.
gmb
Posted by t9im (Member # 25489) on :
Hi sparkyholiday:
Band 41 is indicative of a borrelia spirochete bacteria. It is antigen response reading to the flagella, not borrelia burgdorferi specific but does indicate exposure to a spirochete bacteria.
So you could have a spirochete infection besides Lyme.
My personal experience is my daughter has had 12 Western Blots by Igenex and has never been positive. She has had various positive bands, just never enough at the same time to be considered positive.
She has been positive for bands 30, 34, 41 and indeterminate for bands 31, 39, 41.
Now on the co infections she never tested positive for babesia but the LLMD treated based upon symptoms.
For Bartonella, she didn't show symptoms until we stopped medications thinking she was done with the Lyme and Babesia. Then in 7 months the Lyme came back with bartonella. We first noticed the Lyme (fatigue, anxiety) and then bart rashes.
Over 4 years she never tested positive for Bart until her most recent blood work. In October we tested her with Igenex, negative and Specialty Labs positive for the IgG with a 1:64.
If I have my charting right we've tested 11 times for Bart and it took the 11th for the positive titer.
So if any results come up negative but you have the symptoms the odds favor you have the underlying bacteria.
Good luck.
Posted by sparklyholiday (Member # 42456) on :
Thanks so much for the feedback! He did say that it was unlikely to have babs without lyme... which is why he's treating both.
I haven't gotten all of my bloodwork back yet - I know that mycoplasma was something else he suspected because of how all of my symptoms change or start after a bout with pneumonia (4 bouts of pneumonia).
Regarding the AS - yes, I have the genetic marker for it (HLA B27 positive). When the lyme stuff started, I was kinda hoping I was misdiagnosed and I didn't have both! Not everyone who is HLA B27 positive gets A.S. - but my doc did say that the lyme and babs could have caused the A.S. to "come to life" (so to speak).
Posted by SLML (Member # 42986) on :
So,from all my reading, band 41 is specific for spirochete but not specific to Borrelia. It could be dental spirochete, borrelia spirochete or syphalis.
If you google Band 41 you can read up on it. There are other forums with the same discussion on Band 41 and it is not considered specific to Borrelia Burgdorferi. There are other bands that are specific to Borrelia Burgdorferi though.
Posted by MichaelTampa (Member # 24868) on :