I was tested positive for lyme this summer. I saved the unengorged nymph sized tick I took off of me. My dr. along with the county nurse said once the tick dies it could not be tested for whatever disease it carried. Is this true?
Posted by Phoiph (Member # 41238) on :
Thank you. I plan on holding on to it regardless of what I am told here. I kind of thought the er dr. and county nurse were wrong; especially when the county nurse kept quoting me things from the CDC and I kept telling her about LLMD'S and Under Our Skin, in which she never heard of.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
That's insane! You can send it in to Igenex for testing, but it will cost you $55 for each bacteria tested.
Why not just get yourself tested? PS .. you can put the tick in the freezer.
Posted by Phoiph (Member # 41238) on :
My understanding is that it is more reliable (not 100%) to test the tick if you are fortunate enough to have it, as you don't have to rely on your own immune response as an indicator...
Here is an alternative testing facility (UMASS College of Natural Sciences) which is less expensive:
I was tested positive for borrelia b but do not know if I have any co-infections since it was just a western blot from Mayo clinic which showed negative on anaplasmosis though.
Posted by Phoiph (Member # 41238) on :
If it were me, I'd send the tick in to UMASS (non-profit research program, link above) so the tick could be tested for other possible co-infections.
It doesn't mean 100% that the tick infected you, but it does mean 99.9% that the tick carried the infections tested for.
It also helps their research, as they have a database (which you can view on their website: tickdiseases.org) going back to 2005, including the number of ticks they've tested, location by state/city/zip code, which infections they were tested for, and results...
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Sounds better than Igenex. I had a tick tested with Igenex and they said it was OK .. and I still got sick.
Posted by KH111 (Member # 25829) on :
I had the tick that bit my son tested at Igenex and it came back all negative for everything.
He ended up with Lyme and bartonella.
Don't waste time or money spend it on yourself. You will need all the money you can afford for yourself. Treating this is not cheap.