my question is this: has anyone ever received a totally negative wb, both igg and igm (all bands negative) and still had LD? or do one or more bands usually show up?

Many posters on Lymenet have LD, but have never had a positive WB test. Some of the sickest folks have negative Lyme tests.

I went undiagnosed for 13 years. In 2002, my first IGENEX WB was negative. It was not done by an LLMD.

It took me a year to figure out that the test can be negative and you can still have a raging LD. Lyme Disease can be very insidious.

In 2003, my LLMD diagnosed me with LD on the first visit before my 2nd WB test results had returned.

Prior to this 2nd WB testing, he put me on 250 mg Zithromax twice daily for like 10 days prior to performing the test. This was to pull the Lyme bacteria into the bloodsream.

The antibiotics help yield a positive test in some folks.

Here are 19 possible reasons for a negative WB test:

http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001744.html

Hope this helps a bit. I'm sure others will visit with additional information for you.

Happy New Year,
Jan

My husband tested negative on both IGM & IGG at Igenex. He had some positives; most equivacal.

one was equivicable actually, adn i've been sick for 19 years with it..the longer you've been sick, the harder it is to get a positive test, as your body is tired of producing antibodies, adn that's all that the test picks up on...

i did test positive on babesia pcr which picks up pieces of dead parasites in blood...different test from mdl labs...

so yes, it is quite possible to still test neg. and have the disease quite strong..I had 34 out of hte 37 original symtoms when i first went to my llmd...!

ALWAYS GO BY SYMTOMS NOT TESTING...EVERY GOOD LLMD WILL DO THAT WHEN THEY TREAT YOU!

LIsa