In short, YES.

Your doctor does not sound Lyme Literate. I spent 2.5 years seeing a "lyme treating" physician and paid for it not in dollars but in strife.

Find a Lyme Literate MD as soon as possible. It is worth the money.

By my second visit to my LLMD (started there in April) I was feeling better for the first time in 13 years. I was fighting Lyme for 2.5 years and was really in need of treatment for Babesia.

Good Luck,

No plaques, ever. MRI was perfect. Yet bloodwork and sx strongly indicate active Lyme disease; also sx and response to treatment indicate babesia and bartonella.

Here are some articles by Bransfield on Neuropsychiatric Lyme and on Lyme Neuroborelliosis.

Here's the classic from Fallon on Neuropsychiatric Lyme

These guys do not focus on plaque formation at all. There is a more recent paper by Fallon, I think? that does discuss the very high percentage of neurolyme patients that have low/abnormal blood flow through the brain. This is identified by SPECT scan.

Bransfield says: "Although it is clear that Bb. causes considerable neural dysfunction, the exact pathophysiological process is a subject of current research.

Proposed pathological mechanisms which contribute to the neural dysfunction associated with LN include vasculitis, direct cell penetration, toxin release, cytokine effects, inflammation and excitotoxicity mediated by quinolinic acid and kynurenine (14)."

For us, Babesia and Bartonella seem to have played as big a part in cognitive dysfunction as LD. Doesn't sound as if that's what your MD is saying, but it might be? Need to clarify that with him?

You dont have to have plaques on the brain. Good god, then we all would. Thats like saying everyone that lives should all weigh the same.

You probably have babs=sweating. If youre not going anywhere in your treatment, consider a coinfection.

You need us to help you find an LLMD.

He has quacks on the brain!

This surprises me as I see the same LLMD and have heard the opposite. I have fairly advanced neuro Lyme and have major cognitive problems. The cognitive problems are what keep me from working at my usual occupation. All of these have been attributed to Lyme. I have a normal MRI. But a neuropsychological eval showed "classic" deficits as a result of Lyme disease, according to the neuropsychologist. Do a search, plug in "Lyme and neuropsychological" and you will get a huge list of resources. The following link is my favorite as it describes me exactly:
http://www.anapsid.org/cnd/diffdx/rissenberg.html

If you really want to know what your cognitive functioning is, consider having a neuropsychological eval. Just make sure the neuropsychologist knows about Lyme and it's effects.

I also have Babs, now confirmed by a positive test, and this is apparently chronic at this point. But, I went a long time with this untreated as initial testing was neg. If the Babs treatment helps you after a month or so, continue it. This is not easily treated. When I was treated early in the treatment process, I felt so much better. But then relapsed badly. But then went untreated for along while. I felt that if I had continued treatment way back when I was initially treated "just in case" I would be in a whole different boat now. Your symptoms sure sound like Babs. Have you considered the FISH test?

I started Babs treatment last fall, and improved signicantly. Then stopped treatment after a few months, and relased again. A repeat test was positive. So don't know where this is headed. Morale of the story is don't just treat this a short time if you see improvement. Keep at it. That will give you the best shot at beating it.

I personally think that having Babs and Lyme really complicates the entire clinical picture. But, IMO, having both gives you more potential for severe cognitive dysfunction.

Good luck.