Ocean
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3496
posted
Hi everyone, I've been patiently (OK at times impatiently!) awaiting my test results. Dr. H's office just called with them. I'm a little confused, as they didn't tell me the number parts, just the basic things. He told me to stay on my treatment since I just saw Dr. H last month, but he hadn't put me on anything, pending test results, so now I need to do a phone consult.
Here they are:
ISA-Borderline
IGG-Negative
IGM-Positive
Babs-Negative
Erch- Negative
Bart-Negative
So.... is this a positive or a negative? I assume positive since he told me to stay on the treatment protocol? I thought for sure I had Bart, but have read that co-infection testing is often negative until you start treatment.
feelfit
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12770
posted
Hi Ocean,
Your IgM is positive for Lyme disease....this means that you do indeed have it.
IgM usually means a recent infection....except of course if you have Lyme!
Lots of people who have been sick for a long time (me) test IgM positive, making it look like a recent infection to doctors not in the know.
If you read Dr. C's Western Blot explanation at the sticky at the top of this page, you will see that he states that far more people who have been sick for a long time test IgM positive.
this is because of the chronic nature of the infection.
I'm glad that you finally got your results and have an answer to your symptoms over the years.
good luck on the journey! Feelfit
Posts: 3975 | From usa | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
Ocean do you see Dr H in NY??? I was supposed to have a phone consult today, but the message said the office was closed and I never had my appointment... which I really needed to have..
-------------------- "You'll be surprised to know how far you can go from the point you thought it was the end" Posts: 946 | From Massachusetts | Registered: Apr 2008
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quote:Originally posted by DizzyUp: Ocean I would say you are positive if your IgM was a positive.
yup....Which bands were positive?
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Ocean
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3496
posted
Thanks so much for your replies! I'm not even sure how I feel right now, validated in a way I suppose! I was tested with the Elisa in 1997, about a year after I got sick and was really sick, but it was negative. Although I got better, I never felt like myself and every 2 years or so I get pretty sick again and have terrible anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks, ect.
Unexpected, no, I'm sorry, I went to Dr. H in CA, I should have clarified.
Lymetoo, I'm not sure what the numbers were, the guy on the phone didn't say. I'm going to call to see if they can fax it to my uncle's office as we just moved back to OH and don't have any of our belongings (so no fax =)
Now I'm not sure what to do! I've never been on antibiotics (except short term for things like my appendix bursting) and am considering going to Germany to Dr. W, so maybe I should not even start the antibiotics...
I've got a lot to think about.
I'm so grateful to have found Lymenet, you are all so informative and supportive!!
I think you should feel relived about your results. You now have answers. Yea! As for the anxiety, do you also have depression? My anxiety/depression started "out of the blue" about a year ago. In addition, stopped feeling well and not like myself. I am just now starting to relize it could be lyme, my husband too. we live in CT. Im awaiting an appt to get my blood tests started. If you get a chance - can you tell me a little bit more about your symptoms and if your anxiety/depression started?
Posts: 3 | From redding, ct | Registered: Oct 2008
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Ocean
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3496
posted
Hi Henrycat,
I always have some underlying depression, but it's not nearly as bad as it was! From 1997-1998 I was horribly depressed. For no reason. I was 17 years old, had just competed in the state track meet, had lots of friends, active in many things, and all of a sudden, I just felt hopeless and sad. I cried for hours and hours on end. I had to put off college, my grades went down. Formerly a straight A/honor roll student, I even got a D in Physics because I couldn't comprehend the material.
I got lost while driving which was very scary for me. I gained weight (now I have the opposite problem), I had terrible acne whereas before I would have the occassional pimple.
I wanted to die, I thought about suicide a lot, almost tried it, but by the grace of God didn't. I'd always been a Pollyanna positive person. My mom told me recently that it seems like someone came in 1996 and just took her daughter away. My little sister who was 14 at the time told me recently (now a 26 year old woman) that she misses the 'old' me.
I only recently started having joint issues, most of mine were seemingly mental issues (except for the horrible fatigue and muscle twitches and such). I'm almost 30 now and while it's been 12 year of not knowing and thinking that maybe I just had an anxiety/depression disorder, I know that it is physical!
So I would say that my depression got really bad about 5-6 months after I got my severe 'flu-like' illness in July 1996. I'd never known such sorrow and hope never to again, it was terrible and I never told my parents just how badly I felt, they just held me when I cried.
Good luck to you and keep us posted on your testing, is it an LLMD that you will go to? Make sure whoever it is does the IGENEX.
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