posted
Can a doctor tell by your test results how long you have had lyme?
All my doctor has been able to tell me is "a while".
When I ask how long a while is, he doesn't really answer it.
Is a while a month, few months, a year, a few years?
He says there's really no way of knowing (but he says that is a round a bout way)
I have neurological symtoms and the body ache stuff.
I have a 2 year old daughter who seems perfectly normal. I am concerned that I could have passed it to her if I have had it that long.
My doctor says it wouldn't hurt anything to test her.
My daughters pediatrician says if she acts normal there is no need to test her.
He believes taking a blood sample is traumatizing for a 2 year old and not necessary.
Is there really no way of knowing if someone has had this disease 20 years, 2 years or 2 months?
Posts: 5 | From maryland | Registered: Jan 2009
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Starfall1969
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 17353
posted
I have been wondering this very same thing myself!
Not doagnosed yet, and I've only had severe symptoms for 7 months, but in my younger days I did a LOT of hiking and just playing in the woods and mountains.
I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old, and I wonder about them too. The 4 year old acts like he's ADHD or something; most of the time (for me at least) he acts like a little spaz. Doc says he's normal.
My 2 year old so far seems okay, although he's going through the preschooler getting sick all the time. No daycare, just church nursery.
I plan to ask my LLMD when I see him in March.
Posts: 1682 | From Dillsburg, PA | Registered: Sep 2008
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posted
am in same boat here. dont know how long. got very sick and in hosp. for week 11 yr ago and dx was pneumonia and renal failure. got tx and sent home on iv antibiotics. then tx for "auto-immune" for years after that, never linked the two. now fiind out lyme, RMSF,bartonlla and mycoplasm pneum. could have has this from the hosp. stay illness or from childhood and hosp. illness just got the ball rolling. getting my boys tested. my oldest is ADHD and middle has chronic large lymph nodes on neck. LLMD recommends testing them and our pedicatrician said no, cant pass on. did my own research and is documented to pass placenta as well as breastmilk. so will take them to ID doc for intial testing then go from there
-------------------- i am not a Dr. any info is only for education, suggestion or to think/research. please do not mis-intuprest as diagnostic or prescriptive, only trying to help. **
dx in 08:lyme, rmsf, bart, babs, and m.pneumonia. Posts: 422 | From TX | Registered: Oct 2008
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posted
I hate to say it, but unless you actually saw the tick, saw the bullseye rash (which many people never see or get), odds are you wont know exactly when it all started.
By looking over the IGG, IGM its possible to say recent or old, but, still, its really hit and miss.
Ive always been of the belief that Bb will sit in your system, and once your immune system is weak enough, it becomes active. I think thats how people can be bitten when young, and not get symptoms till months, years, decades later. That theory would explain a lot about how the testing isnt always accurate, because when it comes to testing for Bb, sometimes its just being lucky to actually have something come back positive, meaning you happen to hit the right time of the lyme cycle, or presence of anti bodies that are detectable via serological testing, etc.
My advice is.. dont worry about low long...but concentrate on treatment and getting better. Because lets face it, whether its been a month, a decade, you still treat the symptoms regardless of how long its been.
BB/lyme is a clinical diagnosis, and you treat the symptoms the same regardless of how long you've had it.
But it would be nice to know exactly when it happened, and many people have a pretty fair guesstimate as to when based on when the symptoms started, exposure to ticks, etc, etc...
Posts: 514 | From . | Registered: Apr 2008
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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Your doctor is correct. Unless you were perfectly fine up until one when when it all went down hill and that corresponded with finding a tick &/or bulls eye rash, there is no way to know.
One lyme has become disseminated, treatment does take a while and that is also very hard to know exactly how to predict.
The important thing is that, other than wishing he could pin-point when you got ill, that you are confident in your doctor's knowledge of lyme and other TBD (tick-borne diseases).
As for your children- please, please consider testing. But first, a clinical evaluation so that the doctor would better know what testing to pursue in addition to lyme. Just as you've (hopefully) been assessed and tested for coinfections, your kids should be as well.
ADHD is very common in lyme patients. Most pediatricians know very little about lyme and its dangers so it's best for a LLMD who is ILADS educated to be consulted.
As for your younger child, there may be some subtle signs that your LLMD is trained to notice in a clinical evaluation. If so, addressing this now could prevent a lot of damage.
I am glad that you have found a treatment course. I hope it all goes well for you.
If you have questions about your children, you might start a new thread with specifics in the headlines so that moms and dads would be more likely to answer.
You might also ask your LLMD about a pedicatric LLMD. If you can there is one excellent on in New England.
posted
I have felt poorly for 20 years. I was beginning to think that I was crazy and my fatigue was in my head.
Two months ago, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and Ehrilichiosis. I have always felt like my son and daughter both have the same thing I have because we all bare the same symptoms.
Severe headaches, severe fatigue, upper respiratory infections, asthma, allergies, knee pain.
Well, I begged my daughter's doctor to order the test, even though she said my daughter would be autistic or brain damaged if she had Lyme and the Co. I got her test back yesterday.
She has 3 bands on the IGM and 4 bands on the IGG. We are going to a LLMD in the beginning of March. I have had my husband tested as well, but I don't have his results yet.
I think I passed it to my daughter because she has never been hicking in the woods, and she is 5, she doesn't play outside much. I would like my 18 year old to be tested, but that is up to him now.
If I were you I would try to think back to the first symptoms: anytime you may have had the "flu". The first headaches, or knee pain. If you can't figure out how long you have had it, GET HER TESTED!
Posts: 893 | From Florida | Registered: Dec 2008
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