posted
I am from Canada and we have the 2 tiered testing here. You cannot get a WB unless you get a positive ELISA. My question is in the US can your doctor order a WB without having a positive first on the ELISA
Posts: 131 | From ontario | Registered: Oct 2010
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scorpiogirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 31907
posted
I don't know but last week I TOLD (and I'm not kidding about being forceful) our daughter's Pediatrician to order the WB at LapCorp. Since she has no clue about Lyme disease she just did exactly as I asked. I then took the prescription over to LapCorp which I am a regular and asked them to fill in the lab codes for Lyme!
It's silly to make us do the Elisa when it's so inaccurate. I just didn't want to pay for the Elisa test so I skipped it.
-------------------- Posts: 1391 | From Lyme Land | Registered: May 2011
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jackie51
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14233
posted
Some/most doctors are very reluctant to order a WB. Even after a positive elisa, then they say "why bother?" Screwed up.
Posts: 1374 | From Crazy Town | Registered: Dec 2007
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posted
Cheffer, answer is yes. Doctors in the know do it all the time. Doctors not in the know don't know anything, so we simply ask them to sign off on the Western blot test - that's what I did, and what scorpiogirl is describing here - lol
Posts: 13171 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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posted
Thanks. Here our Government won`t run the WB unless you get a positive ELISA period. Since all our tests are paid for they control which tests get run.
Posts: 131 | From ontario | Registered: Oct 2010
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momlyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 27775
posted
In the U.S. some do order the WB without first ordering the ELISA if they are not yet afraid of being sanctioned for it. Some doctors are under the control of the insurance companies. Avoid those like the plague.
My son's previous pediatric LLMD says she does not bother running the ELISA anymore. She tests with the WB only.
When she first started sending patients to the hospital with the scripts for bloodwork, they would routinely do the ELISA instead of the WB. She would call the lab and say this is NOT the test I ordered. Now they know when she orders WB, she means WB... don't do the ELISA!
The ELISA is less than 50% accurate. Why bother.
There are plenty of doctors down here who will not run an ELISA or a WB even if symptoms are screaming LD.
When my son got sick with LD, I went to my family MD and said - don't you think it's strange that I have had "arthritis" since I was 23? and all these other strange illnesses that have put me in the hospital? I have been diagnosed with some one in a million things!
I begged for a WB. She wouldn't order it. No evidence of rash or tick bite. No reason to order it.
Five months later, I got an appointment with an LLMD... he ordered it and I am positive for LD and Bartonella.
Doctors should not be so against ordering tests that can help get patients well. I wish the system were different.
-------------------- May health be with you!
Toxic mold was suppressing our immune systems, causing extreme pain, brain fog and magnifying symptoms. Four days after moving out, the healing began. Posts: 2007 | From NY/VT Border | Registered: Aug 2010
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