I have repeatedly seen patients fully normal on dubious routine Lyme titer tests and Western Blot tests, only to explode with symptoms and/or positive tests done at more sophisticated labs a couple weeks later.
Any physician who follows the impaired sensitivity of common "backyard" lab testing, knows little about real Lyme. If they only test for Lyme and not the 2-3 common co-infections that can be carried by ticks, they know little about Lyme.
However, I want to talk about how it is occasionally being missed by solid and brilliant cutting-edge Lyme physicians. As I look over this past season, some patients were missed, and I think I know why.
As you may know, Lyme can present with virtually any medical complaint. And since all doctors agree that we cannot do sophisticated expensive testing on everyone, we have to pick and choose.
So who should get tested?
Here is where a person can be burned. Let me show you with a real case.
Laurie is a 45 year-old teacher. The only outdoor experience she has is walking to the mailbox -- even her car is inside the garage. She broke her ankle last year in a fall from a bike. The ankle was supposed to be fully "recovered" according to the orthopedic doctor, but about 3 months after the cast was removed she still had pain in the ankle -- mild pain.
She worried that the doctor did not set the bone correctly or that it had healed wrong.
However, a year later I tested her blood to evaluate her hormones, along with specialized chronic disease prevention labs. I added a few basic Lyme tests that are not reliable for Lyme.
However, two bands showed up that did not qualify her as officially having Lyme. But on sophisticated tests, she was found to clearly have both Lyme and a malaria-like bug called Babesia.
After three months of treatment, including three antibiotics and an anti-malaria medication, she was feeling much better. And her ankle felt great.
The point? When you are infected with Lyme it may first present by making an area of bodily weakness more of a problem. You can tell yourself it is merely the old problem, but it may be the infection and the chemicals the infection and the body creates, causing the resurrection of the old body problem.
So if you are prone to migraines, they may get worse. If you are prone to knee aches because of degeneration, they may get worse. But it is actually the Lyme making your weakness more apparent.
It requires a solid expert to help you sift through the old body vulnerabilities and new Lyme making worse.
Best to Your Health!
Dr. J