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Lyme or not?

Posted , 2 users are following.

abcd098
abcd098

Got bitten by a tick in July, pretty sure I removed it within 12 hours and definitely didn't have the rash.

In September woke up with a severe back pain on the left shoulder after a week or so this faded and started up on right shoulder which also faded but started across the lower back and that hasn't gone away. Almost impossible to put socks on or pick anything up off the floor. 

Went to the doc and he did a battery of blood tests which all came back negative except the borrelia blood test came back with the phrase "due to prior tick bite Lyme can not be ruled out", which seemed very ambiguous.

As a precaution the doc prescribed 2 weeks of doxycycline which

I've now completed but don't feel it has had any effect.

Still got lower back pain and think I'm starting to feel muscle twitches in my face (facial twitch might be pschosomatic!)

I'm still not sure whether it is Lyme or not. Has anybody been through this type of symptom scenario and also does anybody know what the ambiguous blood wording means?

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • Lizzlizz
    Lizzlizz abcd098

    Posted

    Was it an ELISA test? They can come back negative in the early stages. A western blot will show if you have lyme (although the tests are not great) giving the circumstances I would ask your GP for the second test and would contact the lyme association for better advise. 
    • abcd098
      abcd098 Lizzlizz

      Posted

      Thanks for your reply LizzLizz,

      Wasn't really that into it at the time so don't know exactly which type of test they used.  All I know is that it was specifically for borrelia and came back a couple of weeks after all other blood tests, with the unclear wording.

      At the time I took it at face value to mean that it hadn't shown a positive, but the testiing system could show false negatives. 

      Not knowing how these things work I wasn't sure whether that was a typical covering their backs wording and there was only a small chance I had Lyme, or whether it was a fairly normal form of words for such test results that still had a reasonable chance of falling either way.

    • Lizzlizz
      Lizzlizz abcd098

      Posted

      Contact the lyme association the will be able to best advise and explain about the tests and their not so good vilaibility. There is lots of controversy over what is called chronic or post treatment lyme. There's a good Facebook group too well worth joining as lots of people will have advise about doctors that have helped them and things they have done to help get them better. Good luck and if symptoms persist do not give up!
  • cheetahjade
    cheetahjade abcd098

    Posted

    I agree with Lizzlizz. You need to find an LLMD,  a Lyme literate doctor who knows and understand the disease. I never saw a tick on me, but had a bite mark on the top of my hand. I initially thought it was a spider bite. Even though you were bitten a few months ago, it's still early enough where you can get treatment and possibly fully recover rather quickly. But you need proper treatment. Two weeks of doxy is not nearly enough.
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