Testing
You may have to battle your doctors to get the most accurate testing - I suggest IGENEX. Your doctor may say Lymes is not in your area and there is no need to worry about it - Don't believe it. The doctors or health clinics are not really aware of what may be happening in you area and during that time you are gradually getting sicker and sicker. The doctors may continue testing you for everything else under the sun and still not know what is wrong with you, while not even considering Lymes.
Antibiotics
You can not put all of your faith in your doctors, if they say a short 28 day coarse of antibiotics will take care of your Lymes problem - that is NOT true. If you have just been bit and they caught it within the first week or so that may be true (this scenario is very unlikely).
If you have tested positive and had symptoms for 1-2 months more than likely you will need to be on Doxy for up to 4 months 200-400mg 2-3 times a day. If you have had the spirakeet longer (mine was undiagnosed for at least 2 1/2 years, I had classic symptoms and they didn't catch it). If caught early you will need antibiotics for 4-8 months or longer and depending on the severity up to 1-6 years or longer. So the key is to catch it early. You may have to fight with your doctor for the treatment or find a Lymes literate doctor. One reason for the duration is the need to kill it during the many cycles it goes through, Lymes spirakeets will go into a cyst form to protect itself when it feels threatened or mutate, so you need to extend the treatment well beyond the time frame to make sure that you have gotten the bacteria.
If doctors tell you not to worry - it was not in long enough. Wrong - if it was not properly removed - you could have just squeezed the bacteria and parasites into you. (Never squeeze the body use a fine tweezers and remove it by the head).
Not all Doctors think the Same
Not all doctors think in the same way, you will need a doctor that uses integrative medicine (I wasn't interested, I just wanted them to napalm this thing but learned very quickly you really need both or you will be one very sick puppy). I would NOT suggest infectious disease doctors, you may be lucky and have one that really understands Lymes, but from what I have seen I am not impressed, most doctors are not educated in Lymes or only know basic information.
Most doctors will rely on the quick Lymes test which produces too many False Negative results. (I had 3 False Negative tests, my body was not making antibodies to fight this disease off).
When you get tested I would prefer to have a full panel Lymes test not all doctors know how to read them, so get a copy for yourself and look over the results and see if there is positive anywhere in the results. Some doctors will see that most of your results are negative and that is what they think. (Once I got the right testing done and got the results my doctor thought it was fine she didn't notice the 1 small positive result, I got a copy saw the small positive and called the director of the lab.) I showed my results to other doctors first, they were not interested, it was not their speciality and would not even look at it.
I thought I was Crazy
Most important follow you intuition, you MUST be your own advocate. - I hit every obstacle imaginable along the way, I was so wiped out but still tried to function, I thought I must be still recovering from the Bells Palsy or just lazy but actually the Lymes was systematically moving through my body, and it wasn't until one of my students pointed me in the right direction to the right lab where I started to get some answers. At this point I was feeling better and thought I must be crazy for pursuing more testing, but I also knew at some point another weird thing would attack me. I think of myself as a healthily person and all of this was just to strange so I knew there had to be an underlying problem. That is why I suggest the 6040 full panel Igenex test (and even then you may need more testing to find it) any other testing will lull you into a
false sense of security until it hits you again!
Get Accuarte Testing
The most common and cheapest tests are Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA), and Western blot test. These are quick tests with results back in a few days these tests are used to look for the Lyme disease antibodies..... the problem is you may not be making anitibodies, meaning your body is NOT trying to fight this bacteria off. (I had no antibodies but still had a raging case of Lymes / Babesia.) The only chance you may have in finding the disease with these tests is if you are on a coarse of antibiotics which create a die off reaction that can then be detected. Insurance companies only pay for a very small portion if at all due to suggest CDC guidelines, these are hopefully in the process of being changed. This disease is very good at hiding and if you are on any antivirals or steroids or other meds or have any other variables you will have false negative results. Reasons for False Negatives more info on False Negatives
The Best and most accurate test -is much more in-depth and extensive it takes about 3 weeks for results, and if by chance that one comes back negative or the results are inconclusive you go to plan B. That means a very short coarse of antibiotics then the urine is tested. Please read How To Get Reliable Testing. For testing, IGeneX More information
Never Give Up you will have to fight for your answers.
Why insurance doesn't pay much if at all
First is: Diagnosis is not within standard guidelines.
Second is: Treatment is not medically necessary because of one of the two following reasons: 1) Not adequate data supporting diagnosis and/or 2) the treatment is not within the standard of care for Lyme disease
Also suggested is to watch the Under Our Skin trailer or visit their blog available on links
