can it be lyme

[maylise]

Lot's of symptoms
Balance out of order.....having to hang on to walls. Eyes so sensitive to outside light and they hurt at times.
Anxiety and depression. arthritis pain and many more
Majalisa

[mkh9]

Oh, also they can sometimes find LE cells on the complete blood count or CBC. These wouldn't be seen on a Lyme persons blood test but there are not always present on a Lupus patient either and I think only in systemic Lupus.
mkh9

[mojogal]

I only had the blood test when they diagnosed me with lupus.
It was done by a rheumatologist.

My GP at the time, biopsied what I now know was a Bartonella lesion on my foot. It came back as vasculitis.

That is good to know about the skin biopsy to rule out or in lupus. Thanks for the info mkh9.

[mkh9]

You are welcome. I hope this helps some people. Also, usually with lupus you should have both the symptoms including a butterfly rash on the face and positive lab tests as I mentioned above including the biopsy and/or LE cell test.
regards,
mkh9

[mkh9]

See the conversation above. It is quite suspicious that the dogs had ticks and you were in the room with ticks. To really develop Lymes a tick has to be on you for  36- 72 hours. This allows time for the tick to transfer the bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi) to you. But a lot of people don't know they have even been bitten. A target rash can form in some people, which is diagnosic) but a lot of people don't develop it too. This makes the quick diagnosis difficult. So it is best to see the LLMD first and try to rule it out. Then if you find it is negative then you can try the other tests such as seeing a rheumatologist or neurologist.
mkh9

[cave76]

Am I starting to see a gap in the 'average' tests done for diseases and the efficiency of them?

For instance----- I've realized for a long time that the Western Blots done for Lyme can flip flop back and forth on any given day: pos. one day neg. the next: IgG pos one day, IgG pos. the next day.

To try to fill a hole in my knowledge about lupus, it seems that the same variabilities can be found in the tests done for it.
When I first found a good llmd I was given all sorts of tests to rule out anything else. Lupus, of course, was one. I was positive!
Fortunately my llmd retested and next time---- neg. (I did get retested at various times through the years for ANA and they remained neg.)

So I just went to the Lupus Foundations web site and, assuming that it would have the latest info.
http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/new_learndiagnosing.aspx?articleid=2242&zoneid=524

excerpt:
"First and foremost, lupus cannot be diagnosed solely on lab work.

Secondly, positive lab tests for lupus can come and go over time and that is quite common. When they come and go it is less likely that the person will end up with a diagnosis of systemic lupus although that is still possible."

What we can only guess at---- mojo said she was dx'd for lupus by a rheum. ----- Do you know, mojo, if he would have continued to test with other tests ending up with a biopsy for positive indentification? Or I wonder if he would have started treating based on the 'evidence' of that one blood test.

[mkh9]

Well, there is always a "gap" in medicine cave76. The doctors take in your symptoms, you test lab tests and sometimes you get a diagnosis and sometimes you don't.  There are lots of reasons for this. There are bad and good doctors, same goes for labs tests. There is bad and good collection of specimens. Some patients don't produce antibodies, or the antibodies aren't formed just yet. The body is complicated too. Then, if a person is taking an antibiotic and is told to collect a culture and the doctor doesn't say to take it before taking the antibiotics, or the patient didn't tell the doctor. etc. Yes, there are things also missed like doing a biopsy on a skin rash for lupus. Do all doctors know about it or only those that graduated from UCLA or Harvard? Did the doctor make a mistake? How well did the nurse or doctor take the swab sample or whatever. I mean it can go on forever. It is up to each of us to take charge of our own health and be informed as much as possible. How many times have you caught mistakes I know I have. You mentioned the Lupus Foundation, well a biopsy is a lab test. As a microbiologist I worked in the department of pathology and the when there was an odd parasite for example that you want to have someone look at besides your supervisor you can walk over to the pathologist and ask them. We work together. I do know mojo and no she didn't have a biopsy. My best friend has discoid and systemic lupus. She went blind because the super star doctor didn't monitor her eyes as often as he should have when she was taking the most common Lupus drug . So now she takes no drugs and is feeling great. She stays out of the sun and wears a hat and long sleeves and she is in remission from both.After many years of the doctor giving her all kinds of research drugs so she could stay off steroids (except for her facial steroid), now she is off of that too.  I think the Lupus foundation statement about "coming and going all the time" is that they go in and out of remission which is true. My friend had discoid lupus for about 40 years and just got systemic about a couple of years ago . Does that answer your question? You know about lab work and its variations depending on the test, sensitivities vary, specificities vary. PCR is more sensitive than EIA, etc. anything else? LOL. I didn't proofread this hope there are no typos.

mkh9