I always thought lyme was a definite positive or negative test. Good to know for future reference. I have a friend with lyme who had progressed to Bell's Palsy before they figured it out. Hopefully, they'll keep looking elsewhere as well, since they aren't 100% sure.
Yeah, we wish it were definite. All it can detect is free antibodies, so a) if you haven't made them yet, or b) if they're all busy attaching to the invaders, you'll falsely test negative. And c) if you were merely inoculated (there's a vaccine now, I hear!), or d) you got IgG antibodies placentally from your mom, you'll falsely test positive. I'm sure there's more complexity to that; this is just my first bit of research. :-) People are working on making better tests, but no luck yet.
Your friend might be lucky it was only Bell's Palsy. When it eats up the heart conduction fibers or various bits of brain, you've got something life-threatening on your hands. Scary stuff. If I've truly had this for 17-18 years I am very lucky.
Yeah, they'll keep looking elsewhere, although we might take a break for a few months to treat this. :)
I so hope that the docs can give you some relief. Diagnosis are so comforting after years of confusion. I definitely think G and I should get the vaccine, we are both surrounded by woods. I was tested about a year ago and they just said negative. I wonder how negative I really was?
I don't know the risks of the vaccine, but I'd find it hard to imagine they're worse than the risks of the disease.
If your test was Western Blot, which seems to be accepted as better, and if you weren't exposed right before the test, the negative may indeed be negative. Fingers crossed!
G was at the doc's office as I wrote the last message, so I texted him to ask about the vaccine. I guess there are some scary side effects regarding the shot, so they only give it to high risk patients.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
a) if you haven't made them yet, or
b) if they're all busy attaching to the invaders,
you'll falsely test negative. And
c) if you were merely inoculated (there's a vaccine now, I hear!), or
d) you got IgG antibodies placentally from your mom,
you'll falsely test positive. I'm sure there's more complexity to that; this is just my first bit of research. :-) People are working on making better tests, but no luck yet.
Your friend might be lucky it was only Bell's Palsy. When it eats up the heart conduction fibers or various bits of brain, you've got something life-threatening on your hands. Scary stuff. If I've truly had this for 17-18 years I am very lucky.
Yeah, they'll keep looking elsewhere, although we might take a break for a few months to treat this. :)
no subject
no subject
If your test was Western Blot, which seems to be accepted as better, and if you weren't exposed right before the test, the negative may indeed be negative. Fingers crossed!
no subject
no subject