What SOC said above about IGG and IGM interpretation is not being as straightforward as some would like to think also applies to many other areas of medicine. Medical tests and interpretations are often not black and white, and in many cases may not provide simple yes/no answers. Medical test results are often suggestive of the presence or absence of condition, but do not provide absolutely certain yes or no answers. For example, even the very best and most expensive Lyme test is only 90% accurate. That means that 1 in 10 people will be falsely diagnosed positive or falsely diagnosed negative by this test.
So doctors have to work with this situation of less than perfect tests — they have to work with possibilities and probabilities, not total certainty. This is why a good doctor uses a combination of testing, his experience, his gut instincts and his hunches to come to his conclusions.
But doctors are not perfect or omniscient either, so a patient is definitely advised to do their own research, and act on their own hunches too, just like you are doing.
I'm kind of blown away that I was put on Equilibrant even though I don't have positive IGM. Just goes to show that the patient should always double check the doctors conclusions.
Many people try Equilibrant/oxymatrine without any blood tests whatsoever. This is called empirical testing, where you try an anti-microbial, and if you get benefits, then you assume that you have the microbe it treats. Empirical testing is also useful when you don't have access to good doctors and all the appropriate tests, like most UK ME/CFS patients like myself don't .
In any case, enteroviruses can be very hard to detect, so blood tests for these viruses many not be reliable indicators of whether you have an enterovirus infection or not. Chia found that only the ARUP lab enterovirus tests were able to detect the low levels of antibodies present in ME/CFS patients.
So it is perfectly fine to try Equilibrant/oxymatrine speculatively.
As for the water thing, I know what the problem is. It's the P-trap in each of the faucets. If you look up into the faucet, you can see the white disgusting gross stuff. I have now moved into a different unit in the same building. Same situation. If I turn on a faucet that hasn't been on for several hours, the first 10 seconds worth of water will get on my hand, and my hand will stink even after I wash and dry it with soap. I have called the management office in this condo tower, and they just tell me to run the water.
If every apartment has this fungus/mold in the P-trap, then it would seem that the source of the water (perhaps a tank on the roof?) must be contaminated. You might consider sending a sample of the mold away for testing, to find out if it is a toxic variety. There are labs that specialize in mold sample testing.
Though I am not sure if you can get mold poisoning from the water supply, so you'd need to question someone with more expertise on this matter.
This mold may not be the only factor in your illness, but it may be one of them. The smart money is on ME/CFS being caused when multiple factors (toxins and infections) hit a person simultaneously.
Okay okay HERE is the kicker. You nailed it. Though you may not have meant it this way: In the last 12 months I have tested positive for Lyme, CMV, Coxsackie, HHV6 etc... yet I am negative on *all* confirmatory and PCR testing. In other words, the antibodies are being made, but the viruses are *not* showing up. And my symptoms do *not* match any of the viruses behaviors at all. This leads me to believe that I am exhibiting an exaggerated immune response to pathogens I have already successfully suppressed. I have asked the Dr. this question and she said it is not possible to create IGM antibodies to something without it actually being active. Paradoxical IRIS may disprove that.
I don't know how to interpret antibody positive and PCR negative results, but as a complete guess, certainly the paradoxical immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (paradoxical IRIS) you mention might be a good theory to account for your test results.
I understand that paradoxical IRIS occurs when HIV patients begin drug therapy, and the patient's viral load then plummets, and the immune system begins to recover. But in some people, the restored immune system goes into overdrive and starts ferociously fighting any infections it comes across.
It seems that you can get IRIS without having HIV:
Immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome in non-HIV immunocompromised patients.
I wonder if you might have been hit by something like toxic mold when you first moved into your new condo, which suppressed you immune response, and as your immune system recovered, you developed IRIS.
Corticosteroids would appear to be the treatment in severe cases:
Management of the immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.
Wikipedia says: "In paradoxical IRIS reactions, the events will usually spontaneously get better with time without any additional therapy. In unmasking IRIS, the most common treatment is to administer antibiotic or antiviral drugs against the infectious organism. In some severe cases anti-inflammatory medications, such as corticosteroids are needed to suppress inflammation until the infection has been eliminated."
So this suggests you will slowly get better anyway, if you have IRIS.
TIP: Given that you have an unusual condition, one thing to try might be the
NIH's UNDIAGNOSED DISEASES PROGRAM, which is designed to "provide answers to patients with mysterious conditions that have long eluded diagnosis." Although I am not sure if they are still taking on patients; I think the service was over-subscribed.