I just tested positive for Lyme disease and it's co-infection babesia on 12/24/2013 through IGENEX in Palo Alto California. Babesia with Lyme explains my severe chronic pain I have had for 12 years. Most of the people on PR don't have the kind of pain that I have. I also have Neuro-Lyme which causes depression and rage. This has made it twice as difficult to navigate our broken medical system.
I became a member of Phoenix Rising since October 2010 when I was first treated for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I even tested positive for the XMRV virus in September 2010. My local Doctor who fired me in 2010 had run the ELISA Lyme test on me twice (2006 & 2008) and it came back negative. The ELISA test that the CDC recommends catches only 45% of people who have Lyme. In other words, 55 people out of a hundred who are positive for LYME will get a NEGATIVE result.
My Doctor choose IGENEX for my lab work and I tested positive for Lyme (past infection) on a western Blot. He also ran the new IGENEX New Western REGIONAL Complete Co-infection Panel (test# 5085) that tests for:
I became a member of Phoenix Rising since October 2010 when I was first treated for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I even tested positive for the XMRV virus in September 2010. My local Doctor who fired me in 2010 had run the ELISA Lyme test on me twice (2006 & 2008) and it came back negative. The ELISA test that the CDC recommends catches only 45% of people who have Lyme. In other words, 55 people out of a hundred who are positive for LYME will get a NEGATIVE result.
My Doctor choose IGENEX for my lab work and I tested positive for Lyme (past infection) on a western Blot. He also ran the new IGENEX New Western REGIONAL Complete Co-infection Panel (test# 5085) that tests for:
- Babesia duncani, IgG& IgM, Babesia FISH, HME IgG & IgM, HGA IgG & IgM, Baratonella IgG & IgM, Bartonella FISH
This test picked up my Co-infection of Babesia which makes my Lyme Disease ten times worse and explains my severe chronic pain better than ME/CFS did. The CDC has turned LYME disease into a terrible political battle. They recently let the cat out of the bag when they reported that there are 300,000 new Lyme Infections every year in the United States. This is an National epidemic. The ticks get on the birds and the birds have flown all over the world. 55% of the ticks in Vermont have Lyme and up to 15 co-infections inside them. Fifty Five per cent!
I encourage any one with CFS/ME or Fibro to take a look at the symptoms for Lyme and CFS/ME. They are identical. I think Lyme and it's co-infections cause ME/CFS. I have all the same low chronic co-infections that mark ME/CFS like Mycoplasma pneumonia, Chlamydia Pneumonia and Epstein Barr. People with LYME have all of these as well. I joined a facebook website called Lyme and Co-infections. It is a closed group. Like Phoenix Rising it is incredible for sharing information. I have talked with many, many people who have had Chronic Fatigue and Fibro diagnosis for years and then test positive for Lyme and it's co-infections. There is a link here. Many believe that Lyme causes ME/CFS?
So after 12 years my journey really begins. I will be looking at 2-4 years of intense anti-biotic therapy that I have already started. I am on Doxycline, Azithromyacin and mepron. I also use supplementals as well.
As they say....that...is the rest of the story.