• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

confused! 2 doctors, different lab results???

G

Goimurph

Messages
25
Location
plymouth, ma
As if I couldn't get more confused.

I saw two different doctors for consults. Dr. Elson at Northampton Wellness, and Dr. Enlander.
They both ran numerous labs. They both had completely different reports back with labs.

Dr. Elson reported that I did not have any of the viruses commonly associated with CFS, and he did not see me as fitting into that category. Thought my immune system looked great.

Dr.Enlander came back with a high parvovirus, elevated hhv6, cocksackie borderline high, epstien barr high. Said, yes, immune system disfunction, cfs

What do I do now?? Has anyone ever had this happen?
 
Andrew

Andrew

Senior Member
Messages
2,517
Location
Los Angeles, USA
Different doctors and/or different tests and/or different ways of interpreting tests. For example, if a doctor gives me a lymphocyte test, I'm normal. But if they test the subsets of lymphocytes it shows that I'm below normal in specific lymphocytes. Now, with the subset tests, some doctors will say that's not normal (because it is not). Others will says "nothing wrong" because there is no illness they learned in medical school that fits that pattern..
 
Beyond

Beyond

Juice Me Up, Scotty!!!
Messages
1,122
Location
Murcia, Spain
Probably the doctor that says you are in fact sick is the one that is right, bearing in mind how you feel. Andrew is right, it is very common for docs to dismiss us saying we are perfectly healthy (which makes us cannon fodder for psychobabble) because they are too ignorant to run the correct tests or interpret correctly the appropiate ones.
 
G

Goimurph

Messages
25
Location
plymouth, ma
yes, I agree with that because I have been dealing with dr.'s like this for some time now. But I have two dr.s, who deal with CFS patients, and they are running blood tests on the same viruses.

How can a lab show there is no virus present one day, and then show it 6 times the normal range on another day?
A doctor can make diagnosis on many different things, and labs aren't always the best markers, in judging if you are sick or not.

But how can they say one thing one day and another thing another day?
 
V

Valentijn

Senior Member
Messages
15,786
Goimurph said:
yes, I agree with that because I have been dealing with dr.'s like this for some time now. But I have two dr.s, who deal with CFS patients, and they are running blood tests on the same viruses.

How can a lab show there is no virus present one day, and then show it 6 times the normal range on another day?
A doctor can make diagnosis on many different things, and labs aren't always the best markers, in judging if you are sick or not.

But how can they say one thing one day and another thing another day?
Click to expand...
I'd demand copies of the results from both labs, and then you can see exactly what is tested and compare them. One might only be testing for new/acute infection, or ignoring elevated results for a chronic or past infection. Different manners of testing for the same infection could also yield different results.

I'd also trust an ME/CFS specialist more than a clinic which handles a wide and disparate variety of issues, and only refers to "chronic fatigue" and not ME or CFS.
 
G

Goimurph

Messages
25
Location
plymouth, ma
Valentijn said:
I'd demand copies of the results from both labs, and then you can see exactly what is tested and compare them. One might only be testing for new/acute infection, or ignoring elevated results for a chronic or past infection. Different manners of testing for the same infection could also yield different results.

I'd also trust an ME/CFS specialist more than a clinic which handles a wide and disparate variety of issues, and only refers to "chronic fatigue" and not ME or CFS.
Click to expand...
yes, I have the copy of the first set of labs and the copy from the other set coming in the mail to me. THank you
 
Sparrow

Sparrow

Senior Member
Messages
691
Location
Canada
My gut response would be to trust Dr. Enlander. He is a specialist in this illness.

Would you be willing to share here what exactly the first set of labs was testing for, and what the results were? Those are the ones that came back negative, correct? Were your IgG levels in the normal range? If the tests they did really are identical, you might want them retested a third time to confirm one way or the other. Some labs are more credible than others.
 
G

Goimurph

Messages
25
Location
plymouth, ma
Sparrow said:
My gut response would be to trust Dr. Enlander. He is a specialist in this illness.

Would you be willing to share here what exactly the first set of labs was testing for, and what the results were? Those are the ones that came back negative, correct? Were your IgG levels in the normal range? If the tests they did really are identical, you might want them retested a third time to confirm one way or the other. Some labs are more credible than others.
Click to expand...
yes, I would absolutely share. As soon as I get the second set I will be able to see them side by side and I will post them
 
You must log in or register to reply here.