@Garz Thanks much for reply. Will go ahead with both immunoblots assuming the doc doesn't balk at the script i asked him to write. I had read a bunch that made me think those from igenex would be my best bet given i can't take them all. I had seen galaxy but the process is harder- iGenex makes it easy i can just get a script and me or the doc can fax it in- so keepis it simple for the doc too and he'll write a script before thinking too much about it.
read my antigen reports.. iknow i was expecvting nothing, but still disappointeed every last thing was negative. scrolled thru it slowly negative negative negative held my breath when i got to bartonella wishing for a postiive...Anyway, the test i took i mentioned was the urine antigen. one i know is sort of a crappy option but went for it anyway- the old Lyme Dot Blot that got a lot of bad press early on. Did times 2 (2 day seample) rather than 3. Plus did the PCR for antigen that looks at 7 different tick borune diseases (including lyme and bartonlla) and comprises 14 sepearte things they try to amplify with pcr). No fun to read 14 negatives. would have made my life easier if were postiitve.
microscope is just beyond what i can set up right now. They are undoubtedly heavy in weight as well and just can't manage. Would love to hae that as part of a home lab. I also thought about getting my own genetic sequencer- they cost at most 1 thousand - they are even portable. would llove love love that. But the reagents and stuff get pricey and also figured with my MCAS, i'm not sure i can manage the chemcials anyway. So i remain at the mercy of others.
cool that you were able to do it.
if i were guessing, i have a long standing tick bourne illness but it is not the cause of my chronic disease. i think it flares occasionally and contributes to the body burden. Also got someething new recently though suppose could be a flare fup that produced large circular rash (fisrt one, then two, then faded two reappeared a few times) and a long red welt like but thin rash. my first guess had been shingles given that herpes viruses seem to be the bane of my existence now but after the circular one as well as some other input, i figured i better check out this stuff
once before i had some blood drawn and sent it to igenex and asked for a western blot. I knew not to believe the CDC critieria on the large number of bands that need be present based on reading back then. Anyway, test came back as only one or two bands positive and even by igenex criteria, since the bands were not specific for lyme, it was called as a negative test. I say one or two becasue i remember that one of them had me luaghing, so i've hung on the memory- it was to the flagella - the tail -so somewhere aong the way i had some motile beast....and developed antibodies to its tail...cool...ONe other cool think is I had previously had a western blot for lyme done by a local lab at some point prior; never was sure if i should trust that - or trust igenex - but the igenex test turned out to have the identical bands show up, so that validated both labs and gave me trust in ignex.
back then, docs were allowed to override the crap 2 tier recommendation by cdc and ask for the western blot regardless. and ID doc did that. but now, when i ask my docs to do that, and they comply, the lab refuses to run the WB once the ELISA comes back negative! Had that happen before, so stopped testing, but now given the new rashes, i figured i'd have a go at it again since i always wanted to have igenex test bartonella. I did get a doc to order a local bartonella antibody test when i had found the bartonella on my skin but they only test for the bartonell H. one- and figured based on eveything i read it certainly wasn't that.
when i got the bartonella on skin and elsewhere i had consulted with a couple of experts via email. One said that undoubtedly means you do hae a bartonalla infection but the other was not convinced and i tended to think the latter is right. I will look up that result again and see exactly where was found and how often. Not sure i trust the company that did it though- that was uBiome - that went out of business because they got greedy and tried to bill peoples insurance for many thousands for tests they were charging consumers under a 100 for. They always refused to answer my questions on clarfications on data which raised a red flag for me. A similar red flag went off when i had been looking into Theranos and was on phone with them severl times trying to get basic questions answered and could not - and we all know what happened with theranos.
Glad you're making some progress - that the trajectory seems in the right direction. If you were closer, i'd probably try to convince you was worthwhile to look at mine too...both for comparison, adn perhaps we could favor trade...
anyway, thanks for your comments.
