Matthew
First, welcome to the forum. You're in a very good place to troubleshoot your situation as there is a wealth of information here built up over years. MOST of us have experienced the same long, winding, difficult and often frustrating journey full of dead ends.
It seems you to want to hone in on THE issue. But, likely, if your immune system is that under functioning (and as was mentioned, CD57 is really only a measure of the function, not indicative of any one particular cause), you likely have more than one issue going on as your immune system can't fight off what it needs to. Looking for one cause is the trap many people find themselves in because the medical industry really doesn't understand much about
how the immune system functions (which is mostly in your gut, and nutrition is not taught in medical school). Subsequently, far too often, MDs rely completely on test results because they are not good clinicians. Regardless of other issues that may be going on, lyme is a clinical diagnosis. Tests may or may not back up a dx, but do not wait for a test result to determine if you have lyme.
As was also mentioned the lyme tests you have mentioned so far are mostly serology tests or looking for lyme in the blood (and lyme doesn't stay in the blood for long so it's often missed). Serology tests rely on a high immune response that creates antibodies, which is difficult for a body with a CD57 of 22 to create. So, the tests show up negative, when in fact, all they've told you is your immune system couldn't create enough antibodies for the tests to detect (and you can surmise that w/ the CD57). Often what does work with serology tests is to "provoke' with an antimicrobial like antibiotics or over-the-counter Olive Leaf Extract. Take it for 6 weeks (to extend past the lyme lifecycle) and then test.
Ticks also carry many other bacterial, viral and fungal infections, which compounds the complexities of symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. Before my LLMD even started lyme testing, I tested positive for 4 or 5 different viruses and I also had a significant yeast/fungal overload. Only when we got those infections at a more manageable level, was I ready to start testing and treating the lyme and other confections, that I'm still trying to unravel after a year of treating. I know I have Babesia and Bartonella, yet we haven't even started testing for the others my LLMD suspects I have, given my sx.
We like to call this: "peeling an onion". In order to get down to the truth, we have to peel away layers and layers of information, get past different stages of the illness and the sx and the reactions to tx in order to get to the next thing to tackle. Each layer that we can get past helps provide clarity and information to keep us channeled in the right direction.
The other reality is that the treatment itself can peel layers back and can also throw everything out of whack. I had a persistent cough, chest tightness, which was dx as bronchitis and I also had chronic sinusitis and the flu and upper respiratory infections. For over 13 months, I was in/out of ER and Urgent Care and not one of the MDs tested me for anything specific, just kept giving me antibiotics and steroids. After reading and educating myself, I suspected it was a fungal infection and bought antifungals w/out a prescript
ion. Within 3 days, my chronic sinusitis and bronchitis and flu and other infections I struggled with for over a year… were gone.
Oddly, all the antibiotics they gave me stirred up the lyme and confections, and the steroids lessened my immune system functions. And only then did I start to develop enough lyme specific sx that I finally determined that the ROOT cause of what was destroying my immune system and allowing all of these other infections to take hold, were the tick-borne infections. And I finally got to an excellent LLMD, where a whole new journey began.
It is critical to find an experienced,
open-minded LLMD to help guide you through this process and self-education is critical. You're well on your way with that, your knowledge is commendable but I would pause the lyme & co tests and try "provoking" a more accurate response. Or maybe even wait until you can help your immune system to overcome the other more dominant infections right now. I think Cpn is a good possibility, and I think you have some digging to do with possible viral, fungal and mold infections that need to be addressed first.
Have you read the "New to LYME?" thread at the top of the page??? it has INVALUABLE info.
-p
Post Edited (Pirouette) : 7/9/2015 9:57:54 AM (GMT-6)