Recent Lab Results

Received lab results today. My next appt w/LLMD is next week. Interested to hear what insight any of you may have to offer.

cd57 ... 12
3 months ago it was 30

Mercury ... <3
3 months ago it was elevated

C4a ... elevated 3471
3 months ago 1225 (normal range)

Bartonella ... negative
3 months ago it was positive

Ehrlichia ... negative
3 months ago it was positive

Lyme IgM ... CDC positive
Same as 3 months ago

Lyme IgG ... CDC negative
Same as 3 months ago.

Many symptoms are gone since beginning doxy 4.5 months ago. Still have significant tendon/joint issues, insomnia, ear ringing, vision problems, and always hot.

Thoughts? Thank you!!

Thank you, Jo!!

The hot thing is strange. Like you say, seems the thermostat is malfunctioning. There were a few days when I was my normal cool self. Then, whamo, back came the heat. Sorry you are still experiencing it but thrilled your eyes are better.

Go get 'em!

Girlie, the cd57 decrease was a bit discouraging. Glad to see you say it is not necessarily a predictor.

I did not do anything for the mercury. Soon after being diagnosed I decided to clean up my diet. While I eat a very healthy breakfast and dinner, for decades I have eaten lunch most days of the week at a fast food drive thru.

Decided I had to quit the fast food lunch and settled on tuna sandwiches loaded with all sorts of wonderful veggies. When the mercury test came back elevated the LLMD suggested I cut out the tuna. Perhaps that is what caused the level to drop?

Thank you for the response!

Switch to wild caught albacore instead of tuna. It costs a little more, but if you like tuna and want it, albacore is a great alternative.

mareish said...
Thanks, PeteZa. Gotta say I'm a little nervous now about any fish.

I would stop eating the tuna even the albacore tuna if you've had that much of a decrease since stopping it.

Does anyone have any reviews for a doctor in the Boynton Beach , Florida area that is a recommended ILADS , I cant find any reviews....thx

Girlie said...

Well your CD57 dropped - it is supposed to go up when you're getting better. BUT, many LLMD's find that test to not be a reliable predictor of healing...

Honestly ? After hearing Dr. H talking about the horrific herxes people on dapsone have, that do not herx on something else.... i think this CD57 is a VERY RELIABLE tool to measure how many persisters u have in your body. Each persister produces some chemicals that interfere with CD57 cells production, which render u immuno supressed. The more persisters u have the less your CD57. At some point your body stops fighting the infection altogether and your antibodies stop being produced, hence all these people with false negative, that are the sickest of all .... People never get well with low CD57, they just get into remission and relapse later, if they are lucky years later if not, immediately.

CD57 is believed to be unreliable because patients "get healed" even if CD57 is low. Now we know all this is hogwash , nobody really gets healed if chronic, and these CD57 studies are from the time the medical community was still in denial about lyme persisters, before the groundbraking papers by K. Lewis and Zhang about persisters, which are too important researchers to be ignored.

I wonder what does CD57 do on people treated with Dapsone for 6 months or so ... that have horrific herxes, does it go up ? Anyone here on dapsone for months that still tracks CD57 ? Would be really interesting study to make...

Post Edited (mpost) : 8/1/2017 8:00:06 AM (GMT-6)

Girlie, mpost, and dacarte3 - Thank you for the cd57 conversation.

tickbite666 - doxy and a probiotic are the only things I take except for pain med.

Thank you all for the posts. I hope to have some good info following my appt next week.

mpost said...

Girlie said...

Well your CD57 dropped - it is supposed to go up when you're getting better. BUT, many LLMD's find that test to not be a reliable predictor of healing...

Honestly ? After hearing Dr. H talking about the horrific herxes people on dapsone have, that do not herx on something else.... i think this CD57 is a VERY RELIABLE tool to measure how many persisters u have in your body. Each persister produces some chemicals that interfere with CD57 cells production, which render u immuno supressed. The more persisters u have the less your CD57. At some point your body stops fighting the infection altogether and your antibodies stop being produced, hence all these people with false negative, that are the sickest of all .... People never get well with low CD57, they just get into remission and relapse later, if they are lucky years later if not, immediately.

CD57 is believed to be unreliable because patients "get healed" even if CD57 is low. Now we know all this is hogwash , nobody really gets healed if chronic, and these CD57 studies are from the time the medical community was still in denial about lyme persisters, before the groundbraking papers by K. Lewis and Zhang about persisters, which are too important researchers to be ignored.

I wonder what does CD57 do on people treated with Dapsone for 6 months or so ... that have horrific herxes, does it go up ? Anyone here on dapsone for months that still tracks CD57 ? Would be really interesting study to make...

Yes, honestly. Many LLMD's don't use the test.

LLMD MR says this (this is not verbatim): CD57 is a specific type of WBC. Other things can cause it besides lyme.
It can go up and down through treatment. Two studies were presented at the ILADS conference...showing that the CD57 doesn't always increase at the end of treatment. Originally, it was thought that the level could be followed throughout treatment, and improvement means we're on the right track.

LLMD MR occasionally uses it - when he is looking for 1 more piece to diagnose a patient. If a person has symptoms, but negative WB, and a low cd57...it is a CLUE they may have LD.