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When deciding to test, how did you choose?

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Lyme Disease
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Posted 3/16/2018 5:46 AM (GMT -5)
I am still deciding whether to test for Lyme (and if so when the best time would be) and my question is, when you decided to test, how did you choose which test(s) to run - e.g.Western Blot only, PCI, co-infections, etc.? I would love to run a panel but not sure of accuracy and cost is definitely a factor.

How did you choose *when* to do your test? Were your symptoms really flaring up or did you wait awhile / wait for reoccurrence first, etc? Did you run a gammut of other tests first to rule things in/out or did you run Lyme tests before/during other symptoms?
Posted 3/16/2018 8:33 AM (GMT -5)
Are you thinking of going through LabCorp or Quest, or something like IGeneX?

For me, my doctors chose, and I had a positive test through LabCorp, so that was easy and inexpensive. But now I'm trying to decide for my daughter and I'm not sure what to do. We did all the other tests we could think of, along with Lyme (twice) and Babesia through LabCorp, and everything was negative. (Her symptoms were flaring at the time of the test.) Going to try IGeneX next. I think she may have babesia based on symptoms, so I definitely want to include that, but I think I'm going to just see what the LLMD recommends when we see her in a few weeks.
Posted 3/16/2018 8:58 AM (GMT -5)
Other deciding factors that matter and for the test accuracy:

1)do you know when you were bitten?

2)when did first symptoms occure?
Posted 3/16/2018 11:36 AM (GMT -5)
I would get the Igenex testing done.

The Lyme WB Igm and IgG for $250 is the best bang for your buck.


They have a new test similar to the Armin Labs testing...but haven't heard enough about it yet to recommend.


Your daughter had a rash last summer? did you take a picture of it?
Posted 3/16/2018 12:35 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks everyone! I was thinking IgeneX since that is the one I am more familiar with.

Symptoms that have me wondering about possible Lyme become apparent about three weeks ago. If I think back, I can remember some symptoms coming on in the last couple years but at the time were one-off's and didn't think much of it (in relation to Lyme anyways) and could explain them away by other things (as I can with a lot of symptoms....that's also what makes this hard).

Yes, my daughter had a rash last summer and I did take a couple of pictures. I just looked at them now - the rash is pretty faint in the pics though we definitely saw it in person. Looks like it had a small red circular centre, then a skin-coloured ring and then a larger red ring beyond that.
Posted 3/18/2018 12:59 PM (GMT -5)
When I first looked into testing I had very little information and noone to guide me.

I did the whole tick disease panel from Igenex.

You could get the new immunoblot from Igenex - I got that - was a negative.

Ended up running me around $1800 CAD all said and done which was too much - but at the time I was desperate for answers and needed something to validate the money I was planning to spend on treatment.

I know a couple who tested negative with Igenex and then positive with the Armin labs Lyme Elispot. I'm sure there are others who had the reverse happen?
Posted 3/18/2018 1:21 PM (GMT -5)
Unless money isn't an issue, I wouldn't bother testing for the co-infections.

they are even more unreliable/inaccurate than lyme tests.


Most (all should) LLMD"s will diagnose the co's clinically...and some LLMD's will treat all three B's regardless.
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