I am confused because my IGG test was negative and my IGM was positive. Yet, my 39 KD and 41 D bands were reactive. Yet, I was talking to someone with my local health department today and they said it doesn't make sense that my IGG test was negative, given that I have had symptoms for about 8 months. Any suggestions on this as I try to understand the pieces to this puzzle?

The other thing is that the Lyme bacteria can change it's outer surface proteins many times - to keep the immune system from identifying it as a foreign invader and being attacked.

An IgM result means that you have an active infection. It once was thought to mean an 'early' infection, but has since been revised. IgG means that the infection is at a later stage.

So the fact that you have no antibodies showing up for IgG makes no difference. Chronic Lyme is just Lyme disease that has disseminated through out the body, and you know this by your symptoms. It can happen in days for a few unlucky people, but it's usually weeks, months or even years for others.

There are 3 stages to Lyme- acute (stage 1 for this conversation), which is when it's contained within the skin still and the person is showing no symptoms other than possible rashes; disseminated (stage 2 for this convo)- which is when there are symptoms; and late stage disseminated (stage 3 for this convo), which is when it's body wide symptoms.

So a "later stage" could mean stage 2 or 3. Just having symptoms puts a person at stage 2, but when your symptoms involve more than one body system or is body wide, it's stage 3.

I hope that explained it???