Hi Kalymika, Welcome!
Although your Immunoblot was a negative overall, you had a positive Lyme specific band (23) show up for IgM
A good LLMD will not rely on a positive test result.
Here's what Dr. H. (well-known and one of the best LLMD's ) said in an interview:
"We need to teach doctors how to make a clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease after ruling out other diseases, supporting that diagnosis by finding borrelia-specific bands on the Western Blot, which show evidence of exposure. This would include finding the 23(OspC), 31(OspA), 34(OspB), 39, and 83-93 kDa bands on the Western Blot. If the patient has classic Lyme symptoms such as migrating joint and muscle pain, with good days and bad days, and symptoms that come and go, made better or worse with antibiotics, you need to use your clinical judgment and recognize that those are classic Lyme symptoms. "
For the entire article:
www.publichealthalert.org/-interview-with-dr-horowitz.htmlYour cortisol is 23? What is the range for it?
"The best research hospital around has infectious disease, but will not take a referral without a positive western blot. "
I doubt if that would be a good place for you to go for treatment anyway. You want a Lyme Literate Dr. (LLMD) as most ID Dr.'s will not treat chronic lyme with the appropriate combinations and dosages of antibiotics and not for long enough time.
The fact that a positive WB is required is a strong indicator that this isn't a good place to go.
I'm sorry you have been dealing with this for so many years...but hopefully you are on the right path now.
(MS is one of the misdiagnoses in Lyme patients.)