Hey everyone, so if you have been following my lyme awareness videos for the past week, you have learned about the symptoms and different illnesses it can cause, and that there is a chance that you have been exposed to it.

So how can you get diagnosed with it?

Typically, a doctor can order a blood test for you that will check for lyme antibodies, such as the ELISA or Western Blot test.

UNFORTUNATLY, these tests are often known to produce false negatives, missing up to 50% of Lyme cases. There are multiple strains of Lyme disease, and these tests usually only detect one antibody strain 💚

SO DO NOT RULE OUT LYME IF YOU HAD A NEGATIVE RESULT!

A Lyme-Literate doctor, or LLMD, will be able to provide you with more accurate testing. Be warned though, these tests are usually not covered by insurance. Pretty much any chronic lyme treatment is not covered by insurance, but more on that later.

There are also no official tests to determine if the Lyme is gone. When I was first diagnosed with lyme, I asked my infectious disease specialist to schedule a follow-up appointment with me when I was done with the 30-days of antibiotics. He said “No. There is no need to.” I asked him, “but don’t you need to check to see if the antibiotics worked and the lyme is gone?” He said, “No, it will be gone after 30 days. There is no need to come back here.”

Obviously, I was still sick after the 30 days was over. It did not treat my lyme symptoms whatsoever. I’ll talk more about my effective treatments later.

But anyway, he said this because there was no way for him to actually determine if the lyme bacteria was still active in my body. Because it tests for antibodies, the tests could likely always show up positive if you have ever had lyme disease.

I was diagnosed with Lyme through the typical Western Blot test and the test from iGeneX. What Lyme test did you use?