Need Help with Lyme Disease Test Results Interpretation & Next Steps

[WalktheWalk2]

New to the site.  Great info here.  I went to my MD 3 weeks ago and explained that I had been bitten by literally hundreds of ticks in my lifetime (I'm 56) since 1965 for sure, spent a lot of time in the outdoors in several states.  In Spring '95, I got a bad rash from a tick bite, followed by widespread joint pain in major joints.  I was 35 and active, in good health.  Went to another local doc who ran the wrong blood test (I have a copy if you want a laugh at how far we've come) and pronounced that I was "depressed".  Stressed and depressed, yes, but that did not explain sudden onset joint pain.  

Fast forward 22 years and I am in constant chronic pain.  Part from an MVA and whiplash, cervical arthritis, DDD, but the deep fibromyalgia and fatigue, and worse, the endless sleepless nights that require me to medicate myself to get any sleep (typically muscle relaxers, gabapentin and Ambien at a minimum or I am awake all night).  Roaring tinnitus that comes and goes.

God forbid I ever get a bug like a bad cold or the flu. I almost never go anywhere, and I take a lot of supplements, but when I get a cold or other bug, it wipes me out and attacks every joint with inflammation.  Became more aware of Lyme disease when a friend, a county commissioner, also an avid outdoorsman, was diagnosed and treated with Lyme disease.  Then I read the symptoms a few weeks ago, and could mark off virtually every single one as a symptom I have daily.

So, I explained all this to my doc, who, God Bless him, ordered an array of tests for tick borne illnesses.  He is a city doc, to be sure, and admitted not knowing the proper protocol for Lymes, which is now known to be prevalent in Florida where I live (as can be proven from the canine testing reports - sometimes I think my dog gets better care than I do!)

All of the co-infections, Babesia, Erlichia and Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever came back negative.  The Lymes results, done via a Quest Diagnostics-derived  blood test using the Western Blot Test,  keeping in mind that I believed I was freshly infected on or about April 17, 1995 from looking at my files, my Lymes results showed that none of the IgM bands were reactive (ZERO), as would be expected, but that these 3 IgG bands (IgG being more typical of older infections) were REACTIVE:

Band 41
Band 58
Band 66



For a probable 20+ year Lyme infection, I read this as meaning I am right.  That I may have Lyme disease and it's probably chronic.  By CDC standards, I would need 5 bands to be REACTIVE, but that standard IMHO is a bit ridiculous.  It probably results in a huge number of false Negatives for people who have chronic infections.

Can anyone else shed some light on this?  I plan to go back to see my local doc, and can almost hear him saying that I don't have a Lyme infection, based on CDC guidelines.

...which explains NONE of my symptoms the last several years.  Again, I pick ticks off of me all the time, as we own deep woods property in Florida and Tennesee and in the 60s and 70's, my parents taught us to remove ticks by BURNING THEM WITH A MATCH STICK, so they would back out more easily - which by today's standards seems medieval.  Of course, if any of those childhood ticks were infected, they would have vomited their guts out upon being scorched by a recently lit wooden match.  Amazing that I have survived this long really.

QUESTIONS:  

1. Are these 3 IgG bands being REACTIVE (positive) significant?

2.  I was taking immune boosting supplements including berberine, would that throw off the results, showing less bands by suppressing the infection and/or symptoms?

3.  Where or how do I get additional tests to go further with this to be sure?  What test would that be?

4.  Any suggestions on treatment?


ANY HELP WOULD BE MOST APPRECIATED!