Blood testing for AP doctor – 1st time

[eekim]

Hi everyone,
My appointment to see an AP doctor is FINALLY coming in a few weeks, and I will do the blood testing at a local draw center in a couple of days. I noticed that lyme disease testing is not included on the list of blood tests I will be doing, even though I was hoping it would be. Is lyme testing something separate you should request / something you should do on your own? Any advice appreciated.

[Maz]

Hi eekim,

Do you know if your new AP doc is Lyme Literate or not? This will have some bearing on if he/she runs Lyme testing and which labs and tests are run.

You’ll find some answers in the FAQ section, called, “Other Important Questions.”

Sometimes LLMDs will run standard ELISA and western blot testing because insurance will cover it, and if a patient is showing an indication of infection, then that’s enough to treat, in addition to clinical signs/sympotons and past history of tick exposures, etc. sometimes, however, they will go directly to IGeneX or other specialty lab testing. These labs require testing requisitions from a doc. Many LLMDs have the testing kits in their office already with their favored lab, so it’s quick and easy to get the testing run. Sometimes, if other tickborne infections are suspected (ticks pass other, just as serious, infections), they will run a more extensive test panel. Specialty labs are often not covered by insurance, so the testing can be expensive. Very experienced LLMDs may diagnose a patient based on clinical presentation of a tickborne infection and testing isn’t considered vital, just confirmation of what is already suspected, so they may try “therapeutic probes” of antibiotics. One of the most important clinical signs of response to a therapeutic probe is a herxheimer reaction and this is considered evidence that the medication is working. Lyme is a tricky bug. with several hundreds of strains across the globe and standard testing for Lyme doesn’t work for all these – e.g., borrelia miyamotoi may only show up on PCR testing, which is highly specific, but not very sensitive as it relies on the bug DNA appearing in a very small blood sample.

All the best for your first AP doc appointment! Let us know how it goes!

[Author]

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