How to Come To Know If You Have Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is often tricky for diagnosing by the doctors. It is because often patients are not able to realise the bites of the ticks carrying the disease. Moreover the symptoms and signs look much identical to numerous other health issues.

Even the ticks can transfer other diseases into your body simultaneously. The tests available for diagnosing Lyme disease are not correct at all. But these are helpful in knowing you whether you have it not.

Read the blog thoroughly to know how you can know when you have the infection actually.

What’s Lyme disease?

You can get this bacterial infection due to biting of black-legged tick or young deer tick. This eight-legged insect is almost the size of poppy seed and commonly available in grassy and wooded regions all over USA, particularly in Rocky Mountains and New England.

Due to the tiniest sizes of the ticks, often people can’t realise its bite. But, as long it attaches to your body as the chance is high of getting Lyme disease in case the tick carries the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi.

In case you leave it untreated for long then it can result in associated problems with the nervous system, heart and joints affecting the memory of the patients.

How to diagnose it?

In case you are residing in location prone to ticks then consult with the doctor. They will ask you about the symptoms you are experiencing. Every minute detail is imperative to make Lyme disease diagnosis.

Initial symptoms which you will experience within first month of tick bite are:

• Fatigue
• Muscle aches
• Fever
• Headaches
• Rash at the biting site that will appear as ‘bull’s-eye’

Afterwards, you will encounter the following symptoms post some weeks or months of tick bite:

• Short-term memory
• Racing heart
• Swelling or severe joint pain
• Tingling in feet and hands
• Facial palsy (muscle tone loss or drooping in the face)
• Rashes on various body parts
• Breathing shortness
• Nerve pain
• Dizziness

Often symptoms will go and come due to Lyme disease because they vary on its stages.

Is blood test available for Lyme disease?

When your doctor is suspecting Lyme disease in you, 2 Lyme disease tests in the UK will recommend to you. These will check for the signs which the body struggles fighting off. You can receive precise and correct results a couple of weeks after getting the infection. The tests are:

ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test

This type of test is not able to check for the bacterial responsible for Lyme disease. It is only helpful for checking the response to immune system for the disease.

After invasion of the health by Borrelia burgdorferi the body starts making special proteins (antibodies) for fighting against it. ELISA test will look for antibodies. Although the most common yet ELISA test is not correct at all. It can deliver false positive reports sometimes. Even if you test much early after getting the infection then due to lack of antibodies it can deliver negative result irrespective of having Lyme disease.

Western blot test

Despite coming out negative or positive for ELISA, the doctor will suggest you to perform this test as well. Western Blot makes use of electricity for splitting up the certain proteins into patterns present in the blood. Later, these will use for Lyme disease’s patterns.

If there are 5 matching bands then it is confirmed that you get Lyme disease. But not every laboratory has the similar standards. There is a probability that you receive negative result from a lab and positive report from another.

Many labs offer Lyme disease test by making use of body fluids or urine. However, FDA doesn’t approve these methods of testing. Even in some studies it has been found that the results are often incorrect. Hence, there is a high chance of being marked as false positive.

Other tests

Being known as ‘the Great Imitator’, Lyme disease mimics others various medical problems. Doctor also carries out various other imaging or blood tests for ruling out the chance of the following diseases:

• Parkinson’s disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Mononucleosis
• Lupus
• Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS)
• Guillain-Barre syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Attention deficit disorder
• Arthritis
• Alzheimer’s disease

Other information to know

In case you are suspecting Lyme disease, then it is better to consult with board-certified specialist. They are skilful in both treatment and diagnosis.

However, the tests available for Lyme disease are not evident. That’s why the doctors start treating the patients on the basis of symptoms and similar experiences. But diagnosis is substantial for continuing the treatment.

Search with Lyme disease testing near me to find a clinic where you can perform the necessary tests to start the treatment on an earliest note.