scratch that, my lumbar puncture would have ruled out Lyme disease!

forget post #1, the LP wouldn't have determined that, it would have to be a blood test I think

So dos that mean you don't think you have had the blood tests for Lymes---thats where post #1 started. You didn't think lymes has been ruled out?

I don't think Lyme disease was ruled out and I'm just wondering if it's possible that I have Lyme disease and not MS?

I don'yt know enough about Lyme disease but you are living in an area that they must know alot about it. I THINK the lyme blood test is done at special testing centers, its expensive and not reliable. That about all I know of Lymes test. It looks like MS on a MRI and doesn't have a cure either.

But treatment for it is different than MS.


A part of the diagnosing procedure is evaluating how well a person respond to the meds that treats the disease. If the person doessn't respond properly to the meds, the diagnosis has to be re-evaluated.

Your responding well to MS meds, that makes the diagnosis of MS likely correct.
Thats the best I can think of, but you could ask your doc how lymes disease has been ruled out-- there might be specific symptoms I don't know about that rules it out. You certainly are living in a high tick bite are, they must have considered it and ruled it out.

Lyme disease can present itself in many weird ways - neurological, orthopedic (joint pain), etc. You can have the tick bite and have Lyme disease without the characteristic rings/bullseye. You can get a Lyme test - it is two fold test- both an immunoassay followed by a 2nd test to confirm that the immunoassay is not a false positive. (They do the second test after the first one comes out positive) You should have the test done by your GP/PCP and sent to a reliable laboratory. There are many fly by night labs that will give a postive Lyme test so they can charge you for the antibiotic treatment. I suspect in Ontario it would be measured at a gov't lab, which is better than what can happen in the US.

While I do not know the prevalence of Lyme in Ontario, it is prevalent in the NE part of the US. I used to live in a county in NY with the 2nd highest incidence of Lyme Disease in the state. Tick-borne diseases present in weird ways, but there are standard lab tests for these diseases. Unfortunately, doctors don't think about ticks just like they don't think about MS. Indeed, just a month ago I had a student that I had to advise to go back to her doctor and get a tick-borne disease test. Doctor thought she had Lupus - she really had a tick disease and the problem went away rapidly after appropriate antibiotic treatment. Doctor didn't think to ask her what she did over spring break - they were camping...

When I was being tested for MS, they also ran a whole series of tests for other things, including Lyme. I was told they ran two different tests for Lyme, just in case. Ask to see the test results from whatever blood tests they ran. It is an easy test to recognize.

2 years ago many people who have had MS for years went and got lyme tested. it was shocking that many did turn out to be lyme disease. It does mimic all ms testing. Lyme disease was new and many are still learn the effects of lyme disease. Do the blood test and make sure you do not. lyme disease can be cured with strong meds.
even LP look same. Lyme disease can paralize and kill.
Karie

I'm going on the 13th to be tested for Lyme disease. I hope it's Lyme and not MS... then I can get back on track with everything I had wanted to do.

Either way, if it is actually MS, it's not so bad. I'm not going to die from it, soon I'm not going to have to have injections and I can claim air conditioning as a medical expense