There is a very good Lyme support site which can refer you to an LLMD near where you live. From there your treatment should improve. If you've had a positive Lyme test from a regular lab, it is really imperative that you get into the hands of a good lyme doc, as there are so many co-infections that the same tick carries that must be looked for.

I think if you find a good lyme doc, you will be on a better road. There is a road to healing with Lyme.

http://www.lymenet.org/SupportGroups/

If you ask about how to find a doctor you will be directed to the correct links. ILADS i think also links to doctors who belong.

Good luck, it's less scarey to have a known than an unknown.

I believe when the word 'cyst' is used in relation to Borrelia it is referring to a part of the life cycle and the cyst is a microscopic organism, which encases itself as to be immune to most antibiotics. There are several forms of the organism, spirochete, cyst, plasmids.

The lyme bug can curl up into a cyst form, with a waxy type of coating, which lives in nerve cells. It doesn't do much damage there, but it sits there and waits for the right situation to come out and multiple and do its thing. Substances like steroids send it into hiding in cyst form. Flagyl is one of the few medications good against this form, but there are others. They all have some difficulties in dealing with, and that's why some doctors feel that the disease is never totally licked, because you never get all the cysts. I believe my doctors think I will always have some cysts, and what we know that's helpful, is that the bugs die off with amoxicillin when they come out, so that if they come out again, we can give them a good hit!

Thanks, LJ, I think sometimes people get confused and think that the Lyme cysts are actual cysts that one can see with the naked eye....Cysts that you can see and feel are likely due to something else and need to be examined.

Lizajane....I can't remember....Did you have IVIG?