Human-to-human transmission

 

This is a post I hoped that I would NEVER have to write.   Yesterday I accompanied my husband to the doctor (my LLND); he gave us the results of my husband's recent IGeneX Western Blot tests:

IgM: bands 31, 41, and 83-93 positive
IgG: bands 28, 30, 41, and 66 positive

The IgM test is IGeneX positive, although both of them are CDC negative, of course.

I was so afraid of this, after he suddenly developed TWO autoimmune diseases overnight (celiac disease and psoriasis) a couple of years ago.....then he started complaining of headaches, extreme fatigue, pain in his feet, knees, neck, etc.  My husband's health has really gone downhill recently.

We were married in 2004, in February. My first symptoms of severe illness occurred in March 2004. But his health was good for the most part until early 2009. That's when he was dx with celiac and psoriasis.

I've been telling him for over a year that he needed to get a Western Blot done, but he always insisted that he couldn't possibly have Lyme and that it was a big waste of money. He fought tooth and nail against getting this test done and then going to see my LLND.

I believe that this is a case of sexual transmission....I gave it to him.  :(

I think this is an important issue, because spouses out there may be passing Lyme back and forth to each other and preventing each other from getting well.

Luckily my husband had symptoms, which is how I finally persuaded him to be tested, but some people might not be symptomatic even if they are infected.  Lyme can lie dormant for years until triggered by stress or something else.

We're not SURE who got bitten by the tick, but I think that logically it had to be me, since I have so many tick-borne illnesses . My husband doesn't have symptoms of Bartonella or Babesiosis or HME. He's not nearly as sick as I am (thank goodness!), and he doesn't seem to have any neurological involvement, which is VERY good news!

Also, I recently remembered having a bulls-eye rash, which at the time I thought was ringworm. So again, that points to me as the one who first contracted Lyme.  He has no memory of any tick bite or rash.

It is always possible that we were each bitten separately, but I believe that's less likely than the human-to-human transmission scenario, for the simple reason that Lyme is related to syphilis.

I am so depressed now....