Those results? “Borderline positive.”

The attending physician’s response? “False positives are common. It’s not Lyme.”

When I conveyed this recollected info to Dr. Crist, he said I should definitely have been treated properly then. 

The emotional wave that washed over my entire being at that moment was perhaps the most conflicted conglomerate of feelings I had ever experienced. 

I was bitter, very, very bitter, that I had in fact tested positive for this at the very onset of this personal hell I had endured for the past five years, and if I had received a proper diagnosis, none of this would have had to happen. All of this suffering had been completely in vain. 

I was also... overwhelmed with joy, relief, hope, a sense that God had answered my prayers, and I was in the midst of a veritable miracle. 

Mostly, however, I was dumbfounded by the profundity of the extraordinary, high-level and completely logical information Dr. Crist was transmitting to me for processing. 

There is a growing body of medical professionals who don’t even believe in the concept of autoimmunity. That, when our bodies’ cells appear to be attacking “themselves,” there’s actually some other foreign entity at the attack site on which our T-cells are waging war.

And, if routine testing for bacterial or viral etiologies are always as utterly inept: How many people who’ve received life sentences in the forms of M.S., Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Parkinson’s... and, well, any disease process that involves an inflammatory response to we-don’t-know-what may actually be fighting off an infection?!?!

Some health authorities now say up to 90 percent of the U.S. population carries the bacteria, and that it could be responsible for 50 percent of chronic illness.

To be tested properly for Lyme disease, please visit www.igenex.com to have a blood-test kit sent to you for free, which you can then take to a local lab and have them draw the blood and send the sample back. 

In fact, I implore: If anyone reading this is has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, or are suffering from a chronic illness that has been diagnosed, then re-diagnosed and repeat, get yourself tested as soon as possible. 

It’s literally a matter of life or death. Please and thank you.

 Alicia McGarry's journalistic endeavors began at The Chicago Tribune before her passion for all things Kansas City called her back to her roots. She has written for KC Magazine, The Kansas City Star and LakehomesKC and offers her unique perspective on holistic wellness each month for the readers of Good Health KC.