Medical records and your personal health record (PHR) are not the same thing. Medical records contain information about your health compiled and maintained by each of your healthcare providers. A PHR is information about your health compiled and maintained by you. The difference is in how you use your PHR to improve the quality of your healthcare.
Laboratory blood tests are helpful if used correctly and performed with validated methods. Laboratory tests are not recommended for patients who do not have symptoms typical of Lyme disease. Just as it is important to correctly diagnose Lyme disease when a patient has it, it is important to avoid misdiagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease when the true cause of the illness is something else.
Test results for Lyme disease are unlikely to be positive until about 4 weeks AFTER the known tick bite. It takes our bodies that long to mount a measurable antibody response. There are problems with our current 2 tier testing methods, but the Western Blot (WB) tends to be more reliable than the ELISA.f there is such a rash present, this IS Lyme disease and must be treated with a full course of antibiotic therapy. (There are at least two views on how long to treat early Lyme disease, varying between 2 weeks to 6 weeks.