Lab Result Issues

I’m more of a pessimist than optimist so I’m always worried about unknown stuff happening. Likewise for investments, I’m pretty risk adverse so I get worried when I buy stock. Anyway, only one day after the post-op meetings, there is a problem already. One of the blood tests that detects coccidioidal IgM antibody came back high. That indicates a possible Valley Fever infection. Symptoms include: fever, cough, tiredness, shortness of breath, headache, chills, night sweats, joint aches and muscle soreness, red spotty rash. That’s worrisome since I’ve been waking up at night in a cold sweat and I’m always tired. I just thought that was part of kidney failure and being anemic. However, I do have a rash on my lower back that’s showed up a few weeks ago. Again, I thought it was something else since the itch could be caused by high phosphorus levels.

Arg. Now I’m waiting for a call from the transplant center. They are scheduling me to see an infectious disease specialist, probably up at UCLA again. I read that in most cases Valley Fever will go away by itself. However, if I do have it, we need it gone by the time of surgery since the immunosupressive drugs will just make it a lot worse. I’m super worried that this will delay the transplant beyond my sister’s birthday and then there’s no telling how long the delay will be.

Sigh… why is everything so difficult?

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It turns out I also test positive for Epstein-Barr IgG and CMV IgG antibodies. However, it looks like 85% of adults also test positive so likely no big deal.

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I saw this NIH study that says if you test positive for Cocci IgM but negative for Cocci IgG, there’s an 82% chance that you’re not infected. That’s a pretty high false-positive percentage.

The clinical observation has been made that there might be an unacceptable number of false-positive enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test results for IgM among persons suspected of having coccidioidomycosis. Patients with a positive result for IgM by EIA are thought to have a diagnosis of acute coccidioidomycosis. However, this study found that 82% of patients with an IgM-positive and IgG-negative EIA result did not have coccidioidomycosis.