What does it mean if you have a high protein count in your blood?

What might these symptoms mean: prolonged fever, exhaustion, and pain with a normal white blood cell count?

• The patient has had a fever spiking to 102.5 F for 6 days, has been totally exhausted, and has had aches and pains, especially joint pain, but also headache, and painful breathing. The fever is controllable by Tylenol, but doesn't reduce pain. The first doctor prescribed rest and plenty of fluids, suspecting a virus. There was no improvement, and the patient had trouble eating and drinking because it made her feel stick to her stomach. A couple days later, after no improvement, another doctor gave a bag of IV fluids and an anti-nausea medication to help rehydrate the patient. A blood sample was taken, and there was a normal white blood cell count. The patient is worried she may have Lyme's Disease, and is now on a Doxycycline antibiotic. There was immediate improvement after the antibiotic course was started; the patient had more energy and was able to walk around. Could there be a bacterial infection which is now being controlled by the antibiotic, which would not cause an elevated white blood cell count? She had a normal white blood cell count, yet the antibiotics seem to be what has turned her illness around. We will soon get the test results for Lyme's, but we're looking for other possible causes. Thanks for your help!

• Answer:

  Be advised: the Lyme test she got was probably the ELISA, which is known to have a rate of false negatives. (Meaning, it often says you don't have it, when you actually do.) Lyme doesn't always cause an elevated WBC. The fact that she responded so well to doxycycline is very suggestive of Lyme disease. Good sources of info about Lyme disease: http://www.lymedisease.org http://www.ilads.org http://www.canlyme.com http://www.lymeinfo.net http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org http://www.lymenet.org http://www.igenex.com http://www.lymedoctor.com http://www.touchedbylyme.org http://www.facebook.com/lymedisease.org