Update: Good news! After an hour-long phone consultation yesterday between my husband and my DS17's pediatrician, we've discovered that he (the pediatrician) is very much on board with pursuing PANDAS/PANS. He is willing to conduct blood tests, pursue various therapies, etc. So the next steps are to get our DS into the doctor's office and then to get him to agree to the necessary tests. The dear pediatrician (can I say DP?) is happy if we bring our DS in under any pretext. However, we think that our DS is so protective of his OCD compulsive behaviors that he is afraid to stop them. Also, it is possible that he is afraid that he is crazy and therefore reluctant to pursue therapy of any kind. So it is our hope that if he sees that the cause could be PANDAS/PANS, which is biological, he might relax a bit about treatment. So we feel that we need to proceed with caution, and the DP agrees, saying that if we sense any resistance, back off and try another time-- we don't want to close down our son's willingness to talk about this.
I want to find the right articles and/or books to leave around the house for our son to find. Yes, Saving Sammy could work well. Good suggestion. The pediatrician was suggesting an article from Time magazine that he thought might have just the right tone (informative but not causing alarm). He is going to try and find it, but I am eager to locate it as soon as I can. Do any of you know the title and date of publication for this article? Our DS pretty well shuts down when we try to broach the topic of any of the difficulties he is experiencing, so we are hoping to find literature that does not push him any further into his cone of silence on this topic.
And yes, I've ordered Beth's book and am eagerly looking forward to its arrival. Thanks for your helpful suggestions, everyone! I ride a rollercoaster of optimism and dejection. Today, after hearing my husband report on his phone conversation with the pediatrician, I'm feeling upbeat.