Someone here mentioned that "we were never 100% normal..." or something like that. It seems as if there is a subset of children, due to genetics or whatever, that will be susceptible to things like PANDAS, PANS, autism, vaccine damage, aspergers, etc. DD was always high needs, a horrible sleeper, from day 1, had a bad reaction to her 8 week vax (which she appeared to recover from), and was always sensitive to light. But we still considered her within the boundaries of "normal" until that one day when she flipped. So, in essence, a perfect storm was brewing.
So it seems that, for those kids, getting "recovered" may not ever mean that they are like that "perfectly" neurotypical child, but that they are back to the point where they were before they fell off the cliff, maybe more high needs and requiring more attention, but definitely manageable and not interfering with a "normal" life.