KLW

Re: the topic of autism and the autism-like characteristics some of our kids exhibit - Dr. Swedo said something near the end of the conference last month that made so much sense. I don't remember the context of the question (it did have something to do with a dual autism/PANDAS dx) but her answer included that she didn't so much see those similar characteristics in non-autistic PANDAS patients as "autistic-like" as much as she considers them to be "encephalitic". I nearly jumped out of my seat and yelled, "Yes! That's it!"
 
I've struggled for so long with people assuming my child is autistic when I never thought that and no diagnostician had ever diagnosed him as such (some non-diagnosticians in the therapy and teaching world diagnosed ME as the "worst case of denial they had ever seen" - but he didn't meet the criteria for an autism dx and all the DOCTORS were saying "it isnt' autism but they didn't know what it was", so I wasn't going to label him incorrectly and put him in a world in which he didn't belong and I'm forever thankful I didn't.
 
When Dr. Swedo said the behaviors were characteristic of being encephalitic - it finally fell into place.

Re: the topic of autism and the autism-like characteristics some of our kids exhibit - Dr. Swedo said something near the end of the conference last month that made so much sense. I don't remember the context of the question (it did have something to do with a dual autism/PANDAS dx) but her answer included that she didn't so much see those similar characteristics in non-autistic PANDAS patients as "autistic-like" as much as she considers them to be "encephalitic". I nearly jumped out of my seat and yelled, "Yes! That's it!"
 
I've struggled for so long with people assuming my child is autistic when I never thought that and no diagnostician had ever diagnosed him as such (some non-diagnosticians in the therapy and teaching world diagnosed ME as the "worst case of denial they had ever seen" - but he didn't meet the criteria for an autism dx and all the DOCTORS were saying "it isnt' autism but they didn't know what it was", so I wasn't going to label him incorrectly and put him in a world in which he didn't belong and I'm forever thankful I didn't.
 
When Dr. Swedo said the behaviors were characteristic of being encephalitic - it finally fell into place.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the plan is to premier it at the Kennedy Center the week after the October PANDAS conference in DC.