Lacy

A brief update for all - sorry it's been forever! Our daughter has been seeing Dr. Fortner now ever since I made my original post. She knows PANDAS on a personal level and has been an amazing source of help and sympathy. Our DD has been on long-term antibiotics for over a year now. We started off on the full dose and then we backed off to half as a maintanance dose. When DD starts exhibiting symptoms we up it to the full amount for two weeks or until the symptons wane. I would absolutely recommend her to anyone in the Virginia area looking for help with their PANDAS child. Incidentally, Dr. Fortner's office and nurse/assistant all are amazing. To this day it shocks me at how polite everyone is, and willing to help - and we're not talking a small office! They have multiple locations around the area, AND if you need a titers test done (which Dr. Fortner doesn't mind ordering), you don't have to go to the local LabCorp for the draw. Her own office does the blood draw and "Mo" is especially great with DD when it's time for that. I just can't say enough good things - we're just truly happy with Dr. Fortner and are glad to finally have a medical doctor advocate on our side! If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail me! lacyhatton@aim.com Lacy P.S. We never did go back to Dr. Koch. He is a very nice man, but was very open that he didn't know much about PANDAS and we got the impression that he didn't like keeping DD on the long term antibiotics.

Richmond, Virginia Area (And these ones take insurance!!) Pediatrician, Dr. Julie Fortner http://www.richmondpediatriccenter.com/def...t=1&Child=1 [i may be a little premature at recommending Dr. Fortner, but read on:] We have an appointment with Dr. Fortner next week and I couldn't be more thrilled - I think we finally hit the jackpot on someone who will LISTEN! So far her staff (receptionist and nurse) have been extremely sympathetic, warm and friendly. And while it's not my business to give details, I think it's safe to tell you all that Dr. Fortner (from what her nurse was telling me) has first hand experience with dealing with PANDAS children. I am absolutely looking forward to next week! Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist, Dr. William C. Koch http://www.vcuchildrens.org/?id=716&sid=4

When DD was on 250 x2 a day, she was on it for 9 months straight. She was so wonderfully happy - back to her old self. After we took her off the antibiotics (it was the end of May 2008), she remained "normal" until late September, early October 2008. She reverted back quickly and it just so happened that there was a flu bug and strep running amuck through school. She never seemed to catch them, but that's when she 'tanked'. When we tried to reintroduce the antibiotics, it didn't work after 3 or 4 weeks and we gave up because her moods were becoming more severe. Being desperate, we switched strategies and finally got talked into putting DD on an SSRI (mood stabilizer). It never worked. We decided to give the antibiotics another shot and it wasn't until week 4.5 or 5 that we saw her turn around. During the end of this past May we tried taking her off everything on a doctor's request and that was a big nightmare (I put it out in the forum somewhere), but a long story short, we've got DD off everything and when her moods are back to severe (which usually happens in school - which starts up again 8/10), we plan to send Dr. Cunningham a blood sample to see if she has any luck finding something. Hugs to you and good luck!!

Our DD's handwriting seems to follow the same trend... good days and on antibiotics, handwriting is great (for her age)... bad days or not on antibiotics - terrible sloppy handwriting. DD is very artistic (takes after Daddy - I don't have a creative bone in my body), and you can even see the same results in her pictures - the quality seems to vary depending on whether she's in the "waxing or waning" mode of her symptoms.

After this week's appointment, we decided $200 is worth the test from Dr. C, and so I've e-mailed her to see if she can include us. However, I may need to wait for the best results. DD's symptoms tend to manifest mostly at school, and well... since it's summer break, I may wait until her school starts up in mid-August. When Dr. C writes back I'll probably give her that heads up and make sure she's OK with that. What lab did everyone take their children to? I'm wondering if it would just be the local "LabCorp"? Also, has anyone received test results that weren't indicitive of PANDAS? I think I'm mostly worried about getting results that say DD is just fine. It's bittersweet... I don't want anything to be wrong with DD, but knowing would really help us at this juncture.

You guys are the best support system!! Since that visit on Tuesday, DH and I have been kidding with one another by making fun of the doctor (between ourselves of course)... for instance, one remark the doctor made to us on Tuesday: Normal people always feel happy. I'm not sure happy is the word I would have used (maybe content or indifferent) because unless I'm living in La La land or am on drugs... hmmm WAIT A SECOND! She puts kids on drugs for a living! No wonder everyone around her is so happy! Sorry, sorry... bad me. I'm literally afraid to tease much more than this online because I'm convinced she'll blacklist us in the medical community somehow. She's fairly high profile (medical director, and, and, and), so in the grand scheme of things, she's probably over busy and not doing her patients any justice by trying to burn the candle at more than two ends. OH! DH told me I forgot to tell everyone the even more unprofessional part - perhaps even worse than telling me how unimpressed she was with my tears! During our appointment her phone kept going off - vibrating and beeping. She'd look down at it and hit a couple buttons and then look back at us. What should have been the final straw was when her phone rang during our session and without missing a beat (while I'm in mid-sentence), she took the call!! Instead of apologizing to US, she actually apologized to the caller and said she was in session and could she call back when she was through? I was completely flabbergasted when she ended the friendly call and looked at us as if we had been interupting something - kind of a look like, so yeah, you were saying.... but no sorry, not a word! I just sort of regrouped and tried again. Unbelievable! LOL they can't even make this stuff up in movies! We're thinking about contacting Colleen's docs again and trying to set up an appointment (thank you again Colleen for the info!), but we've also contacted another Immunologist - but this one believes in PANDAS. We're hoping she'll be able to order a couple tests to be ran, and then I'm going to look into this Dr. Latimer. What can everyone tell me about Dr. Latimer? By the way, thanks again all!

What a day yesterday was! A brief detail... Our DD's pediatrician kept pushing a particular psychiatrist on us and finally when we came to yet another deadend we scheduled an appointment to see her. We first saw her back in May and I broke down in tears of relief because she said she would help us, and that she wasn't ruling out PANDAS even though she felt it wasn't a clear cut case of PANDAS. She even told me that she'd call Susan Swedo to get her take on things. But for now, so that we could approach this in a scientific method (because that's what really speaks - proven results), she wanted DD off all medications and to start over. Since taking her off the antibiotics (and the Lamictal which wasn't helping at all), DD's behaviors have been in a downward spiral. Luckily she's on her summer break, so where it usually manifests itself the most - at school in the form of complete meltdowns, we've been able to deal with it at home and luckily the sitter's. Fast forward to yesterday... I was extremely relieved that DH could attend this appointment with us, and so he could meet this doctor who was "willing to help us". I'm so grateful he did come because I was completely unprepared for what would transpire during our visit. The doctor wanted to know how things were going, and I gave her a high level, but "to the point" journal that I had been keeping since our last appointment. This journal was very high level and in large font (doctors I've found don't have time to read through pages and pages of documents - although I think that's a poor excuse). So I was a little taken aback when she looked at it as if it were a foreign object and then absently laid it ontop of some misc. files. At this point, I'm still thinking we're on track, and that she might read it later. The doctor started the onslaught of questions to DD (who is not quite 8 yet - soon) with her cronies (as DH later called them) stared on. I think the cronies were students. She barely introduced them to us. DD was too shy and put on the spot to answer any question with genuine thought. She just agreed or said I don't know to all questions and meekly looked at the cronies across from her. At some point I became frustrated with the lack of "kid gloves" the doctor was using during her q&a session so I started asking the same questions only a little more kid-friendly. I tried to get DD to tell me the answer, but the doctor got bored of that or must have thought I wasn't qualified enough to repeat the questions because she moved the subject along. I tried to explain to the doctor that since taking DD off antibiotics (and that stupid good-for-nothing Lamictal that I still don't believe helped), that DD had been experiencing OCD thoughts again, and that she had becoming uncharacteristically clingy towards us. I'm not sure if there was a language barrier, or if I wasn't being clear because I found that the majority of the appointment I was being talked over - not allowed to answer questions accurately - oh this part is good... She specifically asked us to rate DD's OCD behavior on a scale of 1-10. Sure! Only problem was that her scale criteria didn't accurately describe DD's OCD behaviors correctly. 1 was no OCD, and 10 was that DD was so OCD she wouldn't leave the house. I tried to explain that wasn't how her OCD was manifesting itself, but she absolutely refused to hear me out. Throughout the appointment she would continue to cut me off and talk over me. She was so disrespectful. I thought doctors are supposed to listen?? At some point she said that she did her "due dilligence" and that nowhere in the information that I had provided her did it reflect any symptoms of PANDAS - and she kept reminding us that she knew what PANDAS was because by darn she's had patients with it that she treats. Uh huh. She said that typical PANDAS patients had elevated titers levels and DH stopped her on the spot and said, well then your due dilligence would have shown you that DD's titers levels were completely off the charts and only come down (still not into 'normal' levels, but it comes down) with the introduction of antibiotics. She didn't seem to remember those results and I completely forgot to ask her whether or not she even received the enormous mailed packet of DD's medical information and tests I mailed to her - doesn't matter. This doctor said that ethically she could not, and (she said this:) to be clear WOULD NOT prescibe DD antibiotics when she didn't believe this was PANDAS. That is was obvious (by this time I'm in quiet tears and must look pretty PO'ed, because she look at me and said this) that DD's issues were clearly anxiety and there was family history of mental issues... and somewhere in this she said (I didn't hear this) to me - I'm not impressed with your tears. DH heard this and told her that the tears she was seeing from me were tears of frustration with the way our appoointment was moving forward. Ultimately the doctor said that we needed to find a medical professional that we trust who will help us. I almost laughed outloud when she said this, but managed to keep it together enough to spit out - what did she think we were doing?? And have been doing?? We've been seeing various medical professionals since DD was four years old - trying to find someone who was willing to help us and credible, and not a hack. I think at that point she thought I was calling her a hack because she stopped me short and informed me that she didn't even have to respond to that because she knew she absolutely was not a hack and started laughing(!!) at me and looking at her cronies who joined in. I think by this point we knew we were officially in the Twilight Zone. We must've looked pretty funny - me especially with my tear stained face (red nose and eyes), and I'm sure I must've stared at her like she had lost her mind because she ended the conversation with telling us it would not be necessary to schedule another appointment with her. I'm leaving out a lot of details but we pretty much spent the session going round and round in circles. I couldn't get her to explain to me why she wanted to use psychiatric medications when quite clearly antibiotics were working. She just wouldn't respond - she'd start talking about something else and seemed satisfied that she was answering my question. Sorry for rambling on. If you all are like me, you're probably wanting to know this doctor's name. Message me if you're interested - she practices here in Richmond, VA at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children (aka: VTCC), I would be happy to relay the info. Thanks for lending an ear! I'm going to go start back at square one now.

When DD was seen by an Infectious Disease Specialist he specifically told us that he was going to diagnose DD as a "strep carrier" because he wasn't sure if the insur. company would pay for anything if he diagnosed her as PANDAS. After her T&A in 2007 her strep tests were coming back negative and I don't recall her having a positive ever since - which makes it more difficult to get doctors to listen. PANDAS or not, our new doc (Pediatric Psychiatrist) said that it's pretty undeniable that the antibiotics are effective to quieting the behavioral symptoms that DD presents. I still believe in my heart of hearts that this is PANDAS but majority of DD's docs/specialists sure are dead set against that option - denying PANDAS's very existence. So frustrating sometimes. Our fingers will stay tightly crossed that this Ped. Psychiatrist won't give up on us. She told us she would be contacting Dr. Swedo for guidance. I sure hope she gets in touch with her before our next appt. June 23rd.

I sure hope someone can help recommend someone to you. As of yesterday we were on new doctor #15 ... hmm.. or maybe it was #16. At any rate I think we may have found a sympathetic ear. She plans on calling Dr. Swedo to talk to her more about DD and see if they can't come up with a good solution. Ultimately this new doc (a pediatric psychiatrist - go figure) has told me to prepare to start from the beginning so we can scientifically approach this and make sure we have everything covered. She sounds like she'll be thorough, but I'm not getting my hopes up - they've been dashed away so many times before. Hugs to you and your son!

I completely echo everyone's sentiments and offer a lot of sympathy for what you're having to go through. ::hugs:: We got extremely lucky with our DD's school - especially because it's way out in the country and they don't always get the cream of the crop with staff. The school psychologist just happened to have worked 1 other PANDAS related case in the county so she was on board with us from the beginning. Luckily she was also the first one to do DD's child studies testing so we could qualify for the IEP. Out of curiosity what is an OHI? In my heart I know that it would've been a much more difficult (if not completely impossible) task to get everyone to "buy into that PANDAS thing" if it had not of been for that school psychologist. Unfortunately she's no longer at DD's school, but is still in the district. The new school psychologist that did DD's 2nd child studies testing definitely tried steering everyone towards behavioral and emotional issues, but luckily nobody really bought into it since they've seen DD at what should be her norm (when we did her long term antibiotics during 1st grade) - she's very sweet, caring and playful. Not so much shy, but a "normal" child her age. So it's around this time of year that I still get nervous about DD moving forward to a new teacher. School in these parts wraps up the Friday before Memorial Day, and starts up again mid-August. These past two years (1st & 2nd grade) we got extremely lucky with her teachers - they are identicle twin sisters who are very close and have very similiar teaching methods. It was like getting the same teacher twice - and they both obviously care deeply for DD despite her meltdown moments - they know it's not normal for her. They also have been extremely tolerant enduring my countless e-mails and notes to check how DD is doing on almost a daily basis. Sorry if I started rambling... time to hit send.

Not sure that this helps, but our DD has been placed on Lamictal by her psychiatrist which is supposed to be for seizures but also helps bi-polar patients. Personally I don't believe our DD needed to be on it as it only seems to vaguely mask her symptoms and I don't believe she's bi-polar. We think the antibiotics are working much better and plan to ask about weaning her off the Lamictal. Isn't it funny (not ha ha) what some treating specialists can convince us to try?

I'm not certain this fits with what you're seeing, but anytime our DD goes into a fit of rage her eyes do some strange things... of course the blank "nobody is home" wild stare, but we notice that one of her eyes will go sort of "lazy" and drift a little. When I see that in her eyes it absolutely upsets me to no end.

Last week was her first official fantastic week at school since going downhill this past November. Unfortunately today I've already gotten my first call from school saying she was having a rough morning. Her retort to the assistant principal was to say that her medicine wasn't working and that's why she was being bad. Hmm.. I'm thinking we talk too much in front of her sometimes. I don't want her to use that as an unecessary crutch. Anyways, I'm trying not to get too down yet. I'll continue to give updates.

Beautifully written! I couldn't help but smile when I saw you ran into the same problem I did - the 2000 character limitation!! If anyone gets a response, let everyone know right away! Anyone else getting to this thread late - please consider writing too! You can't ignore the squeaky wheel!

Update for everyone (I hated to open a new thread for this): Sabrina was on Spring Break all last week and was in her 3rd/4th week of antibiotics. She was with us so there wasn't any major drama. This week Sabrina has finished up week 4 of the pink stuff and will be starting her new bottle tomorrow for week 5. Now then, guess what? Every day this week she's had fantastic days at school! This hasn't happened since before November of last year - remember, she was on the long term antibiotics and then after 4 months of being off of them she went back to uncontrolled? I'm desperately crossing my fingers that the antibiotics are finally kicking in. They were giving her the lowest dosage possible (if you ask me), so no wonder it took forever. I'm definitely not relaxing at all. Even if we get 1 straight month of fantastic behavior I'll probably still be experiencing post traumatic stress disorders. Tomorrow is another day and so I'll hold my breath and see. I'll keep you all posted. Side note - Sabrina's next appointment is with a new doctor that *supposedly* has experience with PANDAS. It's scheduled for May 5th. If things continue to go well at school, I plan to talk to this doctor about what we've witnessed with the obvious success of the antibiotics and see what she says. Ultimately if we can slowly take Sabrina off the Lamictal, that'd be my preference. I still don't think it ever helped. Extra side note - Yesterday was day 4 for good days in a row. She's so proud of herself. I called her teacher yesterday afternoon and her teacher said it was a beautiful side to Sabrina that she's missed. She said the change was as if someone flipped a switch. Apparently her reading picked up almost immediately and that she's been so sweet, caring and having a better time interacting with her friends. (They need to add the happy/crying smiley to cover exactly how I feel).

Here's to hoping it helped... I just sent my note to your Oprah link. I tried getting my local NBC news interested and sent their sister station's story, but never heard back. ::Sigh::

I almost didn't read it because I'm not sure I can take more negativity towards something that is very real for us all. I wish they'd stop forcing us in the direction of psychiatric assistance.

I have yet to get anyone to sign their John Hancock next to the PANDAS diagnoses. For awhile they were suggesting the possibility but now I've run into a bunch of dead ends where doctors and specialist aren't subscribing to its very real existence. Definitely let us know what area you're from and hopefully someone can help recommend a doc or two.

Usually DD gets behind in her work at school because she starts to meltdown. A lot of work has been scribbled on, torn up, crumbled up and attempted to be thrown away during her fits. However the teacher will send home her missed work and then I'm forced to sit down with her and make her work on it. Usually I don't have to fuss too much at her to do it, but I absolutely have to sit with her or stay very close by - i.e., she'll sit at the kitchen table while I'm cooking dinner and I wander back and forth to keep an eye that she's doing her work. We have a really tough time with her handwriting though - it seems to vary with her moods. When she's having a tough day her handwriting is obviously sloppy. When she's having an OK or great day, it's very neat and beautiful.

Hi all! So DD went to her dentist appointment and it turns out that it was nothing serious. They couldn't take xrays (it was 2 days too soon since the last one for insurance to cover them - argh), but after a good cleaning they polished up a bit. However, I thought they still looked discolored. The dentist said that baby teeth tend to be a brighter white than the adult teeth that come in behind them. She showed me the differences with DD's other adult teeth and she was right - they were darker than the baby teeth. Also, since we're on well water we're going to get that tested - apparently some wells still carry trace amounts of flouride - enough for a child. If there isn't enough flouride in the water, then the next step is to give her a monthly flouride treatment which wouldn't be any big deal. As for the meds that DD's on - the dentist said they wouldn't play a part in teeth health/color. Sorry for the delay!

Hi Noelle! I'm loving your name - it's DD's middle name - spelled the same exact way. Yep, we live about 40 minutes West of Richmond (we live in the "sticks") but when we "go to town" and work, it's all in the Short Pump area. Colleen's NP office just received my paperwork (they need that before they can make an appointment) and called me today. They're SO pleasant to speak with and I can't say as much about the many doctor offices and staff we speak to on almost a weekly basis. I'm with you - this PANDAS stuff is completely over our Ped's expertise. In fact, I'm quickly learning that there doesn't appear to be anyone capable in the Richmond area to handle this. The one doctor who sounded like she'd be the right ticket doesn't accept insurance - so it's out of pocket expenses ($650 for the initial visit and $225 for subsequent visits... oh and if you want to talk to her on the phone for a consult, it's $7.50 a minute). Today we saw an Immunologist at the MCV Children's Pavilion. Her name was Dr. Anne-Marie Irani, and while extremely polite she was definitely not a PANDAS believer. She kept to her opinion that we needed to seek help from psychiatrists. ((sigh)) Tomorrow I'm calling Cole's NP to schedule DD's appointment. I'm hoping for better results. At this point, I'm just desperate to find a willing ear ... someone who will go the extra mile with us instead of shrugging this off and looking at us as if we're poor unfortunate souls who need to get over their angst of getting their daughter psychiatric help. I wonder if perhaps it would be ethical and appropriate to gather a combined list of people we've seen that haven't been able to help us... or sort of help us. I certainly wouldn't want to upset the doctors (except for that one - Grrrrr), but I don't know about anyone else but I am getting tired of paying these Specialist co-pays for visits that turn up nada.

Today is little girl's day of doctor appointments. She starts her morning off with a much needed visit to the dentist... which brings a quick question to mind... Between me and DH, we have fairly strong and healthy teeth. We've noticed DD's two front teeth are slightly discolored. I don't know if it's because we're on well water and/or a mix of the different medications she's been on. They're her adult teeth and I'm really interested to hear what the dentist has to say about it. I wondered if anyone else has noticed anything like this with their kids? And for the record, she's very limited to drinking any soda and when she does it's Sprite or the rare Root Beer (she loves the stuff but it upsets her belly)... and I help her brush her teeth everyday. The second appointment is around 1pm this afternoon - a first time visit to the Immunologist specialist. I'm really crossing my fingers tight that she'll be interested in listening and helping us, but I think I need to realize that I'm probably getting my hopes up for nothing ... I mean, in reality, we've seen over 15 different types of doctors and specialist and only 1 of those doctors seemed slightly interested, but will readily admit that he doesn't feel comfortable upping her antibiotics or treating her via any different method. Thanks so much to Colleen's NP suggestion I am hoping to hear from her office early this week to set up an appointment (paperwork already filled out and mailed yesterday). I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks for your shoulders!

DD has been diagnosed as OCD, but I don't think it's as bad as most with OCD. Her OCD issues are more along the lines of over obsessing with the weather (specifically tornadoes), and obsessing about death - and crying about people that died that she has little to no memory of. God forbid the sky look a little too dark, or for there to be even a little bit of wind to set her off panicking. To my knowledge she's lightened up a little bit with the scrubbing the counters in her class. The first two tornadoes & death are the most prominent. It's funny (not haha funny) how the grass is always greener on the other side. Sometimes I wish it were opposite for us - great at school, not so great at home.

[Colleen - If you don't mind, would you PM me the name of the practice and doctor/nurses you're dealing with? We have travelled up to Charlottesville on a couple of occassions - pediatric geneticist appt and developmental pediatrician - no luck on either visit. We're definitely interested in DD seeing a believer!] Wow, you all are great listeners - thank you so much for the kind words! It's a nice morale booster when you've got such a wonderful group of people to lean on. After talking to various people last night (non-believers and belivers alike), I had a huge question mark weighing me down. Does DD have more control over her meltdowns & rages than we give her credit for. She has never thrown a fit at home, she rarely rages in public with us, she's really defiant for the sitter, but the sitter doesn't let her get away with it... but at school - that's where we have the biggest problem. We'd tossed around the idea of homeschooling her, but folks I'll be the first to admit that I am NOT teacher material. I can handle homework - barely. If we could financially afford for me to go part time or stay at home - just so I could hover over her at school, we would, but it's not an option. We just have too much debt that will take us (at our best) a few years to erase. I just wonder why is she reserving the majority of her meltdowns & rages for school. Is it over stimulation? With the right motivation (last week she had to earn the right to attend a friend's birthday party), she seems a little more capable of reeling herself in before it gets too out of control. So does that mean she truly can control all episodes? And then another frustration... how, as a parent, do we punish her for her bad days? Grounding her from toys/movies/tv, etc doesn't work. Spankings... don't work (plus at her age they're not really effective - she's tough). I'm at a loss. Sometimes I wonder if she had been raised by my Mom (who was worse than a Nun), would she have had the same problems. Ok, I better get back to work... for now anyways.

Edited (again) to let everyone know that I have an update posted on the 2nd page regarding our visit to the immunologist. It's anti-climatic to say the least. Bummer. Edited to say: Our family has never been as brave as Nicole and her family (NBC news story her and her family did was beautiful...and sad). However after contacting a couple doctors today and getting nowhere, I finally took a deep breath and contacted my one and only contact with a NBC12 news reporter here in Richmond. I sent her Nicole's link and explained that we too were desperate for help. I don't know that my contact can or will do anything, but it was the only other step I knew to take. DD is still taking her 2 pills (50mg) of Lamictal a day as well as 250mg of the Cefalexin antibiotic. She was having decent days (not great mind you, but not horrid), and then today she tanked... again. This time I was told that she was crawling around on the floor in her class unplugging the computers. The teacher convinced her to come out and sent her onto her reading class (she needs it to catch up in her reading - thank you PANDAS ). In her reading class she chucked a book at one of the assistants, and then started to be hateful and disrespectful to the teacher. That warranted a moment in the "Cool Down" room that the school made just for her. When the assistant principal went to get her, she darted out of the class and ran away from him. After some chasing, they were able to get her to the Cool Down room where she proceeded to kick the assistant principal. Then she kicked off her shoes and started throwing them at the assist. principal. When she ran out of shoes to chuck at him, she proceeded to spit in his face (mind you, not raspberries... flat out spitting). God bless the assistant principal, that man sure is patient. This is where things went to a new avenue of PANDAS adventure.... They said that she calmed down enough to give the guidance counselor a hug, and then DD just lost it. She cried her little eyes out and then reverted to a strange infantile behavior (that she's never in her lifetime done)... sucking her thumb. ((sigh)) They said she seemed so down, and so depressed. She told them she missed her Mommy and Daddy and wanted us to come get her. The assistant principal (who called me at work to tell me all of this) said they felt pretty confident that they could get her onto the bus... you know.. the "small bus". Poor kid. If we can't get this under control she'll be going to middle school on the small bus. We may as well toss in the towel at that point because if we thought we were in h ell now... Next week DD has an appointment with her psychiatrist, dentist (poor kid - this will be the first normal appointment she's had with a dr in too long) and then the first time visit with the new Immunologist. I'm going to just stick my head in the sand. Let me know when I can come back out.