Hello, thank you for allowing me to join this forum to ask questions and gain some knowledge about PANDAS which I have never heard of until yesterday. My daughter has recently had recurring vaginal strep (one was in February and one in March). She's had strep before, earlier in life, maybe a few years ago. She was just cultured for it in April but it was negative and it turned out to be the flu.
My daughter (6) has the following history:
sensory processing disorder, diagnosed at age 3
epilepsy, staring, non-convulsive seizures
gluten intolerant, gets very sick when she eats any gluten. Celiac dignosis is unknown this time
malabsorbtion issues, probably from the gluten
very small for her age, probably from the gluten
Impulsive behavior (puts her feet in your face, pokes at you, always picking at you), may not be able to stop talking, etc.
Can't wind down to go to sleep
Tosses and turns in her sleep
ADHD behavior at times
Has some age regression issues at times
Has trouble knowing what to eat like she doesn't have a taste for anything and is very picky about food
She has no tics or obvious OCD behavior that I could tell (knowing not much about either). Except in retrospect I have observed:
Everything has it's proper place or order. If someone is doing something in the wrong order that really bothers her
Sees patterns easily (very good at puzzles)
Has been known to have her hand fly out and hit me in the face seemingly involuntarily (only remember this a few times)
Has been known to have inappropriate gestures (grabbing someone's breasts for example) saying she didn't know she was going to do that.
I don't know exactly what my questions are but I am wondering, does this sound like PANDAS? I have not noticed obvious behavior changes related to strep, but I have not been looking for that. I would have looked at what she ate for example instead. Must obvious tics be present? I'm kind of scared. I always would rather know so something can be done to help but from what little I've read, it seems there is not much that can be done to help her.
Any questions that come to your mind that I should ask her doctor? Anything else I should look for or think about whether I've seen it happen in the past?
Thanks!
Susan