For those who don't know me, I have been a member of this group since 2009 when my boys were first diagnosed. I have not been as active in recent years b/c we have finally gained control over this beast of an illness. But I like to come back from time to time to give an update, and our 2-year mark seems like a good time to do so. First, I'd like to make a quick announcement...I am now studying to become a homeopath and plan to specialize in autism and pandas/pans. I am already working for a new asd/pandas holistic group as a Holistic Healthcare Consultant (guiding moms to the proper avenues within alternative medicine, which includes discussing dietary/supplement interventions and many other avenues).
So our quick history is that both of my boys had severe pandas (psychotic rages and all the typical pandas symptoms, even additional strep-related symptoms such as chiari malformation and opsoclonus-myoclonus). We tried for a couple years to treat with abx/steroids/ivig and many many supplements and experimental meds (spironolactone, LDN). My boys kept getting worse as the abx were causing severe gastrointestinal infections, despite the use of very high dose probiotics. Also, the abx eventually stopped treating strep altogether. During the last month of mainstream treatment I had to put my oldest son on Risperdal, which was my darkest hour really.
In Feb 2011 I switched over to homeopathy, our first homeopath was A Lemke and we have added on J Slater lately, I now work for both of these homeopaths. Right away when I started my older son's remedy his rages ceased and his pandas became very manageable. My younger son took a couple months to get on top of, he had a severe and chronic and treatment-resistant strep infection (and staph) when we started, plus Angelica was new to this illness. To make a very long story short, two years later my boys keep doing better and better and all symptoms are either completely gone or are entirely manageable with homeopathy and a handful of supplements. My youngest son is the real miracle story, as he had chiari malformation, seizure tendencies, speech apraxia, social anxiety/asd, severe eczema, asthma and many chronic infections. The only symptoms left with him are mild asthma (no meds required except the occasional albuterol in nebulizer) and mild speech apraxia, and both conditions continue to improve each month. My older son also had asthma and chronic gut infections which are fully under control at this time (asthma is totally gone, mine is too). To give you an idea of where they are now, they both laugh and smile each day, they are both at the top of their classes (oldest has the highest grades in his class, straight A's), they have hobbies and friends and have no anxiety whatsoever. To be honest I look around some days and can't believe this is my life, after years and years of dysfunction. Usually when I blanket the message boards with these updates I get a lot of emails that take me some time to get to. For what it's worth, I will answer some of the "frequently asked questions" here but you are also welcome to email me. *I suggest reading the book Impossible Cure, by Amy Lansky, if you'd like to learn more about homeopathic remedies and how they work. This book also helps to prepare moms how to dose the remedies once they are prescribed. *If you are going to get a local homeopath, I'd suggest asking him/her some questions about how he would treat pandas first. My experience with a local homeopath was not a good one and it wasted a bit of time (I used her for myself and my husband, turns out I have pandas too and she was not able to manage it, in fact she was just scratching her head and didn't know what to do when I went into a pandas episode and the remedy she prescribed was no longer working). For most cases I have been following, the strep nosode is an absolute necessity, in addition to a constitutional remedy. And the remedies need to be dosed very frequently and aggressively, especially at first. Many homeopaths who are not aware of pandas/asd will not be willing to treat so aggressively or will really not know how to do it. In addition to the homeopaths I work for, there are moms reporting success with a handful of other homeopaths, most will do skype appts and travel is not necessary. *Homeopathy is very successful for Lyme patients. I never had my boys tested but I highly suspect lyme for all three of us. There are actually a handful of lyme nosodes that some parents have used, but very likely will not even be necessary to get on top of it. *I often get asked which remedies we were prescribed. There are about 5000 homeopathic remedies available and it takes 2-3 hours during the initial consult to narrow down which ones will be best for each particular child. My homeopath says that about 50% of cases respond to ignatia or carcinosin, and the other 50% respond to one of about 10 other common remedies, while some respond to very unusual remedies. Almost all of them have also had to take various different strep nosodes, or strep pneumonia nosodes, or candida albicans nosodes, or others. As for myself and my boys, we were initially prescribed ignatia (myself and my older son) and thuja (younger son). Over time the constitutional remedies will change as the case improves, we have moved on to other remedies such as: sulphur, carcinosin, oxygenium, meddhorinum, arsenicum. All three of us have used and "cleared" very high potency and various strep nosodes. We are all back to just taking one or two remedies each right now. *homeopathic remedies are not supplements or herbs, they are diluted down substances with are highly potentized with the energy of the original substance. This is considered "energy medicine", the same way acupuncture and reiki are considered energy medicine. Homeopathic remedies are very powerful and should only be used (for chronic cases) under the guidance of an experienced homeopath. *in the successful cases that I have followed, the child went off all meds. if you read Impossible Cure and learn how homeopathy works, you will see why remedies do not work very well in the presence of regular medications, including steroids and antibiotics. This is the hardest hurdle for moms to get over when trying to decide whether or not to go with homeopathy. It requires a leap of faith, so to speak, at some point. I always think of the saying: you can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. I remember the feeling when I took my kids off abx and sent them to school. It was scary to say the least.
If you want more info you can PM me. Stephanie