airial95

We've not seen any reactions to any of the regular vaccines. We did see an issue with the H1N1 vax, but that was prior to knowing he had PANDAS. We no longer do any flu shots, and when we do his other vaccines that are required for school - we do them one at a time, a few weeks apart so we can monitor his reaction. We've done this the last 2 years (3 yo and 4 yo shots) and we've seen no issues. Our son's PANDAS was clearly linked to an impetigo infection and started independently (6 months) from his previous vaccines.

We're still amazed by the progress that our son has made post T&A. Our pediatrician kept him on the lower dose of Augmentin, and we saw Dr. Murphy this week and she extended that lower dose through the holidays, after that we'll try to take him off and see what happens. Dr. Murphy and Dr. Brown were both impressed with the difference in him since his last visit in October. The only backslide we've seen has been the new neck craning tic. The other parents at his bus stop in the morning (who know very little about PANDAS, just that he has to go to special ed pre-k for it) have commented on how much calmer he is and how he listens and gets on the bus with no fuss. These are strangers noticing a difference in our child!!! Our best friends next door who have seen him at his worst are just floored at how well he can go out and play with the neighborhood kids now - something that wasn't possible a few weeks ago. The other day, he was outside playing with the gang and he rode his bike past his "limits". I went and got him and told him he knows the rules and now he had to sit in time out. He went and did his time out like a little man - he wasn't happy about it - but he sat off to the side and watched his friends play for 4 minutes - at the end I asked if he was ready to say he was sorry - he told me "No, I'm still angry, I need to sit here and think some more". He sat for a few more minutes and then came and said "Sorry mommy, I won't go past my limits again" and gave me a hug. That was it - no screaming, yelling, biting, kicking...just a pouty time-out and an apology! All of the parents outside who have seen our struggles were dumbfounded. It was awesome!!! When he gets off the school bus every day now the first thing he does is give me a big after school hug and kiss - unprompted - it's become my favorite part of the day!!! My daughter went to the ENT last week to see if she should get hers done - after the amazing response we've seen in him. The ENT agreed that even though she's mild PANDAS and has only had 4 positive throat cultures this year (he prefers 5-6 before surgery), with the fact that she's asymptomatic to strep and my son's PANDAS is far more severe, they need to be yanked. Less than 48 hours later - they were gone! Because her symptoms have been far more mild, and easier controlled with abx (mostly seperation anxiety and emotional lability - completely gone after a max 30 course of abx)we didn't do all of the safety precautions that we did for our son (in-op and post-op abx). She was on abx leading up to the surgery, and for almost a week after - but it was the same dosage of cefdinir she was on for her last strep infection about 3 weeks ago. I wish we would've. She seems to have had an uptick in symptoms. It could be from the surgery - it could also be from the fact that she had a strep infection 3 weeks ago and it might not be fully cleared. But her speration anxiety has been pretty bad. She won't sleep alone. She's let me leave her home and in bed when I take my son to the bus stop in the morning, but when I had to go back to work and leave her with her abuelo (daddy is out of town - AGAIN) she cried for 2 1/2 hours after I left her - unusual for her. This morning, she cried the whole way to abuelo's house - only stopped becuase she saw that abuela took the morning off of work to stay with her too. She's been pretty moody too. She's still having some pain from the surgery, and didn't quite bounce back the way my son did recovery-wise - so there's still a possibility that she's just not feeling well - but my gut is telling me that's not it. She goes into our pediatrician next week - he'll do a strep recheck . She was postivie in September, did 30 days of abx, and then was positive again mid November, so he's afraid the infection didn't actually clear, so he wants to recheck her. He'll probably give us a refill of her abx (which she finished on Tuesday) if we still see syptoms. Thank heaven for a pediatrician who gets it and will give us the abx when we need them. Overall - we're thrilled that we did it for both kids. It has been the thing that got us over the hurdle. Even with my daughters symptoms - it's been better. On a scale of 1-10, my son was probably at an 8 at his worst (compared to some of the stories I've read here), my daughter, at her absolute worst has only been maybe a 3, so even with her upswing right now - overall it's better than it was and is worth it! Keep your fingers crossed for continued improvement!

Yep - the night terrors stopped late last week. But for about 2 days after that, he was still waking up a lot through the night, but was happy - wanted to play, a snack, something to drink...etc. Regardless of how often he was up at night, he was still bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6 AM!!! He started sleeping again through the night this weekend, and of course, cause he went back to school yesterday, he couldn't be bothered to wake up on time and we had to drag him out of bed at 6:30! Why is it that they won't sleep past 6 AM on the weekends when everyone can sleep in, but on school days, they'd sleep til noon if you let them??

I was in the same boat as you - I started to see PANDAS symptoms in my non-PANDAS daughter about a year after my son presented. I was told I was PTSD - seeing symptoms that didn't exist because I was so stressed out about trying to deal with my son. A few months ago - we got a PANDAS dx from our pediatrician and are following up with Murphy in January to confirm. I will be honest - if I didn't know all of the things to look for, if I wasn't as "well versed" in PANDAS presentation as I was because of my son and these forums - we absolutely would've missed it in my daughter - but her symptoms have gotten progressively worse with each strep infection she has had this year (4 so far) - with this last one a couple of weeks ago being her worst. She's still no where near as severe as my son - but this last go round was noticiable by anyone's standards. Murphy was one who made the connection between autoimmune issues with the parents and high incidence in siblings (I don't remember what paper - but we have discussed it in our appointments).

We're now almost 2 weeks post T&A, and still pretty impressed with the results. We had about 7 100% symptom free days! (Something we haven't had since this journey started for us) It was amazing. About a week post op, we noticed doing this neck craning/shoulder shrugging type movement. He initally told us it was because his neck was itchy (and sure enough, we looked, and there was a mosquito bite there!) However, the bites are all gone, and the movement continues - has actually gotten worse. It was very prevelant all day yesterday, so we have to conclude that this is a new tic. It's a little disheartening, because this is his most noticeable tic so far - all of his others have been facial grimaces of some sort...which could go unnoticed if you weren't paying attention. This is pretty noticeable. But - We're still seeing little to no food OCD - which is AMAZING for us, and his appetite has gone through the roof. It's like he hasn't eaten enough in 2 years because of the OCD so now he has to catch up!! We've seen a bit of an uptick in the hyperactivity too the last couple of days. But all still very manageable - and probably not much more than you'd see from a normal 4 year old who has had to keep "resting" from surgery! Our pediatrician did extend the Augmentin, but it's a slightly lower dose, so I emailed him this morning to see if that was intentional or if he wanted him to stay on the same dose that the ENT had him on. This may be the reason for our backslide, and we see Dr. Murphy next week... So far we're still THRILLED that we did the procedure, are happy with the results, and based on our much more mild PANDAS daughter having 4 positive cultures this year, our pediatrician's advice and our son's progress, she'll be in the ENT on Wednesday to see if we can get hers out before the year's end!

He was given IV abx during the surgery - but that's actually no longer common practice - it was done just because he's PANDAS. He did snore a bit suring sleep - but unfortunately his sleep is the ONLY negative thing we're seeing - he's waking with night terrors regularly...hopefully that will pass soon too!

So I've posted a few times about my son's crazy improvement since his T&A last week. With the tonsil culture coming back negative, I started to question if it was the surgery or the Augmentin that was causing the improvemnt. My husband just called asking if I had given our son his "yummies" as we call it this morning. I said no - he only gets the Augmentin once a day (the Cefdinir he was on prior to the surgery was 2 x a day, and my daughter is on Cefdinir 1x a day). To which my husband informed me - no, he just checked the label, he's supposed to get it 2x daily. I have only been giving it to him in the evenings...this whole time since the surgery. (Hubby's been out of town until the weekend, so he hasn't given it to him at all yet.) I'm supposed to be the super PANDAS mom who handles all the doctors and medicines - we were so extra careful about everything related to the surgery how could I have screwed this up!! (I'm not saying anything about my husband not questioning until 11:30 if our son got his AM dose of meds...that's one of the reasons I'm in charge ) But then there's the question - if he's only getting a half dose of the abx he's supposed to, is it really the surgery that is making the difference?? Can't ANYTHING about this be easy??

So I've posted a few times about my son's crazy improvement since his T&A last week. With the tonsil culture coming back negative, I started to question if it was the surgery or the Augmentin that was causing the improvemnt. My husband just called asking if I had given our son his "yummies" as we call it this morning. I said no - he only gets the Augmentin once a day (the Cefdinir he was on prior to the surgery was 2 x a day, and my daughter is on Cefdinir 1x a day). To which my husband informed me - no, he just checked the label, he's supposed to get it 2x daily. I have only been giving it to him in the evenings...this whole time since the surgery. (Hubby's been out of town until the weekend, so he hasn't given it to him at all yet.) I'm supposed to be the super PANDAS mom who handles all the doctors and medicines - we were so extra careful about everything related to the surgery how could I have screwed this up!! (I'm not saying anything about my husband not questioning until 11:30 if our son got his AM dose of meds...that's one of the reasons I'm in charge ) But then there's the question - if he's only getting a half dose of the abx he's supposed to, is it really the surgery that is making the difference?? Can't ANYTHING about this be easy??

The ENT said that there weren't any signs of infections on the tonsils the day of the surgery - but he didn't mention if there were signs of the chronic infection - I'll have to ask the pediatrician tomorrow - he'll have the full surgery report. The improvements we are seeing are nothing short of miraculous. I was actually complemented on his behavior at lunch yesterday by two strangers - something I never dreamed would happen!! I have already had an email exchange with Dr. Murphy. She seems to think its the Augmentin making the difference - she said she's never seen an improvement like that from the surgery alone so she's supporting our request to the pediatrician to extend the Augmentin. The only negative thing we're seeing is the sleeping issues. He's still waking multiple times during the night - often crying and shaking, sometimes alert, others not. He's waking every morning crying. He's fighting nap times (the only time we're seeing any sort of fits at all is at naptime and bedtime, something we never had happen before - but the magnitude of them is barely worse than a typical tired and cranky 4 year old fighting going to bed). He usually naps 2-3 hours but he's even waking up several times during the naps crying as well. Other than sleeping - he's been remarkable!!! ajcire - I'm relieved to hear that you had night terror issues as late as a week out from the anesthesia - that's been our theroy, but the longer it goes, we're worried the less likely that is. So that's reassuring!

Things are still on the up and up here!! Yesterday, I opted to take him out to lunch to a "fancy" restaurant (Ruby Tuesday's - took my daughter there a few weeks ago before I took her to see Peter Pan at the performing arts center and she keeps telling him about the "fancy" restaurant ) Mind you - this is something we couldn't have done - nor would we have even attempted 2 weeks ago. Even when he was "good" - his hyperactivity always prevented any sort of outing to a restaurant that didn't feature animated characters of some sort. He sat the whole time, was very polite with the waitress, ordered his meal on his own, ate well, and when he couldn't open the "fancy" juice boxes they had (a former trigger) calmly said, "Actually mom, I could use your help" instead of freaking out. We even got dessert! The best - as we were leaving - the two ladies at the table next to us said to me "Good Job mom! What a wonderful little gentleman you have there!" YES - I was complimented on my PANDAS kid's behavior. A day I NEVER thought would happen!!! I called my hubby at work to tell him and he said I must have picked up the wrong kid at the restaurant! We're still having sleeping issues - he's waking up crying/scared several times a night and is fighting napping and bedtime (something he's never done before). While that stinks - the fighting is nothing really too much worse than an average tired, cranky 4 year old who doesn't want to go to bed. And it passes fairly quickly. We are doing ALOT of praising for all of his good behavior - hoping that if he back slides the postive reinforcement will have an impact The ENT called with the cuture results on his tonils - surprisingly it was negative so he's not willling to extend the 7 days of Augmentin we currently are on. So now we're left with the question of whether his improvement is from the surgery or the Augmentin (which he's never taken before). We have an appointment with our pediatrician tomorrow(who will likely extend the rx for at least 30 days with no problem - I LOVE that man!!) and I emailed Murphy yesterday, and she seems to think it's the abx not the surgery, she said she's never seen a rapid result like that from the surgery itself. She's anxious to see him again, and we already had an appointment scheduled a week or so after Thanksgiving. I cry every once in a while because I feel like I'm just getting to know my child for the first time. He started all of this at 19-20 months old - he just turned 4 - so we've been dealing with PANDAS kid longer than we were the normal kid. I forgot just how mellow and easy going my son was prior to all of this! (All of my thoughts that the abx got us 85% back to normal seems a bit over-eggagerated now that I see him like this!) My husband reminded me yesterday how the general "joke" about our son as an infant/toddler was that he was the "floor model" - he made you want to go and have kids of your own because you never the hard parts! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers - and we really hope to see this continued improvement stick around!!

Just got the call on the results of the culture on the tonils - no strep. I haven't gotten the full report yet, but now I have to question whether the crazy improvement we've seen over the last few days is related to the tonsils being removed...or our first time on Augmentin!!

We were hoping that the T&A would at least stop the proverbial bleeding of our last 2 years of constant strep infections/PANDAS episodes. I was cautiously optimistic late last week when we started to see little flashes of his old, mellow personality coming back. He wasn't freaking out over food, eating healthier options without fighting (and actually asking for them!!) - but I was keeping my optimisim in check - telling myself he was still just sort of out of it from the surgery. This weekend, he wanted to go to church - so we let him go. It turned out to be a late service (we forgot) - which normally would be a BIG issue, instead, he was fine with the change. We actually went to a restaurant to get breakfast and only had to give one warning (him and his sister wanted to crawl under the table...what kid doesn't). We were AMAZED. Last night, I decided to take them both food shopping while my husband finished the yard work. This is always a stressful event with both of them, and often ends with a phone call to my husband to come get them so I can finish. They were my little helpers the whole time, and he even stayed in the cart (the rule when we get the "rocketship" cart) without complaint - even when he asked to get out and I told him no. Not even a single warning!!! Then, this morning was the icing on the cake. Him and his sister were playing, and for some reason he poked her in the eye (wasn't in the room, don't know why). He apologized, but I told him he still had to go to time out because we don't hurt others. (Normally this is a big test - followed by an hours long battle of the time out) He went into time out, sat for the full 4 minutes, came out with a hug and apology to me, a hug, kiss and apology to his sister, and then marched straight into the bedroom to tell his Dad that he poked his sister, but he was sorry and he did his time out and gave her a hug. We're still having issues during the night/naptime with night terrors and him waking up crying, problems we didn't have before the surgery. Could my kid be back? Really?? I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop - so any prayers and good vibes...keep sending them our way please!!!

Thanks for the feedback. I've already made a follow up appointment with his pediatrician for next wednesday. They ran a bunch of labs and cultured the tonsils during the surgery and the ENT said the results should be in by next week. Since there were no visible signs of infection on the tonsils, the ENT only gave us a 7 day rx for Augmentin (since my son has never had it, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to tolerate it). This way, if we need a refill, our pediatrician will give it no problem (he doesn't like to do less than 30 days with my son.) We had some strange night terror type issues last night. He woke up 3 times crying that he was afraid he was going to go potty in his bed - took him to the bathroom and put him back to bed. He woke up about once an hour after the last time he did that, but just sort of sat up, whimpered a bit, and laid back down sleeping when I gently rubbed his back (10 seconds, max). I don't know if that was pain, or what...but so far he seems to be doing a lot better. Here's to hoping!!!!

My PANDAS son went for T&A yesterday, the surgery went well, the doctor gave IV abx and a rx for Augmentin afterwards. The little man did great, apparenetly when the anesthesiologist was getting ready to put the mask on him and told him not to be scared - his reponse was "I'm not scared, I'm a man - I'm brave" By 4:00 yesterday, you wouldn't even know he had surgery, he was up and about and our biggest challenge was getting him to sit still and rest and take the pain medicine. This morning - I thought for sure he'd be in pain - NONE! Still wouldn't take the meds though - so the doc said to use regular tylenol (which he will take). Yesterday he was very sweet, and ate well, without any of the usual OCD issues he has with food. (And my daughter just tested postive on Monday - so we know at a minimum he's been exposed) Today, we had two small fits - the first when I was trying to get him to take the pain meds (before the dr called and suggested tylenol). It lasted only about 15 minutes, and he fell asleep afterwards. The second was when I put him down for a nap - he was obviously tired, and he fought me. Again, it only lasted about 15 minutes -nothing compared to the old days, but there was a lot of hitting, kicking and spitting. Both of those would be expected from any kid in his situation - just had surgery, probably a bit uncomfortable and tired and cranky. My question is - when should we expect to see a difference? I know some folks had a severe reaction from the T&A - others got significantly better. Good or bad - what was the timeline?

We have a team of 6 doctors that we see for my son. Before we make any big decisions (like the T&A he had done yesterday), we run it by the whole team. Our immunologist didn't think it was critical right now, but would likely have to happen in the future. Dr. M, who initially said NOT to pull the tonsils a year ago, changed her position based on treating him for a year, the ENT, who is PANDAS knowledgeable, didn't want to pull them b/c of the PANDAS, but because of the chronic positive cultures. It was confusing. Ultimately, we have one doctor in our pediatrician that we can talk to and trust implicitly. He's excellent about giving us ALL sides of a potential treatment/course of action, and is supportive of us - even if we don't follow his recommendation. For us - as great as it is to have a PANDAS expert in our backyard (Dr. M), we've relied more on our pediatrician because of his accessibility and his willingness to listen and help us come to our own decisions with as much information as we can. If you have anyone on your team who is open minded and willing to play that part, it might help. It's been our lifeline.

Mark another one for the "Are you kidding me? Does this EVER end?" file! Dr. M advised us to have the whole family (dogs included) tested/put on abx prior to my son's surgery to be sure that all strep is cleared from the house. Dogs to the vet - got abx - check! My husband and I checked out - got z-packs as precaution - check! PANDAS daughter to the pediatrician for a strep test and abx refill - Problem! She went off abx about 2 1/2 weeks ago from her last strep infection, and her largest exacerbation to date (nothing compared to my son though!!) We saw a bit of the mood swings return, but nothing that wasn't manageable with typical behavior techniques. At school, the teacher reported an upswing in seperation anxiety (crying at least once a day for us), and seperating herself from her classmates during social times. It was all manageable though, so we decided to keep her off abx until the surgery - because she had some mild stomach issues with the 30 day course, so we'd give her a break. Our son stayed on his abx. Had an appointment pre-scheduled for yesterday, when on Sunday she said her throat tickled. We were at Busch Gardens (blowing off steam for the 4 year old prior to 2 weeks of no activity!) and she had just gotten off her favorite roller coaster, she said it was from screaming, and I asked her a few more times throughout the day - nothing. She seemed fine yesterday going to school. I did the Teach In at her class. I could visibly see her breaking down as my presentation went on...as it came closer and closer to being time for me to go, she started just going to pieces. She was a wreck when it came time for me to leave. The teacher handled it AWESOME! I should've figured she'd be postive. We spent ALL weekend moving furniture, cleaning, doing all of the heavy lifting, and sanitizing ALL of their toys and stuffed animals. We have a cleaning crew coming tomorrow to finish the job, and we got all new bedding, pillows, toothbrushes, etc...to put out tomorrow after the surgery. Now I have to go back and re disinfect all the stuff in her room and the toy room...does it ever end???

I don't think that's crazy, that's the exact explination I got from both the ENT and our pediatrician. When the tonsils get infected, they get all "crevice-y" (real scientific term there!) and the strep gets buried in those crevices. That's why "normal" kids with multiple strep infections get their tonsils out as well. As to why the immune system knows the bacteria is there even though the abx can't get to it- never asked that question!

From my discussions with her, she's not against T&A, she's just not a proponent of it as a PANDAS treatment only. In my son's case, he had 7 or so positive throat cultures in 18 months - almost ALL while on some form of abx. In his case, it makes sense to take them out because combine the chronic potistive cultures with the PANDAS, and it's the right thing to do. I don't think she recommends it in children who don't have the chronic re-infection happening. Our ENT seemed to agree. He said that he wouldn't take them out just because the kids has PANDAS unless there was also another reason (although he admittedly said that they're more quick to take them in PANDAS kids than non-PANDAS kids when there are other factors.)

My son goes in for a T&A next week, and our pediatrician told me to contact Dr. Murphy to see if she needs other labs, cultures, etc...than what they're already ordering. She responded this morning (within an hour of my email), putting me into contact with a Dr. Cleary out of the University of Minnesota who is currently doing research on tonsils of PANDAS kids. He is contacting our ENT to see if he can get a sample of my son's tissue for his research. He's not sure if there will be enough time for the preparations, but he's going to try. I thought I'd put that out there for anyone else who is considering T&A!

My son has never been poked at Murphy's office, she always gives an order for the labs. My son has always had a pleasant experience there, and actually looks forward to going!!

Hey, we're also patients of Dr. M. And I would suggest if you can get him back on abx now, I would do that. When we saw her the first time with my son, he had been on abx for almost 6 months, with our pediatrician doing 30 day courses at a time. It didn't impact her ability to help us, as she had the complete records from our doctor on hand and goes a lot by the patient history and the pre-screening forms they have you fill out. Be prepared to be there for a while, I think our first appointment with her lasted most of the morning, have your questions written down - so you don't forget anything when you have her there. In addition to seeing Dr. M, you'll likely see one of her fellows who will start the history gathering, etc. We like Dr. Toufexis the best (I think she's still on maternity leave) and we've also seen Dr. Brown as well - whom we also like. They both are very thorough, and both were familiar with our case history prior to the appointment and had gone over all the records in detail that were sent over. Dr. M and her fellows are also very good about answering questions via email. I've always gotten an email response to my questions within 24-48 hours (non-emergency questions) - so if there are things you think of after the fact, email them and someone will respond. As for your second question, yes - our son's symptoms have morphed over time. The first couple of episodes, we saw some of the same OCD patterns, but then they seemed to evolve to different things. Some got better and went away over various episodes, others got worse. He has only had a few motor tics as well, and each of these seem to have changed after a couple of episodes - his first was a mouth grimace, then after 3 exposures/flareups, that changed to a teeth grind/chatter, which has now changed to a stutter/head flap. Our daughter who was recently dx (has her first appt with Murphy on Jan 4th) we saw in increased severity in her emotional lability (which with seperation anxiety were her first two symptoms that showed up). So much so that was what prompted us to have her evaluated. So yes, it's possible! Good luck with your appointment, I'm local to the Tampa are, so if you need suggestions while you're here, feel free to PM me!

Good Luck!! We are evaluating the possibility of the study for my daughter, who was just recently dx. She goes to see Dr. Murphy on Jan 4th for a confirmation of our pediatricians dx, and my husband and I have been discussing the study for her. When I contacted them earlier this year about my son, he was too young, but they thought he might be a good candidate when he turned 4 (which happened last week). They asked me to follow up with them after his birthday to see if he'd still be eligible, but he's going for T&A next week, so we don't want to muddy the waters. As for deciding if we would enroll our daughter if she's eligible, we've gone back and forth on that. She's not as severe as our son, but has trouble functioning with strep. ABX worked for her the previous two infections with a single 10 day course (when I was the only one who suspected anything was up.) The infection she got in September was by far her worst PANDAS-wise (which is why the doctor finally acknowledged it) and the 30 days of abx he gave her helped, but didn't get her back 100% like I had seen the other two times on a shorter course...so she's getting worse. It's a big decision, and I'd be lying if my husband and I haven't discussed the implication of enrolling her for the benefit of other children - including our son. If by including her in this research, IVIG becomes more readily available and accessible for other suffering children, that's a benefit we're willing to weigh with the risks. Especially considering both of my kids will likely need IVIG at some point in the future anyway.

We did Azith full dose for 3 months, followed by proph dose from January 2010 through September 2010. He had postivie strep cultures 3 times while on the proph dose. In September 2010, we did full strentgh cefdinir from September through December 2010, and then tried to take him off (per Dr. Murphy) for 6 weeks. After 5 weeks late off, he had a burst of symptoms and tested positive for strep again. He went back on 90 days of full strength cefdinir in February 2011 through early May 2011. In mid June, he tested positive again for strep, and went back on 90 days full strength cefdinir through mid August. Within 3 weeks off the cefdinir, in early september, he tested positive AGAIN for strep. He went back on 30 days full strength cefdinir (only 30 days b/c he had upcoming appts with the immunologist and Dr. Murphy and the pediatrician wanted to see if they wanted to change anything.). This time around, the cefdinir hasn't been working. He was just dropped to a slightly lower dose 2 weeks ago by Dr. Muprhy's office, and will be getting his tonsils and adnoids removed in 2 weeks. (They were going to switch his abx, but didn't want to prior to surgery). He'll have an IV abx drip during the surgery and will go on 30 days of full strength Augmentin after the surgery. Aside from the 6-7 positive throat cultures, he has also had at least 3-4 impetigo infections (while on abx) as well as at least one sinus strep infection in the nose. Those were treated with topical abx (muciroprin and altabax) in addition to the oral he was already on. We have had no gut issues, and they check liver function with every blood draw that they've done, but they haven't requested one so far specifically for that purpose. As for probiotics, all we use are active culture yogurts and good belly juices, and we've had no problems. We usually do them in the morning b/c most of his abx have been once a day anad we do them at night. This new dose is bi-daily, so we're having a hard time fitting them in without interfering. We're hoping that after the Augmentin and the surgery, we will have cleared the infection that has been plaguging us for 2 years...here's to hoping!!

Sorry your mom isn't so supportive. I think many of us have been there with family members who think we're just too indulgent, let them get away with too much, or that we're imagining things. My mother fell squarely into this camp - always telling me that "boys are harder", it's "just a phase", etc... Well, she changed her tune when both my husband and I had to go out of town on business and she took the kids. She called me asking what to do because my son was freaking out, running around the house naked, screaming, biting and kicking if she tried to put clothes on him and peeing all over her house. I told her quite calmly - "It's just a phase, he'll outgrow it, remember boys are harder" and hung up. She called back 5 minutes later apologizing for not being more supportive and understanding - now would I please tell her what the heck she's supposed to do!