brett

Hi again momonamission, it's Brett. I want to tell you that my experience has been very similar to yours. I have written about it extensively somewhere on this site in a few places. My son is on a medication, and it is called Tenex. I would highly recommend that you look into that if you are going to try a medication. I have a very good neurologist and it was with much thought and research that I agreed to try a medication. My neuro does not use clonidine as he says he feels it is too sedating. Tenex is an anti-hypertension medication (obviously, usually given to people with high blood pressure). It works on the same part of the brain that causes tics. It is NOT an anti-psychotic or in any class of drugs like that. Believe me, I researched all the different medications, and this one by far has the least side effects of them all. No long term damage. Can be tapered off with no withdrawal. Initially when he first started taking the Tenex, he was very tired and out of it, headache and dry mouth, for about a week. He is only on a 1 mg pill that we split, so he gets 0.5 in the a.m. and 0.5 in the p.m. After one week the side effects were gone. His tics have DRAMATICALLY decreased. Now mind you, he still has some tics, no medication will take them away totally. But they are so much less and no longer interfering with his functioning. Right now your son's tics are interfering with his functioning. I know a lot of people recommend meds as a last resort. But I decided to go ahead with this small dose as my son's tics were out of control (physical and vocal) and out of nowhere overnight, and it was with much thought that I said yes. But it has made a huge difference. And now he is functioning so much better, his mood is so much better, so much less depressed and upset. Now while he is doing better I can look at all of the other things that seem to trigger tics and try to lessen them, as well as explore more natural options as well. My neuro thought PANDAS right away on our first visit, but anti-strep titers (I have had them done twice) are negative for step antibodies. Also, a 2 week course of amoxicillin did nothing, now we are trying Zithromax for a month just to make sure. But he still has tics. So now we are looking at a tic disorder. As time passes we will learn more and understand more about what triggers his tics. During that time, he needs to function and the Tenex is doing that for the time being. Please ask your dr. about Tenex, like I said, I think that is the best medication with the least side effects.

HI momonamission, it's Brett. Both my husband and I agree that tv and video games make our son worse. Particularly the wrestling, he loves to watch that, lots of flashing lights, loud, etc., etc., while he watches it his tics get worse and afterwards as well for hours. The same with video games, if we stand behind him and watch him he is ticcing like crazy, and again, it will last for hours afterwards. Weird, huh? Lack of sleep also seems to make him worse.

Thanks Chemar, I will definitely pick some of that up at Whole Foods. I don't know if he has a wheat allergy, he always eats whole wheat bread and whole wheat pasta, and I don't notice anything with those. These tics are a mystery to me, it is so hard to figure out what is what. But I am trying!

Hi, it's brett, I was just wondering if anyone knew about the effects of soy sauce on tics? I know that sounds like a weird question, but my son's tics definitely have been better (not gone, but better), and then all of a sudden last night, they were so much worse, and still this a.m., really bad. I am trying to figure out what he did yesterday, I had to work late so was not here, he was left with babysitter and then father, apparently he watched 2 and a half hours of tv and played computer games for at least 15 minutes! I know those are triggers for him and I have drastically limited those activities, so last night it was much more than I would have allowed. Then he ate a lot of soy sauce with dinner. If anyone can respond that would help so much. Thanks

Hi Momonamission, it is Brett. I totally understand how you feel. It is very difficult when someone who loves your child and truly wants their best interests at heart does something that they feel is okay, but undermines the plan you have worked so hard to establish. Perhaps you could talk to her, but you can couch your words in a manner like this: "Grandma, I know how much you love grandson, and how important he is to you. You are also so important to him and to me as well. I know how worried you are about him. We all are. It is such a hard time for all of us. We need to work together to help him. I need you to help me help get him better. Your help means so much to me. Let's talk together about what works for him and what doesn't. I know you want to give him everything he asks for, what grandparent doesn't? Let's talk about what works for him the best, and we will be on the same page." etc., etc., something like that? That way you are in it together. Maybe she can agree to give him a special little something once every month, but not spoil him. It is hard for grandma's. My mom is suffering terribly as she loves my son so much. Anyway, I am sorry about the setback. Life does have these setbacks, we cannot be there all of the time watching over them although we wish we could and worry constantly! Brett

Hi Momonamission, it is Brett. I totally understand how you feel. It is very difficult when someone who loves your child and truly wants their best interests at heart does something that they feel is okay, but undermines the plan you have worked so hard to establish. Perhaps you could talk to her, but you can couch your words in a manner like this: "Grandma, I know how much you love grandson, and how important he is to you. You are also so important to him and to me as well. I know how worried you are about him. We all are. It is such a hard time for all of us. We need to work together to help him. I need you to help me help get him better. Your help means so much to me. Let's talk together about what works for him and what doesn't. I know you want to give him everything he asks for, what grandparent doesn't? Let's talk about what works for him the best, and we will be on the same page." etc., etc., something like that? That way you are in it together. Maybe she can agree to give him a special little something once every month, but not spoil him. It is hard for grandma's. My mom is suffering terribly as she loves my son so much. Anyway, I am sorry about the setback. Life does have these setbacks, we cannot be there all of the time watching over them although we wish we could and worry constantly! Brett

Thank you Marie and Spring for your posts. I am taking all of your words of wisdom into consideration. It seems to be very important to take things slow. That is hard for me to do, but I am trying. We are trying to be encouraging and upbeat for our son. He knows he can talk to us anytime. It is draining watching all of this unfold. I found a good pediatric immunologist/allergist (on my insurance plan!) and got an appointment for Monday. I will have him tested for food allergies and blood tests for other things as well, whatever the dr. recommends. It is a start. I can then take those results to a homeopathic dr., I have found one in my area and will make an appt. after I get results from these tests. To everyone reading these posts, all of your advice really helps and definitely makes me feel less alone! Brett

Momonamission, thank you so much! I will bring this when I have the appt. with the homeopathic dr. I really appreciate you taking the time to post that for me. My son Jesse is in such emotional pain it just kills me. Today was a very tough day, he is so depressed and moody, feeling so unlucky and alone, cries at the smallest things. The no-screens is hard for him, he is used to watching a lot of tv and that definitely distracted him from his symptoms. But I have to say he is calmer without the tv. He realizes this as well. While I don't think the screens are causing his tics (as he continues to have all of them even 4 days without screens), it has helped us to reassess the role tv plays in this house. Things are much calmer and quieter and we will modify for sure once tv goes back on again. I started Zithromax today and am giving it a 5 day try to see if he improves at all. We will see. Sometimes I feel hopeful, then others I think, what if this never goes away and he has to live every day with his body twitching and jerking? What must it feel like to not be able to be still for 4 straight weeks? To feel different from everyone else? I know you know what this feels like. Anyway, thanks for your help. I will keep you posted. Brett

Hi Cheri, thanks for the vitamin website, it is very helpful and I bookmarked it. I found a homepathic practice right near my home, I will call them tomorrow. I used one of the links off of this website to find it. It took some work! They are not on my insurance plan, I wonder if they take insurance at all? I guess I will find out. Thank you again. Brett

Thank you momonamission! I will look later for the information you post. Brett

Hi Momonamission, thanks for your reply. I was wondering what good multivitamin you put your son on? Because I have stopped giving him that Flintstone's junk and was at the pharmacy today, they told me that the plain multivitamin without any additives should only be started when a child is at least 12 or 13, as the amounts of vitamins in the pill are too high (double what it is in flintstones). So I thought I could split it in half if that is the case. But if you know of what brand/kind and where to get it I would appreciate it. How did you know what types of natural things to put your son on? It just seems that there are so many I don't even know where to begin. What did you start with? I appreciate all of your help. Brett

Hi Momonanmission, it is Brett. I was just wondering if you have given your son the Carnosine yet? And if there has been any difference? I read about your situation and is sounds so much like mine. This Saturday will be a month of tics and he has not gotten any better. Still on the Tenex so he can function but heartbreaking to watch him and he is so moody and depressed, mood swings within seconds of each other, says his head feels like it is going to explode, refuses to get up and go to school in the a.m. I have to stand over him to get homework done. Wants to drop out of all sports. This is a straight A school lover (he is 9 in the 4th grade), great kid, leader, excellent at all sports, energetic, happy, eager kid. Replaced by this child and it makes me so sad. I am on my own as I am not following neuro's advice to give Orap. I am holding the Zithromax right now waiting to try near the end of the week so I can watch for any effects. He has been no-screens for 2 days, but basically he is the same. I will call a new dr. tomorrow that uses a more holistic approach and does lots of testing for allergies, etc. I just know there is some underlying cause of this as symptoms came on so fast! An explosion of tics. Although he always had little tics here and there as a younger child (mostly coughing, throat clearing). Now he cannot sit still his body jerks so much. So I have read a lot about the Carnosine thanks to Firefly's postings on it. I would like to hear if anyone had any negative reactions to it, or positive as well? Also, my son is 9 years old and weighs 60 pounds, what is the correct dosage? I really do feel on my own, a follow-up appt. on 12/13 with the neuro is scheduled but frankly he just says use these meds and let's see what happens. How does that help? Thank you so much. Brett

Hi to Allison (and to Jeff as well), thank you for your replies. Right now I am reading a lot of info from this site and just trying to gather info. It can be overwhelming! I did start no screens today and will do that for a week. I did get a prescription for Zithromax, but am holding off just a few days so we are closer to the end of the week/weekend so I can observe him while he is not at school. He is taking the Tenex still. He is stable right now but still losts of jerking/tics. I will do the yeast spit test in the a.m. I am trying to do one thing at a time. I did find a natural dr. near my home and will call to inquire about food allergy testing. They also do the mercury testing. I have the info for the Great Plains Lab in case spit test comes back positive for yeast. When I sais his diet was bad, I meant a lot of junky food/candy, not so many fruits and veggies. Again, my fault of course for not being more diligent! I will do a no sugar diet next week, no candy, chococlates, cereals, etc., to the best of my ability and see if that helps. I am waiting on any type of supplements as I do not want to add too much too fast and would like to see the natural dr. first. After 3 weeks of this I have come to learn that I have to live with this and go slow to see what works. Thank you so much for your help and support. Brett

Thank you firefly and momonamission. I will definitely find that thread on Carnosine and read it. At this point I am just trying to gather information and do things slowly. My son has not changed for the better or the worse, so I am happy for nothing worse. He still takes the Tenex each day. We started no screens this week to start. I am looking into a natural dr. and food allergy testing. I will do yeast spit test in the a.m. I am holding off on the new antibiotics (Zithromax) for a few days. I assume that I get Carnosine at the drug store? Thanks for all your help. Brett

HI, it sounds like you son is doing great! What good news. I hear people referring to Carnosine a lot. What is Carnosine? Brett

Hi Claire, I have been posting about my son Jesse for a week now, my name is Brett. I wondered if Sheila Rogers is still doing phone consultations? I have spent many hours on this site reading about all of the different treatments and truly it is overwhelming. I am wondering if it would be more helpful for me to speak with a knowledgable individual, to go over my entire son's history, and get her feedback before I start dragging my son to more doctors. From what I have read on this site, there are so many different possibilites that could be causing my son's tics I wonder if I laid all of the info out for an expert if I could then be pointed in the right direction. Right now my son is on Tenex (an anti-hypertension medication) to at least have him function, but still there are many involuntary movements, and the neuro's only want to prescribe even stronger medication that I reject. They don't seem to want to get to the root of what is causing his issues, only to prescribe meds? From what I have read on this site, my son's tics could easily fall into a number of different causative factors (excessive illnesses as a baby/child, excessive antibiotic use as a child, overstressed, too much tv/screen time, yeast, poor diet, etc.), as well as 2 neuro's telling me he has PANDA even though his anti-strep titers came back negative! And putting him on antibiotics that I am debating whether to give or not. So if you have the chance with advice, I would appreciate it. Thank you so much for all of your helpful links on this site. Brett

Hi to all, thank you Cheri and Ronna, Allsion and momonamission. You have no idea how all of this information is helping me. To answer the question about the blood tests, the neuro took the blood but put Jesse right away on amoxicillin. One week later, both of the anti-strep titers (anti DNAseB and ASO) came back in the normal range. Thus, after one week of amoxicillin, being that the blood tests were normal, the dr. said take him off the antibiotics, which we did. A week later, as they sypmtoms had not improved, the dr. said, put him back on let's see what happens type thing, the blood tests being normal can't automatically rule out PANDAS (he is the 2nd neurologist to tell me that by the way). So back on the amoxicillin, but only 2 days this time. The reason we took him off after only 2 days is because Jesse seemed to get much worse on them! And in retrospect looking back on the one week he had on them, he got much worse that week too! Mainly during that one week, he was much more hyperactive, many more vocal tics; for the week he was off the amoxicillin, no hyperactivity, no vocal tics. Then, 2 days back on, a lip licking tic appeared that gave him the worst rash around his mouth (which could have also been caused by the antibiotic too perhaps?), and again more hyperactivity. After just one day off the amoxicillin, no more lip licking, rash completely gone by the next day. Coincidence? I have to think no. So my dr. friend did give me a prescription for Zithromax. Now I am trying to decide if it is worth a 5 day course to see if anything improves. I will p/u the prescription tomorrow. I did get the probiotic (culturelle it is called, lactobacillis it says on the box) to give him one per day, I read somewhere that it should be given 2 hours after the antibiotic? I would like more information re: the yeast issue if someone could help me. Is there a specific test that can be done for this? Is there a specific treatment that can help with yeast? I have found a natural dr. practice near my home and will be calling tomorrow for an appointment to discuss my son and to go ahead and do the IGg food allergy testing. Should he be tested for anything else, such as mercury or yeast? I think this is worth pursuing as my son (and of course this is ultimately my fault) does not have a good diet at all. I am willing to try natural supplements, but first I want to try the 5 day course of antibiotics as well as food allergy testing. I am also taking the advice many of you have advised: no screens for a week, starting tomorrow a.m. This should be interesting as we all watch a decent amount of tv! But my son is up for it and willing to try because he is so depressed and confused re: what is happening to his body. He is suffering and it is agony to watch. However, I sat behind him on Sat. a.m. and watched him watch wrestling on tv, his body was all over the place, out of control, it really seemed like he got worse while watching that stuff. No more of that show! So I think I understand different things that can happen this week. If in fact my son has a yeast issue I assume once he is on antibiotics again he may get worse. In that case I will take him right off of the Zithromax. I also can assume that if it is PANDA he will show a change for the better on the antibiotics. So I am ready for all situations. If anyone can get me some info about the yeast, testing, treatment, etc., I would really appreciate. Thank you all. Brett

Hi to all the people that have helped me so far, and thank you so much. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday. I have another question about antibiotics. We did take my son off of amoxicillin as it did not seem to help and in fact seemed to make him worse. Our dr. friend was willing to prescribe another antibiotic to try; he suggested Zithromax and prescribed it. I was wondering if anyone was helped by this antibiotic as opposed to amoxicillin. We are not sure it is PANDA as his strep titer was normal but all his symptoms do point that way. Thanks! Brett

Hi Ronna, thanks for your reply, I remember what it is like to have a 5 month old baby! Very tiring. Your posts are very helpful. I am trying to be strong but most of the time have so much anxiety under the surface, particularly when watching Jesse throughout the day trying to contain himself. It is so upsetting. I feel so helpless, I have no control over what his body is doing to him. We had put him back on the amoxicillin for 2 days but believe it or not both my husband and myself felt it made him worse! How is that possible? We felt he was at least stabilized on the Tenex, but after 2 days of amoxicillin and he became super hyperactive and many more tics/movements. So we decided to just take him off it on our own. It is weird doing all of these medical things/making choices on our own against what a dr. says. I have to trust my gut instinct though. My husband and I are both allergic to penicillin so we wonder if that is why it is making him worse? I am going to ask my dr. friend to give him another antibiotic, I think Keflex was mentioned by you as a good one? I found a dr. in my area from a link off of this site that practices nutrition and holistic alternative medicine, they do food allergy testing, I am going to try and make an appointment with them next week to see if they can offer help. I am going to have Jesse food allergy tested, a lot of people on this site recommend the IGg testing. It is a start anyway as no dr. can explain to us what is going on with Jesse, they say just give it time and see what happens. I am okay with that but find no harm in exploring options that could help to stop what his body is going through. Anyway, thanks for listening, whenever you have the time and advice, please post. Thanks. Brett

Hi Ronnas, thanks for your response, I think Allison had mentioned you in one of her responses to me, and said your info might be helpful. I decided not to put Jesse (my son) on the ORAP at this time. I am trying amoxicillin right now and he is on a low dose of Tenex (1mg per day split half/half a.m/p.m.). While he has lots of jerks/twitches/spasms/tics, he is functioning okay and coping with it. You are the only person that has told me that you had experiences with the movements in sleep, and that helps me feel a little better because so far no one else had reported that at all and it is freaking me out. 2 doctors initially thought PANDAS but blood tests were normal (DNA(DS)ABS and ASO AB); however, the more I read the more I realize that it could still be PANDAS, particularly as my son was constantly sick as a child (frequent ear infections, months of preventitive antibiotic use as an infant, colds, pneumonia at 4 months, one bout of strep/scarlet fever when he was 5 or 6), also milk/soy formula allergies as a baby. Of course I never even considered any of these things until I came to this forum-site and read other people's stories. In addition this summer he was at sleepaway camp for 7 weeks, living in a bunk with 12 other children in the broiling heat that this summer had, as well as much less sleep and many more activities than in his usual schedule. Interestingly, for much of the summer his voice was extremely hoarse and I had the camp dr. check him (no strep test done though), they said he was fine just tired from camp life. When he got home from camp he was exhausted like a zombie and everything went downhill from there. At this point I think I will give the amoxicillin for a few weeks and if I see no difference I will request another antibiotic such as clindamycin or keflex. We are trying to be patient and see how this plays out. He has not gotten any worse since the explosion of symptoms almost 3 weeks ago so that is encouraging. Right now I am considering food allergy testing although I am unsure as to how to go about it, if you could advise I would appreciate it. I am also considering the supplements at the Bontech website. Have you done the supplements? I would like to wait a few weeks to see how the medications play out first before I add anything else. It just amazes me that others have gone through this just as I am right now. Anything you might add or respond to me is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. Brett

Hi, thank you to Allison, momonamission, and Chemar for your helpful responses. My son left the hospital today after an 18 hour video monitoring EEG; the neurologist said his brain waves were totally normal with no evidence of seizures. He did see on the video the amazing amount of jerking and moving my son's body does though; the dr. called them "myoclonic jerks." I asked him why does he jerk in his sleep? As from what I have read tic disorders do not have tics/jerks during sleep. The dr. said that is not always the case and sometimes there can be movements in sleep. He would not commit to any diagnosis, and stated he felt the Tenex (an anti-hypertension medication) my son has been taking for a week and a half (which has helped a lot in calming down the out of control body movements and hyperactivity) was not working sufficiently and stated he wanted to put my son on 1mg. of Orap to see if that helps. He also recommended I put my son back on the antibiotics as his symptoms are so PANDA like. Of course that was what I thought, but his nurse told me last week to take him off the antibiotics as his blood test results were normal. I told that also to the dr., he said well, the blood test results are not always definitive. I just wish he and his nurse had discussed that last week before I lost a week of antibiotic treatment. So now my son is back on the amoxicillin and I will see how that goes. My main concern right now is the ORAP the dr. wants to prescribe. I went online and researched it today, and I have to say it sounds horrible and very dangerous! It is an anti-psychotic (a neuroleptic) and I noticed that Chemar posted today about her son's experience on Haldol, I think they are the same class of drugs? Just reading about ORAP made my skin crawl and made me feel sick to my stomach! Why would a dr. prescribe this so quickly after only 1 week of Tenex/Amoxicillin without even giving that a chance? My son does have a lot of body twitching/spasms/jerking, but it has greatly improved with just one week of Tenex! I guess the fact that it is non-stop leads the dr. to believe that it is severe and needs further intervention? There is no way I can put my son on ORAP, it seems so risky and dangerous with possible permanent side effects like tardive dyskenisia, and from what I read it can make tics worse? I would rather my son live with the jerking than take the risk of making him worse? And these drugs just mask the symptoms anyway, they don't do anything for the underlying disorder, which at this point the dr. cannot commit to a diagnosis anyway, he says try the drugs for a month and let's see how he does, if he improves we'll take him off. So why just not keep him where he is and not put him on this anti-psychotic? Plus all the literature says do not give to children under 12! I just don't understand. Any feedback you can give me is so appreciated. Thank you. Brett

Hi, I just read another post you wrote to momonamission, I could not believe how your son's story is so similar to my son's, it is truly scary. My son also has been talking about how horrible he is at everything, so down on himself, so hard on himself, crying and beating himself up over stinking at all sports and stupid in school. While he has always been perfectionistic, it is as though he has gone off the deep end. He also had tons of ear infections/viruses/colds as a child, at one point was placed on augmenten for 3 months to keep the infections away, all under the age of 2, including pneumonia at 4 months old. Reading your posts made me remember that my son was allergic to his formulas as a baby, we took him off milk based formula, put him on soy, he was allergic to that too, we then gave him nutramagen (sp?) which was that special expensive formula. The coughing/throat clearing as a young child that would come and go. Then hand movements this time around that started it all, the waking up at night, restless, no good at things, etc. Should I put my son back on the antibiotics? He had only taken one week worth of amoxicillin and then the dr. said take him off since his strep titers were normal. I still have 2 weeks worth left that I could use. I just don't know. Also the ADHD behavior, lack of focus, deterioration of handwriting, emotional lability, you just described exactly my son when all of this exploded 2 and a half weeks ago. It is unreal to me that these are almost identical. Brett

To Ad Ccl, thank you so much for your advice. It is interesting what you write, as through the years, particulalry when my son was younger (4-5-6 years old) he did have coughing that would go on and on even thought he was perfectly healthy, and then it would just go away. Also throat clearing. I would always say to my husband, I think that is a tic, he would say no, no, no. This past summer for 7 weeks my son was at sleepaway camp, non-stop sports, not much rest during the day, brutally hot bunk, lack of sleep at night. When he came home from camp at the end of August he was truly exhausted, which never really went away. In September we were concerned about exhaustion, also started this wheezing noise in his throat, took him to pediatrician (she ran blood tests to rule out Lyme disease, thyroid, etc, anything that could have been causing his tiredness, all came back normal); then the sleeplessness started, then throat clearing, we took him to ENT dr., he couldn't find anything wrong. In hindsight, the wheezing, throat clearing were probably tics. Then school started, very stressful, my son does not deal well with stress as is, a lot of sports, homework, heavy schedule. Then moodiness, sleep problems, vocal tics went away but then hands, then the explosion of tics. I wonder if the summer and the lack of sleep/rest could have been the beginning of all this? I will talk with my husband tomorrow and show him your advice about no screens for 10 days, my son does watch a lot of tv and play a lot of video games. He will freak! But I don't care. The medication has helped tremendously in reducing symptoms but at what point do I say I don't want him on this anymore? It is an anti-hypertension medication and I'm sure that is not so good either. How do I go about getting him tested for food allergies? Because I will do that too. My son is at the brink, he is trying so hard to handle being dragged to all of these dr's/hospitals, he is so sad/moody. You are so right, one day my son is great, then, another child altogether. I do have hope everything will get better. I will order the book as well. I will post with new info as it comes, please look out for my new posts as your responses are so helpful. Brett

Thank you so much for responding, it does make me feel so much better to know that there are others out there going through what I have been going through. In response to some questions you had, yes, my son did have the strep titers done, those were the only blood tests done, and they were all well within normal range. That is why they took him off the amoxicillin. We are really trying to figure out what could have triggered all of this, at first we thought it could have been stress? As he began this school year and seemed so much more stressed out than usual. I will continue to think this over. It is just so hard to understand and for the mind to process, especially when I watch him sitting there playing a video game or watching tv and his body is just moving all over so severely. My heart breaks for him but I am trying to hold it together until I get some more definitive answers from the dr. , at least then I know what I am dealing with and can try to move forward from there. I do find the posts about vitamins/diet/natural treatments ver interesting and of course would be willing to try anything to help my son. I will post results when I have them and will ask for more advice. Of course anyone that can help me please respond, it is so much appreciated. Brett

Hi, I just found this site and wondered if there are any parents out there that are experiencing what I am going through. About 6 weeks ago my 9 year old son started having difficulty sleeping, waking up at night, exhausted all of the time. Then his hands starting to move a lot, moving fingers, twisting fingers, etc. Then horrible mood changes/irritability. We had no idea what was going on. Then 3 weeks ago, explosion of movements throughout the entire body, twitches, spasms, everywhere on his body, head, shoulders, neck, teeth, tongue, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, back, it looked like he had parkinson's disease. It also happened while he was sleeping. He has seen 2 neurologists and right now is at the hospital having a 24 hour Video EEG sleep study. Already had one regular EEG which was normal. Because he could not function due to out of control involuntary body movements and hyperactivity, he was placed on Tenex (guanfacine) which has reduced overt symptoms but still a lot of spasms/twitching, it never stops, constantly moving with no break. I did not think that tics could happen non-stop with no breaks all over the body, seemingly everywhere at once? At first doctors said PANDA and put him on amoxicillin for 1 month; however, all blood tests normal, no strep either, they took him off amoxicillin after one week. Still with the sleep problems, very very moody, irritable, lethargic, don't know what side effects these might be from Tenex. Right now they are leaning towards tic disorder. Out of nowhere this happened to my healthy son, never any medical problems, never any sleeping/mood problems. I feel like I am on an emotional rollercoaster from ######. My poor child says his body feels weird and he cannot stop the movements even if he tries. It is as though a different child has taken over my child's body. Can anyone advise or respond? Thank you. Brett