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Question - how long does it take to recover from PANS/PANDAS? I know every case is different, but just try to gauge where my dd is in her recovery . She just started 2nd month of treatment(abx &herbs) -headaches & light sensitivity have gone but still has hearing sensitivity & cognitive issues. We believe it was 7 months from her exposure to the time we started treatment....

I would love to hear your recovery stories. Did your child ever go back to being his/her "old self?" How long did it take? Was your child in a state of semi-recovery for a while? What do you think was the most helpful thing for you? ----------- Here's a little bit of DS10's story: He came down with strep in October and burst out in a bunch of typical PANDAS symptoms (general anxiety, separation anxiety, hallucinations, irrational fears, emotional lability, rages) right as we were ending the antibiotics. A second round of antibiotics (10 days) took care of most of the really weird stuff. He has had one flare following a bout of gastroenteritis and had a "baby flare" last week when his brother was coming down with walking pneumonia (myco p). The first flare was characterized by raging/anorexia/anxiety--and he got suspended from school for an altercation. The baby flare was "just" lots of rages aimed at me. But most days, he does well. His behavior could be considered completely normal--for a different child. He still has a million friends and is his charming self with them. He is generally able to keep his act together at school. It's just that ... he is not exactly the same as he was before. He has outbursts at the slightest provocation several times a week. He is also super-forgetful and has a hard time concentrating on anything remotely challenging. Also: He seems to have plateaued. If he's getting better, it is gradual. Right now he's not on antibiotics but is taking some fancy Omega 3's, Vitamin C and 5-HTP. I give him Motrin sometimes too. I had titers run two weeks ago but I have not been able to get my doctor's nurse to call me back, which is making me pull my hair out in frustration.

Hi all my 6 year old son has been diagnosed, i think...with pandas/pans. an explosion of symptoms began early summer. we went on a family vacation and everything was a level 10 out of 10. He was licking everything, biting objects, looking at fingers lined up, asking questions multiple times, concerned about his eating area, defiant, hyperactive, very angry and moody, and extremely anxious about being alone. We called his ped multiple times while we were gone, and the nurse just tried to say you're on vacation, maybe he's just adjusting. we knew something was very wrong. we saw her again when we returned, and she noted how different he appeared during the visit--on the floor, in constant motion, talking non-stop, and repeating things. she suggested counseling, as we have had many serious family stressors in the last year. i started looking online at information on tourettes and came across the pandas/pans stuff. he fit nearly every criteria. i also noticed dilated pupils were a symptom, which I remember seeing for months but didn't think much of it. same with urinary incontinence. he had about 6 daytime and nighttime episodes in 5 weeks time. he was out of school, so didn't notice much with writing. just that when I tried to sit down with him to do some schoolwork they sent home with kids to do for the summer, he refused and/or had a tantrum about not wanting to do the exercises. i scheduled an appt with dr k, who would be unavailable for one month. every day was/has been a nightmare and waiting to do nothing felt awful. i scheduled a ph consult with dr t who said he is "textbook" pandas. his bloodwork came back, and even though antidnase b titers were considered high, he thought pneumococcus was the triggering agent. he is on augmentin and biaxin right now. we saw a dr locally who refused to diagnose him with pandas (he won't acknowledge pans) since his strep titers were normal with a second round of bloodwork. we see dr k tomorrow. as i think back to his last illness that he had, it was in march, over spring break. he was sick with fever for 6 days. other symptoms were a cough so bad it often made him gag/vomit, but it was nonproductive. dr thought it was viral. 2 weeks later I noticed differences in my son, and that's when i began emailing his teacher to ask if she'd noticed differences. i mainly noticed tics, like blinking and facial grimacing, and hyperactivity. she said she, too, noticed but didn't think it was too bothersome. when i picked him up from school, he was so angry, nearly every day, that i thought something had to be happening in school. again, the teacher confirmed nothing was happening, he seemed ok, although she could no longer put him with certain students to do work like she used to, and that he had troubles following directions, standing in line, and staying on the carpet during reading. this is from a teacher who, up to this point, said she wished she had 18 children like him in her class! my son even said he felt like something was "wrong" with him. then I recalled a class field trip at the end of May I went on with him, and came home and told my husband that something was not right. he was very obsessed over the school bus and couldn't participate in learning activities. i began looking up adhd things. but as i said before, it's as if he could qualify for 5-6 dsm-iv diagnoses in one month's time! i've read some things here and feel very scared. it seems like something that never ends, or even gets better. i'm sure we'll be up against a decision on whether to try ivig or not. i've made an appt with a homeopath to begin treating, but i'm so scared to abandon traditional medical treatments. did i mention i have a healthcare background and am a scientist?? i really want to get at the core issue of the problem. i know everyone on here wants that too for their children. i'm just unsure how to go about it. i've never seen him so debilitated and i'm worried the next episode will keep him out of school. in fact i'm not sure how he'll fare with this upcoming school year, as he is now. he's on day 8 of abx, dr t prescribed 10 days. i'm wondering about recovery, what that looks like. his mood seemed significantly better to me two days ago. yesterday was a "good" day too. he didn't get angry as much or as intensely. but today i had a doctor's appointment and he was haywire--screaming "uuuhhh!" because i asked him to sit down, squeezing me out of anger (while I'm holding my 9-mo old), unable to be still, talking nonstop to the provider who was trying to talk to me, grabbing exam gloves by the handful out of the box, licking objects, etc. I don't understand....I thought we were on the mend. Can anyone share what to expect with recovery? are there good days then bad days, or is it different? same with recovery after ivig? how many rounds do kids typically need? I've read with younger kids recovery might be quicker/easier...is this correct? and what if the offending trigger is viral, not bacterial? what is the course of action then? do kids get better? and from what i understand, bloodwork is neither confirmatory nor disproving, so why the emphasis on it? does it really offer much useful information? maybe i'm misunderstanding this whole beast... i have many questions but will post later. i'm glad to have found a place to put ideas and questions out there.