Can we have one PANDAS doc and another doc for our stomach issues?

[MMWG]

Our PANDAS is currently fairly under control. DS just turned 5, and has had 2 bouts with strep this year which were handled with 3 weeks of antibiotics each. I love our pediatrician, and have no desire to go through the medical maze to find anyone else. However. DS has always had very bad constipation--at his worst he was going 1 1/2 weeks with no activity, if you get my drift. His pediatrician put him on daily miralax over 2 yrs ago. it works well for him, as long as he gets it everyday. if we miss even one dose, the kid is in major pain (as he was yesterday). I asked at his last appointment if there might be something else we could do for his stomach, or whether he might have some type of food intolerance or sensitivity that we might want to look into, but the pediatrician kind of blew it off.

 

I know there is a great holistic/integrative medicine doc close by that many people I know have gone to and love. He has addressed other children's stomach issues, and he has seen two friends of mine and told both of them to go gluten free (i get the sense that is his big thing). i have no idea if he knows about PANDAS, but I believe his son is autistic so I would guess he is up on DAN protocol and all of that.

 

I have no idea what stomach issues might be going on. The constipation has been there since birth, so I am not sure if it has any relation whatsoever to his PANDAS,though I know anything that makes him feel poorly triggers behavior issues for us, so I am sure it can't be helping.

 

My question is--can I just go to the integrative doc and have him look into the stomach issues? I am not really interested in whether he disagrees about PANDAS, or any alternative to our current PANDAS treatment, and when the kid has strep, we are putting him on antibiotics, period. I would let him know about hsi condition, but I really want his help in the stomach area, not the PANDAS area. Would this fly?

 

Also, what kind of tests can they do for food sensitivity or intolerances? Do they have to take blood? Is it worth it?

[pathfinder]

My son has a stomach issue I would like to pursue as well. He has very frequent diarrheas through out all his life and pandas or not it must be very uncomfortable for him so I am thinking of doing endoscopy in his stomach and intestines. we did numerous blood tests on food allergy and other possible bacterias and all foods he tested came up as positive/no bacterias which means he should not eat anything and since it is not possible, we went to IVIG. I don't know yet if IVIG took care of this problem but I am going to do endoscope for my son in 2months of time. I will let you know what it was all about when I know it myself.

[Kiera]

Absolutely, you can have as many specialists as is necessary to treat all your childs ailments. My son (8) has many different diagnosis including PANDAS, sees an Allergist/Immunologist for that, and chronic constipation, sees a Pediatric gastroenterologist for that. He's struggled with the constipation for years, has had many tests to rule out a whole host of disorders (tethered spinal cord/celiac dx/hirshsprungs dx etc), also had the food allergy tests which shows allergic to everything so he still has to eat, tried gluten-free diet, helped a little with behaviour but not constipation. Tried miralax and lactulose for 2yrs now but barium enema shows rectum and sigmoig colon is so severly stretched out he's actually having a cecostomy tube placed next week to do daily antegrade enemas to finally get his colon to shrink back down again to cure the constipation (can take at least a year!). Constipation probably started because of his severe sensory dysfunction causing pain and with-holding which is a vicious cycle. Hope this helps.

[tpotter]

[Could the stomach problems be related to PANDAS? It is possible for strep to be in the gut. Also, have you checked the possibility of celiac or even gluten intolerance (not necessarily celiac.)

[Megs_Mom]

We have 2 neurologists, a pediatrician, an immunologist and a gastrointerologist! Our daughter has stomach ulcers & sees gastro for that, pediatrian is on board but will not prescribe - see her for normal stuff along the way, local immuno & neuro are emergency PANDAS team , long distance neuro is for long term plan & serious emergencies if we need her.

 

I like having a TEAM of docs! Anyone quits on us, and we have a back up plan.