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My son is on a 2 month course of azithromycin - 5 days on, 5 days off. He's been on it for a little over 2 weeks. I *thought* he had been doing fairly well, but his teacher says he's misbehaving in class. His principal observed him today just jerking around, making noises, and looking like a mess. They all remember my sweet and happy kid and know this is not him and are concerned. At home, he's great - no night terrors, OCD thoughts, anxiety, tics, anything like that. But at school he's having issues.

 

I'm going to his class tomorrow to observe him.

 

His school is really good and they want to work with us to help him, and I know the distraction he causes to the other students is also a concern.

 

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I feel so lost in all of this.

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How old is your son?

 

Why are the abx being "pulsed," 5 days on and then 5 days off? That's a new protocol on me for azith. I've heard of the pulsing multiple abx for lyme, and I know azith has a long half-life, but one would think that at least toward the end of those "5 days off," your DS could become vulnerable again to infection or an exposure response.

 

Has he had these issues at school throughout the treatment thus far, or has it only recently cropped up? Can you connect the commencement of these behaviors at school with where you were in the abx cycle?

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Thanks Nancy, he's 7. The behaviors popped up during the last "off" period of 5 days off. His pediatrician said the azith builds up in their system during the 5 days on and keeps them protected during the 5 day off period. Even still, at home he's not having his usual precursors for it. We know he's coming down with it because usually the night before it all starts, he has leg cramps that need massaging, a night terror, and sometimes wets his bed. The next morning he will wake up with a sore throat or just not feeling well and the tics and OCD will follow. None of that and he's doing fine at home, it's just at school that there are complaints. I wondered if he's not just realizing he can get away with murder, but that's not really his personality anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to see it for myself tomorrow.

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quote name='mamapanda' timestamp='1317842259' post='122624']

I *thought* he had been doing fairly well, but his teacher says he's misbehaving in class. His principal observed him today just jerking around, making noises, and looking like a mess. They all remember my sweet and happy kid and know this is not him and are concerned. At home, he's great - no night terrors, OCD thoughts, anxiety, tics, anything like that. But at school he's having issues.

 

mamapanda --- i'm sorry -- i'm not familiar with your story but just wanted to quickly jot some thoughts-- my ds is 7 also, had 'sudden onset' 3 years ago. that school year was up and down as we figured much out -- 100% remission with abx that didn't last once off the abx. he returned to school the next year and did quite well until the second semester. he seemed quite healthy at home and i was very surprised at spring conference to hear all the terrors of the classroom. my theory now is that the teacher was raising the bar b/c he'd been doing so well and he was having much trouble reaching it. unfortunately, she just became frustrated and everything spiraled down from there. at the time, i was baffled as to how he could seem so well at home but be having so much difficulty at school. we homeschooled last year -- not totally due to pandas, also selling house, yada, yada, yada.

 

this year, with new school --he's had extreme separation anxiety issues with getting into the classroom. i've had many new insights and opinions about this just in the past few weeks -- largely due to help from this forum -- dcmom, momwith ocd son, and LLM -- my OCD heroes!

 

here's my current thinking about my ds -- he does have 'just right' OCD that crops up for him and is really all about the feeling that something is not right. he does have that about entering the school.

 

IN ADDITION, he has some very reasonable anxieties and fears about his ability to navigate the classroom -- troubles with handwriting, troubles generating ideas, ability to express problems and problem solve. i think these anxieties help feed the 'just right' feeling. if you're interested, search resent posts under my name -- specifically one about 'unfounded' vs. 'unknown' fears. so i wonder, as we do an ERP like schedule to entering school, if we are exposing him to school (which was necessary for the first few weeks) but if now, we need to expose him to encountering problems in the classroom without me there to help solve.

 

it may not be for your ds, but it could be that there are issues in the classroom that are troublesome for him. it may have previously been there at a low level that he could deal with, but now due to pandas they are becoming a hurdle he can't jump and/or there is increased anxiety concerning them and it's anxiety that is presenting as behavioral challenges.

 

the other thought -- what you describe sounds like tics. for the first year after ds was diagnosed, i said he had no tics or movement issues. i saw eye bliking once for about 3 seconds. as i've understood tics more, he does have some things (mouth wiping, slight spitting) that i do think would be classified neurologically as tics -- but to an average person and even someone in the know but not very skilled with tics, would just seem to be behavioral. these are brought on in extreme by stress. the day of meet your teacher, he was extremely mouth wiping during the whole presentation but hadn't been doing it before and only slightly after.

 

keep me posted!

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mamapanda-

 

I hope you find some clues while you are in the classroom.

 

One thing I can add is; we have seen different exacerbation levels with my girls. They have both had major episodes that come on fast, with lots of ocd, eating and sleeping issues, etc- these issues are unmistakeable as they severely affect functioning.

 

We also have what I call "blips", minor increases in symptoms. These blips happen due to various things (that I can tell) loose baby teeth, exposure to strep/illness, minor illness, etc. They seem to come on a bit slower ( or maybe I just notice them more gradually because they are more subtle). What we see is increased difficult behavior at home.... is it possible your low level symptom can be difficulties at school.

 

There are so many variables; could be ocd or adhd caused by pandas, and leftover from initial episode.

 

e

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