Now I'm really confused

[airial95]

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??

[thereishope]

Being PANDAS mom, we overthink a lot. The truth is you may not ever know what caused the improvement. Yes, it will be interesting to see what happens when he's off the Augmentin (how long is he suppose to be on it for). For now, enjoy your son and his improvement

[MomWithOCDSon]

Well, if you've read any of the stuff by that Beverly Hills psychiatrist (Dr. Jory ?), T&A is supposed to be "the answer" to a lot of our kids' woes!

 

Keep us posted! If your DS continues on this path, that might be yet another anecdotal piece of evidence to support the doctor's claims!

[norcalmom]

It may not be as simple as removing the infection (since your childs tonsils didn't show infection). Tonsils do other stuff relating to the immune system. One of the researchers that presented in TX presented on his work which shows that tonsils produce a protective immunity thing-y (that is the technical term that stuck with me! ) (I think it was interluken some number -IL-4 maybe?) against DCM (dialated cardiomyopathy) which is another auto-immune disease, and has some characteristics similar to pandas (sometime triggered by strep, is autoimmune...actives CamKinase II). In other words, if you remove tonsils before the first time they made this thing, you can increase your chances of getting DCM drastically.

 

Anyhow - not saying our kids shouldn't have tonsils out - they have different mechanisms going on and most have had a chance for this thing to have been produced - I'm saying that perhaps it isn't infection of the the tonsils, but some other immune modulator that has been effected by removing them - and for your son, it was a good thing.

 

Also - aren't' the kids given a shot of some high does antibiotics during T & A surgery? Maybe there was infection elsewhere that was helped by this? And were tonsils/atenoids disrupting breathing during sleep - maybe he's sleeping better too?

 

Just a lot going on to try to figure out the cause - enjoy the benefits! and congratulations on step to wellness!

[airial95]

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!

[3boysmom]

In our case, our ds had his T&A surgery a few years before the strep triggered PANDAS episode.