small itchy skin rash with pandas?

[TessaKrista]

My ds9 has just had his 2nd pandas episode. The first was 2 years ago. One thing that I have noticed is that both times, he got small skin rashes. The first time, it was on his hands, when he was playing with dirt outside. This time, he has a small one on his neck, but not noticeable.

 

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a connection with mild skin stuff as well?

 

My son changed, from who he was. If I wasn't connected to this site, I would have just thought that my kid had gone nuts, but I am able to make the connection with strep. Thank goodness for advil too. That has really helped with the anxiety that my son has suddenly developed.

 

Symptoms this time during his 2nd pandas episode:

 

-urinary frequency during the day - every 5 minutes, then every 15 minutes, then it was every hour....

-resorts to peeing his pants because he is afraid that his bladder would burst, and he doesn't want people noticing how often he is urinating

-fears about swallowing things that he didn't swallow like battteries, bottle caps, etc. We opened a toy that had button batteries, and he suddenly started freaking out saying "Mommy, I am afraid that I swallowed thae batteries." I was freaked out, and he said that just looking at them makes him think that mhe swallowed them. I found all three, so I confirmed that he had not swallowed them. Wow...this sort of stuff has been happening, but has totally decreased with advil.

-fear of death - at one point - saying "am I going to die...am I going to die?" with fear in his eyes and voice

-then he started talking about death and dying, saying that he knew when he was going to die - whenever he was disappointed about something, like having an allergic reaction to something

-emotional lability... crying for 1/2 hour on end when something doesn't quite go right, and getting really worked up about stuff...

-sore throat initially - which then moved on to being afraid that food was stuck in his throat, such as a harder piece of meat or something....

-counting squares in the bathroom and on the mall floor, avoiding the lines - this was one of the first things I noticed, but didn't make the connection at first...

-needs me to sleep beside him

-abdominal pains

-tics- first it was a chin tic, then moved on to a throat clearing tic, and today I saw a shoulder raising tic

-he has a tough time printing neatly - he always rushed, but when he really tried to take his time, it would be small and neat...yet this episode was so obvious with his bigger and messier printing

-stuck on stuff - he would tell me not to ask him things, like "does your tummy still hurt" or "do you still feel like you have to pee often" explaining that it makes him think about it, and then the thought doesn't go away.

-this time, he had a high dose of azithromycin, I believe 500 mg , but I stopped after 3 days when he complained that he could not pee and could not have a bowel movement and had severe abdominal pains + had orange and cloudy urine with sediment (I was scared)...not smart to stop it suddenly...likely didn't eradicate the strep, so his body reacted with such intense symptoms afterwards....stuff that I mentioned that I had never seen before from him, like fearing food, talking about death and dying, paranoid that he swallowed things that he had not swallowed, the major emotional stuff, etc. A while later, I was able to get 250 mg of azithromycin for him, but that didn't make a difference. The advil really helped after the first day.

-he had an odd huge rash on the back of his hands - 5 days of cortizone helped

-he gets itchy stuff like under his chin and neck part close to chin(same as the last pandas episode he had)

 

 

 

 

Last episode- two years ago:

-tics - shoulder shrugs + whole face and mouth movements + humming

-suddenly became fearful of elevators - that really tipped me off, because it was so different for him

-needed me to be around all the time - clingy

- plus...he had so many episodes of strep, to the point where his pediatrician didn't bother swabbing or prescribing antibiotics, informing me that he would likely show up positive anyways, because he had step so many times and been treated with amoxil or pen V - but then he seemed to react to them with an overall skin rash on his back and chest...

-he had an odd little itchy skin rash on his forearms, from playing in the dirt at school + an itchy rash with small bumps under his chin close to neck

-he didn't want tags on clothes

-it was during the H1N1 scare

-he was around a girl who had whooping cough and who came over for a playdate

-he played with two sisters whose mother informed me that her daughters had been diagnosed with H1N1...but only told me this at the end of the playdate

-he had been around his Italian grandmother who had mycoplasma

-he had been around his Italian aunt who has staph in her nose

-he had an ongoing cough and stuffiness for 2 years that never went away...pediatrician said it was allergies....but when I finally gave my son 3 courses of azithromycin the cough and stuffiness went away and never came back.

 

 

Any words of wisdom from the folks out there is appreciated.

[hugs2day]

Is he back on antibiotics? Probiotics? Pepcid or alka seltzer gold for tummy pain? It may not be the antibiotic that gave him stomach pain, strep can give you stomach pain, PANDAS for some (including my kids) brings gastro problems of all sorts even GERD. Supplementing magnesium citrate will help keep bowels moving, probiotics will help tame down the gut issues, and pepcid may help overall as well.

 

Your sons panadas episode is very similar to my kids and I have to keep them home and treat aggressively with many things #1 increase antibiotic and probiotic. #2 then treat the co-morbid symptoms.

 

I hope your son can find relief soon. PM if you want some more ideas on supplements I have a list I resort to in hopes of keeping them stable and others I use when we see back slides.