HELP...not sure what to do with son sick

[Kimflow]

How do you make determination when to take child back in for swab.

We are currently on Augmentin, Zithromax, and ALinia.

 

Son has been having very slight asthma in the evening for 2 nights...no treatment necessary. usually he only gets this with a cold.

 

I have been seeing PANS symptoms flaring to the point that they were when he had the first strep throat and subsequent PANDAS.

I do not see any complex tics or changes in chorea. But in initial strep throat and PANDAS, those didn't come for a while.

 

He also has felt warm to me for past several days but no other symptoms.

 

Last night, he slept poorly and was requiring me to be holding him constntly in tight hug....this is another prior strep PANDAS symptom. Swallowing alot in sleep.

 

I have a husband who had fever on Sat. A mother on antibiotics for respiratory. and my son has a loose tooth.

 

SO what do I do. Do you always take them in for a swab to rule out? Then the pediatrician has no idea how to treat PANDAS if they can even be determined enough to get teh swab done.

 

Or do I try to get cancellation with LLMD who also does PANDAS? Not likely to get in though. Not sure they even do throat swabs there.

 

This is our first "illness" since this all started 6 months ago.

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

Kim

[Dedee]

What dose of antibiotics is he on? If he is showing increase in symptoms then I think I would get a swab done. Even if you don't have someone to treat PANS right away at least you could get increase in antibiotics right away then make appointment with either LLMD or PANS specialist. If it's just viral, try starting ibuprofen to see if that will help symptoms.

 

Dedee

[dcmom]

agree with Dedee-

 

If you are questioning strep- have a throat culture (not quick strep) done. We used to do them frequently, now that we kinda have a handle on things, we do them a little less often.

 

For my kids, they can be triggered by viral issues, or even by loose teeth- a combo of the two might be equivalent to a strep infection for us.

 

Sounds like you are treating for lyme? We tried that for a short time and dropped it, as it did not make any change for us, it just didn't make sense. My kids did get strep while on both zithro and amoxy so it is possible. If it is strep, I would consider dropping your current antibiotics (temporarily) and adding a course of clindamycin.

 

Of course, at the first sign of a flare up we give 5 days of advil (three times per day) and then 2 to 3 days of one time per day. If at the end of that seven day period we do not get major relief, we usually move onto steorids.

 

Good luck!

[airial95]

I say get him swabbed - we used to wait a few days until we were "Sure" we were seeing PANDAS symptoms, not just having a "bad day". But found more often than not we were right and he was potisive (even on abx!).

 

Now I call at the first inkling of an issue, all I have to do is call our pediatrician and when they ask why we want to come in I can actually say things like "Broderick started hopping this morning", to which they respond "bring him in as soon as you can."

 

I know not all peds are on board like ours is - but if they'll do the culture it will at least get you going until you can get in with your specialist.

[TracyRee]

I've always been told they can't swab while he's on abx as the result won't be accurate??

[airial95]

Tracy, I've heard that too - and asked our ped about it and his response basically said it depends on the strain and the type of abx you're on.

 

In our case, we have tested positive on a rapid multiple times while on abx - cultures have been a mixed bag.