Public school

[dpet]

Ok...so my DS13 tries to start public school again this year. He reacts to others pretty rapidly. What do you guys do, when someone in the classroom is either positive or a carrier? Does prophylaxis help with reacting as well? We r scheduled for a T&A aug 27. Hopefully it will help as well.

[MomWithOCDSon]

From what our ped has told us, prophylaxis will perhaps prevent your DS from actively "catching" strep, but if his body is exposed to it, his immune system will likely step up antibody production nonetheless. This was the case with our DS.

 

You can help him get through the exposure and reaction, though, with some daily ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory aids (presuming he doesn't have an adverse reaction to fish oil or other Omega 3's). In our experience, the "secondary exposure" response is shorter-lived than is the response to the full-on illness/infection.

 

More good news is that, at your DS's age and middle school years, incidences of strep will begin to wane a bit as compared to the elementary school years. There tends to be more herd immunity by that age.

[Agnes26]

Wondering this myself. We've put off the start of school for another two months just to give DD7's immune system a break.

 

From what our ped has told us, prophylaxis will perhaps prevent your DS from actively "catching" strep, but if his body is exposed to it, his immune system will likely step up antibody production nonetheless. This was the case with our DS.

 

You can help him get through the exposure and reaction, though, with some daily ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory aids (presuming he doesn't have an adverse reaction to fish oil or other Omega 3's). In our experience, the "secondary exposure" response is shorter-lived than is the response to the full-on illness/infection.

 

More good news is that, at your DS's age and middle school years, incidences of strep will begin to wane a bit as compared to the elementary school years. There tends to be more herd immunity by that age.

 

So is this what's described as a "flare?" DD has ONE playmate that she had been seeing since this whole thing started. I began to notice that the day after they played together, DD was a basketcase. All her symptoms were intensified. DD has not seen that child for a week. And it's been a REALLY good week.

[dcmom]

Ditto everything that mom with ocd son has said!

 

I also wonder if with time, the farther away your child is from a major episode, the less "hyper" the immune system is. Exposure was a MAJOR problem for us during the first year of pandas (for both girls) but has been less so in the last two years, older one is in middle school- but younger one is only in fourth. I am hoping, anyway

 

We have been enjoying the summer so much! I am not looking forward to school starting either- MY worry thermometer goes through the roof

[JuliaFaith]

Your situation sounds familiar. My Ds14 tried to return to public school last year and his flairs just kept getting longer and longer. When the last one was for a week and he had only been in school for a month, I transferred him back to his on-line school. He was not on any abx at the time. We were going to try starting with a 1/2 day this year at the high school but he just came down with an illness/flair so not sure if that is going to be possible in a few weeks when his school starts. He is on abx this time so maybe it will work...?

 

His flair has never really totally went away though (flu-like symptoms). It was just beginning to for the first time in 2 yrs., 2 months ago until this illness hit. I did sign him up for on-line just in case we had to go that way because it takes an entire month to sign up and get books sent which puts him behind for the year.

 

His doctor said he was ready to go back last year. You are lucky that your son is in middle school and not high school where the credits start to really count. I may try the ibuprophen once a day at the beginning and see if that helps.

 

Best wishes on school (and T&A!). Oh, by the way, are you having a deep-nasal culture done on your son while he is put under for T&A? My son's dr. recommended that he get this done to test for MARCoNS, coagulase negative staph, and mold. To her surprise (it usually takes several tries) he was positive for staph. We think since son was asleep the culture was deep enough to get a good reading. Treatment helped with fatigue issues and healing.

Edited August 20, 2012 by JuliaFaith

[MomWithOCDSon]

So is this what's described as a "flare?" DD has ONE playmate that she had been seeing since this whole thing started. I began to notice that the day after they played together, DD was a basketcase. All her symptoms were intensified. DD has not seen that child for a week. And it's been a REALLY good week.

 

I'm not sure how others would describe it, but I describe a "flare" as a shorter-lived uptick in PANDAS behaviors. And usually I can tie that uptick to DS's exposure to someone with an illness, though it might not be the strep that started this whole thing and he responds most dramatically to. He might "flare" after hanging out with a friend with strep or a cold, or he might get a cold of his own and "flare." Unfortunately, my DS can also flare when pollen or mold counts escalate, so vigilance is unrelenting!