Resurfacing of Tic

[Teri]

Hi all ... My first post - have so many burning questions but will try to keep to my topic. A little background - Dd age 5 almost 6 diagnosed officially with PANDAS in Feb. by Dr. Elia. In Sept. of 2011 she had what Ped. thought was an illness caused by a big allergy flare - had a fever, everything was swollen but it didn't look like an infection. Took her to the ENT bc she was doing a strange thing with her neck which we thought was perhaps a sign that her adenoids were again swollen. Treated her with allergy/asthma meds, Veramyst, etc... And she seemed to improve. Five days later she had her 5 year well visit which included DPT booster & combination flu vac. (h1n1/regular). Soon after that she developed a full blown tic involving head/neck/mouth/eyes.

We learned that she had a kid in her class with strep but she had no symptoms. We saw a neurologist (told us some kids have tics and some don't) - clearly not helpful. Ped did strep test & ran ASO titres - negative strep test - sky high titres. She treated with abx conservatively but tics immediately disappeared after a few days on abx. Every time she went off abx behavioral symptoms returned (hyper, regression, finger sucking, anxiety, restlessness, bed wetting etc..).

 

Nearly a year later we have a supportive Ped. and she sees Dr. B. Dd has been on azithromycin for almost 6 months. She was treated with Diflucan for 30 days in the summer for a yeast infection. In August Dr. B did bloodwork to check titres,mycoplasma, & for various Lymes infections. She had a tic bite in May. We were seeing a resurfacing of symptoms so he added Cipro 2x a day for 30 days. On Day 7 of the Cipro her tics have come back full force - just in time for her to start Kindergarten. Tics have now been here for nearly 2 weeks. Cipro has also seemed to flare up the yeast infection again so she is now on day 7 of Lamisil. PA @ Dr. B's told us that new antibiotic can sometimes cause tics. We are puzzled - is it the yeast infection?

 

We are really concerned / confused because previously the tics disappeared on antibiotic.?? Wow what a roller coaster this ! It is so exhausting ! Any words of wisdom from those of you that have btdt.

Teri

[Missmom]

Yeah, I know..... I think some types of abx actually make tics worse for some kids. I can't speak for cipro because we have never tried that one and all kids are different but I would suggest calling your doc. and switching to a different abx. Try going back to something that has worked in the past.

[LNN]

Have you gotten your lyme test results back yet? My son's tics resurfaced when we were especially aggressive with lyme treatment. It was a problem with his body not being able to clear the toxins quickly enough (dying bacteria release toxins that caused his tics). We backed off that particular abx and his tics resolved. Cipro is a heavy duty abx. One thought would be to discuss an on/off schedule of cipro - maybe on for 3 days and off for 4 type of thing - but it depends on your lab results.

[Teri]

We don't have the results of the Lymes testing yet .... Hoping to get it at our next appt. Dd is allergic to many abx (amoxicillin , bacterium, omnicef) so we are limited to what she can take.

How do you go about clearing the toxins? I feel like we have tried so many different things with her and the battle to take the meds is exhausting.

[1tiredmama]

Hi, Teri! I have no advice to offer for your particular situation, but I wanted to pop into your thread to welcome you. Soooo...

 

WELCOME!!!

[LNN]

We don't have the results of the Lymes testing yet .... Hoping to get it at our next appt. Dd is allergic to many abx (amoxicillin , bacterium, omnicef) so we are limited to what she can take.

How do you go about clearing the toxins? I feel like we have tried so many different things with her and the battle to take the meds is exhausting.

 

I was "schooled" on the lyme forum by a new member for not having a medical background and trying to discuss highly complicated issues, so bear in mind this is "only a mom" giving you my (clearly uneducated) understanding on the topic. But my simplistic view of detox thinks of it in 3 stages:

 

First, your body uses anti-oxidants as little garbage men who scavenge the body, picking up damaged and dead cells. (the garbage men are called phagocytes and the garbage trucks are fueled by anti-oxidants.

 

Second, the garbage trucks go to the dumps known as the liver and the kidneys, where the garbage is sorted, the trucks are cleaned and refueled. Other technical stuff happens.

 

Third, the waste products are sent to the final disposal sites of the bladder and intestines.

 

I describe this entire process as "detox". You can focus on one or all of the above stages to help the body. If your detox system gets clogged, you get inflammation and toxins leak back into the body, doing more damage.

 

So..to boost the first stage, you can take supplements to increase anti-oxidants. Glutathione is the mother of all anti-oxidants but it's poorly absorbed if taken as an oral supplement. So you can take something called alpha lipoic acid, which is a glutathione pre-cursor, or you can take other anti-oxidants such as vitamin C, resveratrol (the stuff that makes red wine good for you)..

 

To help with the second stage, especially to help the liver when taking antibiotics, you can take milk thistle and you can push fluids to keep the kidneys flushed. There are other things as well but my memory is rusty on options.

 

To help with the third stage in the bowels, you want to make sure that the bowels move frequently by using fiber or psyillium husk or apple pectin (constipation allows toxins to be reabsorbed instead of excreted) and some people chose to use a binder that will hold on to waste within the intestines to reduce the chance of reabsorbtion (e.g. activated charcoal or bentonite clay or chlorella).

 

However, given your child's age, pills might be an issue. So you need to do what's practical. Also, inflammation becomes an issue with both bacteria die off and with detox. So motrin, tumeric, curcumin - can help.

 

You also mentioned yeast, which can cause many symptoms similar to PANS. Garlic pills help my kids. You can google natural yeast treatments and pick something similar that might be practical and of course, always use probiotics. Vitamin Shoppe carries a strawberry banana flavored probiotic you can add to a juice drink if pills are an issue.