Less Tics with Azithromycin

[kc35]

My DD was sick again all of last week. I took her to her regular pediatrician who assessed the whistle in her lung as walking pneumonia not asthma like the previous Dr. He prescribed a 5 day course of azithromycin. While on this antibiotic her tics have diminished, but they are not completely gone. She still has a cough and a whistle in her lung. I will be taking her back to Dr to determine if her walking pneumonia is gone based on listening to her lungs. Is walking pneumonia caused by mycoplasma? My question is, does it make sense to ask the Dr to measure her blood for mycoplasma titer to see if the infection is gone? Also at what point should I get this done? I know the Dr will just tell me that it is not accurate blah blah, but I want to know what you all think and have an educated comeback? I am afraid her tics will explode in the next week or two and if they do, does that indicate that the infection is not gone and that it is PANDAS?

[peglem]

I'd get a baseline titer measure for mycoP- stay on the zith, and remeasure titers @ every 6 weeks. You should see a downward trend if the zith is working. I'd keep her on the zith until titers normalize. For us, going off abx too soon always brings on relapse.

[911RN]

Why not a chest xray for Pneumonia? That is the gold standard for diagnosis and resolution?

[rowingmom]

Sorry, but an x-ray won't tell you the cause of pneumonia. Mycoplasma is not necessarily only a pulmonary infection.

[Dedee]

You should absolutely get Myco IgG and IgM labs done. Even if the current pneumonia resolves she can still have Myco P. My daughter had Myco P for years but would only get pneumonia a few times a year and then it would clear on x-ray. When we finally got titers years later they were through the roof.

 

About the Zith and the tics. My daughter is also being treated for Lyme and bartonella. When she is on Zith, for some reason her tics go completely away. Now, her tics aren't terrible. At times worse than others, but always present (unless on Zith). Her LLMD isn't sure exactly why this is but we eventually had to switch off the zith to a different antibiotic combo (because she had been on it for a while), and her tics have come back. I thought for a while it was the Rifampin controlling the tics, but we left the Rifampin on and it made no difference. I think I have heard from others that Zith has helped with their kids tics. Could be the immune modulating effects. Hard to tell.

 

Dedee

[rowingmom]

We saw the same response with penicillin VK treatment for strep. Ticcing resolved on abx, only to return when treatment was discontinued.

 

While on this antibiotic her tics have diminished, but they are not completely gone.