Request for success stories please!

[Lydiasmum]

Hello everyone. I am struggling with positive mental attitude in any shape or form at the moment, even though my DD is in a relatively good place. The usual PANDA parent complaint - I am always looking for every little sign of a relapse. It's doing my head in.

 

Assuming that families with the worst behind them are still using this forum, can I please ask for some good stories and how things really can change for the better. I would love to read about recoveries right now to give me something to look forward to.

 

Thank you x

 

 

[beeskneesmommy]

My son was very, very ill. It was a long journey from his 1st dx at age 2.5 to now at age 7.5. The very worst was at his 4th b'day right after a T&A. We lost him. He could barely manage to communicate at one point and rocked and rocked. However, we pushed on, 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Ages 4-5.5 were very hard, although I saw a more solid kiddo as time progressed. Big gun abx, 2 IVigs and GF diet later, he is doing great! He is solid, happy, very social in school and doing very well academically. He is a typical 7 year old kid. We occasionally see flares that are mild and infrequent. He recently had what I believe to have been Strep and the "fallout" was quite mild and short lived. He also started allergy shots and strangely, I think that they are immodulating his immune system. I expected them to cause flare but it seems the opposite. Anyway, it took blood, sweat and tears and I bet I have shaved of several years of my life, but he is on track an has been for quite a while now. I believe that recovery is a matter of several factors, not just one. I also believe that recovery (yes, i said the "R" word again) is entirely possible. warm thoughts to you and yours. Hang in there and DON'T GIVE UP!

-Kath

[LNN]

Yay Kath!! So happy to hear!

 

We too seem to be out of the woods. It took a long, long time and a lot of money. It was more than strep. It was more than lyme. It was a half dozen things that all intertwined. But both kids came out on the other side and seem to be holding on to the good place they've been in for quite some time. I actually seem to have achieved a long time goal and weaned myself from this forum - a place that was once more essential to me than air. I know it feels like it may never happen, but if you keep digging, keep believing in your child and in yourself, recovery does happen. Hang in there!

[sf_mom]

It also took a long time for us as well. 4 years and counting.

 

However, I would consider all 3 of our children well recovered. We were dealing with many of the common issues that are associated with gestational/chronic Lyme: co-infections, biofilms, heavy metals, mold, vitamin/mineral deficiencies, methylation/detox issues, etc. We no longer experience the ups and downs of PANS with illness... none of our children currently have OCD or TICS.

 

Our children have an awful disease but there were many blessings along with that diagnoses. All your efforts on your DDs behalf will by off in ways you will never imagine.

[nicklemama]

I have a fear of posting this. Don't want to jinx things. After 4.5 years of dealing with this, DS, 10 has been very stable for his longest stretch. We have weathered a stomach virus, 3 colds w/ a terrible cough and a viral illness of some sort that produced a fever of 102. All this without even a blip this winter season.

 

He had sudden onset with every listed symptom. Severe but has always managed to go and do well academically in school. IVIG twice. The big turn around has come after treatment for ehrlichia and anaplasma for the past year with augmentin and biaxin that also treated the Lyme we just got a strong positive on thru Igenex this week. He is not showing active infection but is 5 bands positive IgG.

 

I'm not ready to say he's completely out of the woods but it's the first winter he's not flaired since this started in Oct 2009.

[Rachel]

Keep sharing! I want to hear more. It's so encouraging.

[ibcdbwc]

Also to the success storytellers - please don't leave the forum! For those of us still in the woods, we desperately need your wisdom!

[Broo100]

I also don't want to jinx it. We caught my son very very quickly were able to treat his strep and myco very early on. We have an ongoing protocol of probiotics and anti inflammatories that has worked very well. It also helped tremendously when I got his sisters' tonsils and adenoids out. They were chronic carriers although no pandas yet.

[MomWithOCDSon]

We're still around off and on, though DS has been off abx for nearly 3 years now, and -- knock on wood -- things are good! He's happy, enjoys school, enjoys his friends. He's an honor student, and his team won the State VEX (robotics) championship this year, the efforts toward which had him keeping some very irregular hours (staying up late working, getting up early to travel to competitions), to no ill effects. He's now choosing colleges and looking forward to a summer program at one of his possibles . . . three weeks of engineering study on campus, like a real college student. Then back home for high school's senior year.

 

It's been a crazy journey, and it's had its bumps, no question. But I feel pretty confident that we can continue to meet any of the challenges that pop up, what with all our experience, communities like this one, and DS's growing confidence and maturity. And I will say that none of the subsequent bumps, or flares, have been anything like the one that first put us on this road . . . much more manageable, shorter-lived, less intense.

 

I would say know that time is an essential factor in healing, and as Nicklemama and some others have opined previously, consider joining The Church of Whatever Works! We'll all get to the other side, sooner or later!

[amyjoy]

I love that, Nancy - The Church of Whatever Works.

Would you mind if I use that phrase?

 

Here is a copy of a success post I put on a different forum last week. Sharing successes is so important to keeping hope and faith in that all this nightmare can end, and will end, I believe, our children can heal.

 

"A DOSE OF HOPE for everyone on this forum - my son who was sick for 7 years, and didn't even have his first ivig until he was nearly 15 years old- is not only better, but just received the official letter giving him a full four-year merit scholarship to his college of choice, and he is going. He is going off, by himself, because he's better now. There was no way to anticipate this. There was no possible way of knowing one year ago, or even 6 months ago, for certainty, that he could just go off to college like a normal kid. Please, no matter how awful it is, how sick your child is, how much you go into debt, how much you feel like dying at any given moment - please do not give up on your child or on yourself."

[Lydiasmum]

Wow, thank you so much everyone. Your responses have made me smile (it's been a while). We are 18 months in to this nightmare and we have had 3 true flares and a few minor ones. Out of the 3 biggies though, I can honestly say the last 2 were not as dramatic as the first initial onset that made us sit up and say "what the *****?!" My daughter is on prophylaxis antibiotics and I use ibruprofen some days when mood is very erratic and it does seem to help a little. I have been struggling to enjoy those days and weeks that are good and this is going to change. I pray we are heading in the right direction - just like you guys! Thank you all. Keep the good stuff coming!.........

Edited April 6, 2014 by lydiasmum

[MomWithOCDSon]

AmyJoy -- "The Church of Whatever Works" -- I can't claim it as original myself, so I certainly have no qualms about it making its way into the social vocabulary!

 

Nicklemama, I believe the bow is yours?! Brava, brava!

[mwmmom]

My daughter just came home with a score of 100 on her math test. She is in 4th grade and doing great! She was totally overtaken by PANS 2 years ago and missed a large part of 2nd grade. Our journey is chronicled in a post titled a Message of Hope on August 28, 2012. Hang in there. You too will have a return of normalcy, but it takes time for our children. I am thankful for normal days and months each year. Please always remember to have HOPE and faith in their recovery!

[Hrosenkrantz]

I was unsure whether to post this to the need to vent or success stories thread.

After an embarrassingly long period away from school because he was put on medical leave, my son started school again this past wed -- he is on day 4. Its not the same school he left for medical leave, but...im shocked and flabbgergasted by how well it is going. I set everything up for the return to school as if there will be phone calls to me and problems and...there just hasn't been. THings are going well. My son seems very happy to be there.

I have been afraid to write this for fear that something will go wrong.

It is a weird feeling when your day-to-day has been defined for so long by PANS-related problems and...then they seem to be fading

(I was going to write gone but that seems too optimistic at this point).

[Brese]

My daughter is 9 and a complete success story. When she was 7 in August she woke up one morning saying she did not want to eat. Within 3 weeks she was no longer the child I knew. Once a child who was afraid of nothing, outgoing, happy, smart as a whip child was gone. She was convinced her food was poisoned, could not leave my side, aggressive, having terrible obsessive thoughts. Her clothes were contaminated everything she touched was contaminated. She was afraid of chemicals, people everything. Her handwriting was on a preschool level, she started developing problems walking, and developed facial tics, and her hands began to turn inward. I brought her to a psychologist because I thought she had OCD. She call the psychiatrist to see her the next morning. The put her on medication, clozipam, and medication for OCD. Her behavior was worse up for 3 days straight running and screaming. The only time she was better is when taking Advil. I could not accept my daughter would wake up with OCD and researched it and found PANDAS. I decided to bring her to neurologist for a consult. She was diagnosed with PANDAS treated with antibiotic for several weeks and received IVIG December of that year. By January she started eating and walking like normal, and touching things, and wearing the same clothes, by March her facial ticks were gone. She has had no symptoms for a 1 1/2 years now. No OCD, no separation anxiety, no aggression, straight A's, handwriting is beautiful like it never happened. She continued to see the psychiatrist and psychologist for behavior therapy. That did not last long because her recovery was so fast. The psychologist never had any experience with PANDAS and is now a firm believer. She said she never saw a child who was so mentally compromised come back so quickly. She now looks for the symptoms. We are blessed that we caught this so early and found people who could help us. We decided to give her the antibiotic when we know someone has strep. However, when she gets exposed she wakes up in the morning not quite right maybe wanting to organize her closet. By the third day of the antibiotic that organization has gone away. Never thought I would say I did not want my kid to be organized. Don't give up I would recommend the IVIG it gave her life back to her.