Clindamycin

[Plum99]

My daughter switched from Penicillin to Clindamycin a couple of weeks ago. She was taking Zithromax before that. Both Zithromax and Penicillin helped some, but then kind of stopped. Clindamycin was almost instantly like a rollercoaster of insanity, fear, violence, blisters- and I'm surprised and excited to see that she's actually doing better than she has in months. I really thought some things, like speech regression, were going to be permanent. I am so happy to see that she's still with me. I have some questions, if anyone has any ideas or experience. While she is great sometimes, she still has these kind of episodes that send her into a rage, she doesn't communicate, she gets violent. I can't always find what triggers them. She still has extreme fears. Why would this be? How can some symptoms improve so drastically, and then come back for short amounts of time? Why does her issues with sudden onset of fears seem to be in a separate category, not coming and going as much as the other issues (OCD, tics, violence). My son also started having extreme fears. I can't wrap my mind around what it is that Clindamycin is doing, or what I can do to keep her steady, avoiding the meltdowns that are so difficult to deal with. I see Clindamycin can treat many things, and I don't know what it's treating in her. I'm feeling very happy/puzzled/fearful that I'm going to lose her again if I don't get a good understanding of what is happening.

[LNN]

What you're experiencing is something called a herx, or herxheimer reaction. It was originally used to describe how syphilis patients got worse before they got better, due to the toxins being released by the dying syphilis bacteria. It's a term used commonly in the Lyme community, but also in the Pandas/Pans community to describe a similar response, either due to toxins released by die-off of bacteria or from the resulting inflammation. As long as it's tolerable, a herx is seen as a positive sign that the antibiotic is killing something and you're seeing glimpses of your real child.

 

However, the thing is to try to keep the inflammation in check. Inflammation can do damage (usually temporary). And it can worsen symptoms. So it seems like the clindamycin is killing something the other antibiotics didn't touch. But it's also causing inflammation in the process, and that's probably why you're seeing that rollercoaster response. It's probably a good idea to stay the course if you can, and stay on the clindamycin. If you reach a place where the gains seem to stall, then some doctors will then either rotate to another antibiotic or add a second antibiotics.

 

Don't be fearful. If you're seeing glimpses, then she's still in there, and you can get her back.

[Plum99]

Thanks. With everything I've read about herxing, all previous times I've thought it could be happening I just felt confused about how to really tell. This was the first time I was just shocked and in awe of it. I feel like I just exercised a demon! This little thing would go to drink her medicine, then smack it out of my hand onto the floor, then cry hysterically and try to scoop it up. We're in a much better place now, but it's frustrating to not be able to identify what it is exactly being killed off. At first I kept seeing Babesia come up with Clindamycin herx reactions, but there were so many other things too. Concrete answers would be so nice to have! I guess we'll just wait it out. I keep thinking different symptoms disappearing while other ones stay mean something, but I don't know why that would be. I might be just reaching for something to tell me what's leftover isn't permanent. I thought for sure language had regressed permanently. Now that I've seen it finally come back, I'm focused on fears being permanent because of some kind of PTSD from this whole ordeal.