Severe PANS flare responds to antibiotics for 3-4 days, then returns

[PandaEverdeen]

Hello there,

I was diagnosed with PANS through the Cunningham Panel in January of this year, and at that time had gone into remission after starting a course of natural antibiotics a naturopath prescribed. I was instructed to increase the dose of the antibiotic by 5 drops every 5 days, and it worked fantastic. (I'm still on that antibiotic, although I've reached the maximum dose I can be on for it.) The flare returned in March for no apparent reason, and has continued for almost seven months. I have tried numerous natural antibiotics of varying doses (grapefruit seed extract, wormwood extract, allicin, etc), 1000 mg/2x day Augmentin, and 250 mg/1x day Zithromax (Zithromax appeared to work the best. For 24 hours.) The symptoms respond the same way to everything (unless they don't respond at all): I start getting better for 2 days, have a really good day or two, see a decline the day afterwards, and the flare is back. It all happens within 3-4 days on every single antibiotic I've tried, and makes no sense. The flare symptoms get worse every time an antibiotic stops working.

Complicating factors include that my doctor and I suspect I have Lyme and/or babesia, my thyroid swells when I have a PANS flare (not sure if it's related, but I thought I'd mention it), and I have a recurring sinus infection that comes back when the flare does. I strongly suspect the sinus infection is strep, but nothing seems to kick it out. I am on a Lyme protocol that includes a biofilm remover and a cyst buster, so that is not going untreated. (I had a terrible herx the first time I introduced each Lyme protocol component, but as it stands now I'm at maximum dose for each component with no herxing and no improvement in PANS symptoms. However, if I quit the components of the Lyme protocol, PANS will worsen, so it's doing something at least.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.