Dx Tourettes now has + strep

[CSP]

Well, son went to the Dr. yesterday (ped) we were so upset at the loud barking son has been doing that we took him in. Knowing he could not start school like this.

I asked for him to be tested for lyme, Dr. agreed to do that but first wanted to do a strep test. Well he came back Positive. He was very kind and told my Husband to have the antibiotic filled ASAP. wants his titers tested today, and also titers for lyme.

 

My question is he has never tested pos. for strep and therefore never had an antibiotic. What should I expect? If any of you with TS dx could tell me what happens to your child when they get strep I would be very thankful.

 

 

 

CP

[kim]

CP,

 

I want to say, "You should expect to see improvement!" I would just be very optimistic right now and carefully observe.

 

Has your son be tested for and had negative cultures in the past? Also, I'm not clear if your son was showing symptoms of being ill, or if the Ped visit was prompted by the vocal?

[P_Mom]

CP,

The strep is very likely the reason you mentioned your son has not been doing well.....I would be hopeful the antibiotic helps the symptoms....please let us know.....I will be praying for you guys.

 

Kelly

[ilovedogs]

Hi CP, I know my son's tics were more pronounced when he had strep back in January. He had only had antibiotics one other time in his life. He did stop ticcing for a while after the antibiotics but they started back up again slowly in early February. I think the antibiotics helped get them under control even though the tics didn't go away forever, KWIM?

I'm still thinking of having him tested soon again b/c I wonder if there is still strep remaining in his body. Praying this helps him and maybe even takes away the severity of his vocal for now. Praying for you guys!

 

Bonnie

[CSP]

Thanks guys,

 

Ds had no symptoms of being sick, (with strep) I just had to find out if he had lyme, he did have a tick in June that we found and pulled off. He had no symptoms of lyme and the tick was small, but not as small as the deer tick.

 

Kim, he has been tested both cultures and titer. (always neg.) Titers came back so low it looked as if he had never had strep in his life, but this was about a year after his explosion in tics.

 

CP

[EAMom]

Antibiotic, titer, and dental comments...

 

What antibiotic did your son get?

 

I wonder if your son is a "carrier" (no pharyngitis symptoms). Azithromycin is better for carriers (vs.pennicillins such as amoxicillin, augmentin). I think this is for 2 reasons

1) carriers don't have strep that is actively dividing...pennicllin works better when the strep is dividing (like during symptomatic sore throat)

2) I suspect carriers have strep that is hiding out intracellularly...Az. can get at this strep

 

How long have the loud tics been going on? Maybe this is when he 1st got the strep. I read that most people should culture neg. after a couple of weeks even if no abs. So if this has been going on longer than that and he's culture postitive that goes along with my carrier theory.

 

Also, (from experience with my PANDAS dd and talking to ped rheumatologist) that if you are carrying strep, you may see increased symptoms (she was referring to ARF but applied to PANDAS and I would imagine could apply to tourettes if strep is a trigger) after dental procedures (extractions or cleaning) or even nose picking ...strep enters blood stream from mouth, throat, nose. I could imagine the same thing could happen if you are losing baby teeth/getting adult teeth....allows strep from mouth to enter bloodstream.

 

Has anyone else noticed symptoms after dentist visit or other tooth issues? (I would culture throat if so...)

 

Also, re titers. Some don't produce a lot of titers and some people have titers that fall off very rapidly...so I would take neg. titers with a grain of salt.

 

Kudos to your pediatrician for doing the strep tests...I hope the abs help.

[peglem]

I think I read somewhere that antibiotics can interfere with lyme testing, causing false negatives. You might want to check that before you do lymes testing.