Fears and Obsession is back today

[Suzan]

So this is what I get from talking about dd6 and how well she's been doing. She woke up today talking about her fears of bugs and snakes, she does not want to go to college since she does not want to leave me and of her "boyfriend" who she has not seen in 2 years and how much she misses him and how I'm so unsupportive since I told her that it was time for a new boyfriend even though she is only 6 and too young for a boyfriend anyway (yes she'll be only 7 in 3 weeks). She's been crying a lot and had been basically difficult to be around. In a non-PANDAS household I'd say she's having a bad day. But of course I'm thinking episode.

 

She's on 500mg of Zith a week and I give it on Sunday's so she got it today. She does not get strep in her throat at this point so I'm not so inclined to take her in for a swab. I'm wondering if her intracellular strep is just creeping back since she's only on 500 mg a week. I know I've posted these same questions about her before, sorry... But what would you do? increase the zith? Take her in? Wait and see? Anything else?

 

Once I'm positive about our new immunologist, I'll bring her in there for a full workup, but for now, she's not really displaying anything other than pandas, candida and gluten intolerance.

 

Susan

[peglem]

My daughter was on this insane prophylactic zith schedule- 250mg/day for 5 days, then 7 days off. She tested positive for strep on her off days...so, her pediatrician did some research and decided to go with some doc's recommendation out of UCLA, which is 500mg M, W, F...that way its never completely out of the system. Once/week, it seems like your child is only protected for 3-4 days. I read somewhere (some study I found) that the half life for zith is @ 60 hours.

 

But, ick, the problem you have now is that the zith may stop the strep, but it doesn't remove the antibodies that are causing the problems. I'm sorry, I know its so deflating to see that stuff come back when you've been working so hard at keeping it away.

[EAMom]

You could culture household contacts (siblings, parents) to make sure nobody is a carrier or is positive...maybe she's reacting to that??? In our household that would be our first thought, since our younger dd gets strep (carrier) with no symptoms...but our pandas dd will react if a family member is positive even though she herself is on daily azith.

[colleenrn]

If thre is any possible way you would get a positive culture, I would take her for one. This would prove to your physician that once per week is not cutting it.

 

Otherwise, given her increase in symptoms, and given that she is only on 500/week, I would definitely increase it to daily, even if it is just for 5 days and see what happens. The once a week Zithromax, even though it has a long half life, still does not remain in the system at a high enough level when taken only once/week.

 

Do you also give her Motrin? If not, you could add that.

Colleen

[Suzan]

Thanks everyone.... dd has a fever of 100 so far tonight. She developed a cough at school today and says her chest hurts. When I take her tomorrow to see if she has the flu (if her fever rises), I'll ask for a strep culture too. She is very afraid of the swab so I don't know if they can get it. She usually pulls, kicks and crys or screams. Ugh!

 

Whether it's strep or another bacteria or virus, I guess that explains the increase in symptoms.

 

Susans