Am I giving my son strep?

[faith]

oh here's a fun question, , do docs ever triied culturing or swabbing those other areas, such as sinus and anal? is that possible to get a positive there? for those that have the home strep tests, did you ever try that. just wondering. wouldn't that be a hoot if it came positive?

 

 

Faith

[KeithandElizabeth]

Dr. K did tell us when our non-PANDAS daughter was having unexplained GI issues that the doctors should have just swabbed her anal area for strep... Of course, they never did that so we will never know.

 

But, strep can be found in all kinds of areas!!

 

Elizabeth

[EAMom]

My pandas dd perianal area was positive for strep when she was in the hospital in March 08 (age 7.5years). We had her checked b/c she had some blood in that "hat" thing they make patients pee into, and I didn't know where it came from. Her throat culture was also positive. Her younger sister was also positive on the rapid...so we had strep coming out of our ears!

 

I don't know how easy it would be to culture someone's sinuses (unless surgery was involved???)...I haven't heard of anyone doing that on this forum. There are a couple of kids who have had evidence of sinusitis on MRI...and they were just treated with antiibotics, no cultures that I know of.

[smartyjones]

my son had a sinus CT that showed all cavities infected. the ped had put him on keflex before the CT results b/c he believed it would show such and he had a previous + throat culture and high titers. he did say they may swab in the future if it didn't seem to clear but that it's kind of a last resort thing to try to avoid. so i guess it can be done - but is not pleasant. not sure how difficult it is. he had another CT that showed much clearing and improvement so we didn't do the swab. the end result being that we didn't know for sure that it was strep but the dr. was rather heavily assuming so.

[bronxmom2]

Maybe this is a dumb question but does strep in the sinuses look and feel like sinusitis? I seem to have chronic sinus problems, which do clear with antibiotics (I'm usuually given a Z pack if I really press for it) but seem to come right back. I wouldn't really care at this point, honestly, except for this idea that we might be exacerbating our own kids...

[Stephanie2]

Here is what I know about the cultures. My sons' Dan doctor said that the whole family has to get cultured in the throat, sinuses and anus. So we are supposed to go do that next week and it does not sound like a fun family outing to me (not to mention the doctor himself will be performing the cultures...how will I look him in the eye again...?LOL! OK, I've given birth twice, I can do this...). My husband is trying ot weasel his way out of it, but I told him "sorry, bud!". But I am pretty anxious to see who has what...

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

 

I think I already know the answer to this question, but I just need to hear it from you smart mommies who are further in this journey than we are.

 

My son has been in a pandas episode since aug. 12 (got positive strep test one week later, been on and off of different anx ever since). We are waiting to see Latimer next week.

 

The thing is that everytime we lower his dose of zithromax or we change his abx, he "crashes" (meltdowns, tics, etc...). But I have noticed a pattern that is leading me to believe that I am the one who is constantly reinfecting him. I went on a 6 day vacation to visit family about a month ago (without dh and the boys) and while I was gone, pandas ds did not do his typical "crash" when my husband ran out of zithromax. Then 24 hours after I got back - CRASH!

 

Now, once again my dh and pandas ds are out of town together and once again they ran out of zithromax and my dh says that my son is just as sweet as ever! No major tics, no meltdowns!!????

 

Let me add to this (and this is what makes it a no-brainer, I guess) that I have had a sore throat on and off ever since aug. 12 when my son initially got strep. Well, a couple days ago (after dh and ds left) I gave in and started a 5 day course of zithromax and my sore throat and body aches are gone.

 

So...am I on track to believe that mommy is the culprit in this house??? And if so, should I, myself, stay on zithromax until we talk to Latimer so that he doesn't crash when they come home on Friday?

 

Wow, this disorder is really crazy!!

Stephanie