If you need a laugh...

[mom md]

I can't believe this made me laugh but honestly my mental state is not right at the present time. I have come to think my 6 yr old (non-PANDAS) child may have bed bugs in his room. I have yet to see one despite combing over every inch of his room by day and also examining his room at night with a headlamp on (hopefully that image makes you chuckle). I found three new bites on him today and I came downstairs and said it was time to get serious. It is time to call in the professionals. The are impossible to see and treat (much like pANDAS ) and finding someone who can help is also hard (much like pANDAS). I think it even involves calling in a canine to seek them out (this image also made me laugh). I swear we are clean people and in fact have our house professionally cleaned once a week. I asked my husband which fight he would rather take on...PANDAS vs bed bugs. He said beg bugs without a doubt! I am sure ever one on this forum would agree.

[Stephanie2]

Neither one sounds very fun! I hope you find the "culprit"!

 

By the way, my younger son has symptomatic Chiari 1 Malformation with intermittent ataxia, headaches, devel. delay, etc.. I have often asked myself which one is easier to deal with - PANDAS or Chiari? Hands-down Chiari is easier to deal with (for me anyway!)!! That should tell you about the power of PANDAS!! It's a killer!! LOL!

 

Stephanie

 

I can't believe this made me laugh but honestly my mental state is not right at the present time. I have come to think my 6 yr old (non-PANDAS) child may have bed bugs in his room. I have yet to see one despite combing over every inch of his room by day and also examining his room at night with a headlamp on (hopefully that image makes you chuckle). I found three new bites on him today and I came downstairs and said it was time to get serious. It is time to call in the professionals. The are impossible to see and treat (much like pANDAS ) and finding someone who can help is also hard (much like pANDAS). I think it even involves calling in a canine to seek them out (this image also made me laugh). I swear we are clean people and in fact have our house professionally cleaned once a week. I asked my husband which fight he would rather take on...PANDAS vs bed bugs. He said beg bugs without a doubt! I am sure ever one on this forum would agree.

[kim]

mom md,

 

I'm not saying that this has anything what so ever to do with your situation, but it did make me think of your recent post.

 

There is a discussion on 'itching' on the TS forum. I was going to add a few links to that thread and ran across this article, so I thought, i'd leave some of the info here too.

 

I didn't develope any signs of psoriasis until my early 20's and then it was very mild. There is no family history of it, so I don't know if "psoriasis," is the defining factor here (the abstract does make it sound that way) or if there are other conditions where this may be more likely to occur too.

 

http://www.aocd.org/skin/dermatologic_dise...orum_folli.html

 

Pityrosporum folliculitis

 

Most patients seek advice because of the itch. This may have led their doctors to suspect scabies or other mite infestations.

http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/clei/abstract...#33;8091!-1

 

To examine the relevance of anti-GlcNAc antibodies in the immune response to P. ovale in psoriasis, we performed a binding inhibition ELISA. Psoriatic sera that were positive in the ELISA against a heat-denatured extract of P. ovale were rendered negative only by pre-incubation with GlcNAc in a concentration-dependent manner. Our results are indicative that the antibody response to PO100 and PO120 in patients with psoriasis is directed towards terminal GlcNAc residues.

[Suzan]

LOL, yes this sounds like a difficult one! It reminded me I was wanting a strep sniffing dog. Now you need a bed bug sniffing dog

 

Seriously though, I don't know much about bed bugs, but can you encase the mattresses in the allergen casing used for dust mites and treat the carpet and wash the bedding? It seems like it would be that "easy" but who knows!! Please don't let me find out first hand. We are currently dealing with fleas that I can't find anywhere in the house but on the dog. They don't bite us but I know they are in the house because the dog is at times covered in fleas dispite the fact that we treat her monthly so I've been washing, vacuuming and treating the whole house for a month!

 

Susan

[powerofprayer]

Mom md,

i've personally never encountered bed bugs, but i've heard that if you examine the mattress, in the seams, you will see little tiny black balls which is their feces (GROSS, I know). I believe the actual bug is difficult to "see".

Apparently, you're supposed to do this mattress examination in all hotels.......budget or 5 star. That freaks me out that you can't even have peace of mind when spending 150+ a night at a "nice" hotel.

[amy s]

mom md....

 

I am serious about this. My dd had dozens and dozens of these 'bites' that you describe... for months. We often thought it was related to 'skin picking' OCD (thinking it was just an extension of her already horrible OCD)....what we later realized was that she had 'bartonella' (possibly it was the OCD...but she did test positive for bartonella so we can't ignore that). Yes... cat scratch fever. Never had a cat in our home or around us (dd and dh are allergic). But fleas/tics can transmit as well. This went on at the same time as a big pandas ramp up. All went away after IVIg. Check out bartonella. Zithromax treats bartonellla.

 

We were shocked (!) to hear that she tested positive for that. In addition she also tested positive for mycoplasma pneumonia (why i posted the link today regarding the Nov pediatric neurology journal)....which she had no symptoms for! Long story but before all that she had been exposed to strep (ds had scarlet fever two months before her first BAD BAD BAD pandas episode) which was at least a year prior...with constant symptoms.

[thereishope]

What do the bites look like? What led them to test for mycoplasma pneumonia if no symptoms were present?

[mom md]

This was actually on my non-PANDAS son and since we had the bed bugs treated we have had no bites. They come in threes and kind of look like mosquito bites. The "canin unit" comfirmed we had them but we never saw them. We caught it early sothe treatment was pretty simple and cheap. They sprayed the bed and encased it. I have to laugh though that the bed bugs were easier to treat than the PANDAS!

[amy s]

What do the bites look like? What led them to test for mycoplasma pneumonia if no symptoms were present?

 

I really don't know what led them to test for mycoplasma pneumonia, but they tested for a bunch of stuff because I took her to a Lyme specialist who was knowledgeable and had treated some kids who had pandas.....and since co-infections are common with Lyme disease she just ran a bunch of different panels. Dr. K told me he has treated another child who had mycoplasma pneumonia as the cause of pandas type symptoms too....and I think it's on his website.

 

Good luck mom md, in getting rid of the bed bugs.