How long for results with antibiotics...

[MichaelTampa]

I think Joan is wondering this, and I have been as well, as I am excited to have a new approach to treating my condition, by considering it PANDAS. BUT, what are realistic expectations? Do these always/almost always work? How long does it take? I have heard a lot of positive results, but not too many negative results. Are there many out there?

 

Michael

[MomWithOCDSon]

I think Joan is wondering this, and I have been as well, as I am excited to have a new approach to treating my condition, by considering it PANDAS. BUT, what are realistic expectations? Do these always/almost always work? How long does it take? I have heard a lot of positive results, but not too many negative results. Are there many out there?

 

Michael

 

Hi Michael --

 

I basically have the same question. From what I've been reading here, it's different responses for different people. And even different responses according to different abx. It seems as though some fail to respond altogether on one abx, but then respond positively to another, etc. Downright confusing!

 

For Sammy, Beth Maloney says he was on abx for 4 years; I've spoken with another mom locally who's son was on a high dose of abx for 1 year, then trailing off to prophylactic dosage for another year after that. My son has been on his for about 6 weeks now.

 

In our case, our son responded almost immediately -- 2 days -- in little ways. His contamination concerns, for instance, fell away substantively, allowing him to undertake tasks and go places he had previously been traumatized by. It was, frankly, astounding. But over time, that significant impact seemed to wane, and even reverse itself to some degree. It's hard to know if we got spoiled by that initial response and just crave more, or if we're on entirely the wrong track and need to try a different abx, or just stick with this one for a longer period.

 

For now, I've decided to adopt Beth Maloney's system. She journaled and documented not just specifics but the generalities: which days were good and which days were bad. And even while on the strict abx regimen, Sammy had some bad days mixed in with the good. But she began to notice that the good days were slowly overtaking the bad quantitatively, that he was having more and more days in succession without meltdowns or huge OCD incidents.

 

So I'm trying that "Big Picture" approach now to document our son's progress. He's still having some bad days, some meltdowns. But if, overall, over the course of a more extended period, we can look back and see that he's had more good days than bad, that the string of consecutive good days has gotten longer, then I think I'll feel as though the abx therapy is working.