1 month on antibiotics

[laura s]

One month on antibiotics, Azith 250mg 2xday and Augmentin 875mg 2xday. Really saw great improvements immediately starting these antibiotics. Now nothing... plateau. I don't want to say "worse:, just seems unaffected by antibiotics now. I feel like we need to change it up again. (He's 10, non-verbal and still a mess)

 

Thoughts? Try Sammy dose? Just be patient? I feel like a neurotic mom - scared to ask the doctor.

 

THANK YOU.

 

Laura

[melanie]

One month on antibiotics, Azith 250mg 2xday and Augmentin 875mg 2xday. Really saw great improvements immediately starting these antibiotics. Now nothing... plateau. I don't want to say "worse:, just seems unaffected by antibiotics now. I feel like we need to change it up again. (He's 10, non-verbal and still a mess)

 

Thoughts? Try Sammy dose? Just be patient? I feel like a neurotic mom - scared to ask the doctor.

 

THANK YOU.

 

Laura

Have you tried steroids yet?

[thereishope]

How long has he been at a plateau? Is there any backsliding lasting for a few days?Do you chart or keep track of his behaviors that you can read through them and actually realize he still shedding some more subtle symptoms? Sometimes you don't realize a symptom is gone until you rememebr they had it.

[peglem]

One month on antibiotics, Azith 250mg 2xday and Augmentin 875mg 2xday. Really saw great improvements immediately starting these antibiotics. Now nothing... plateau. I don't want to say "worse:, just seems unaffected by antibiotics now. I feel like we need to change it up again. (He's 10, non-verbal and still a mess)

 

Thoughts? Try Sammy dose? Just be patient? I feel like a neurotic mom - scared to ask the doctor.

 

THANK YOU.

 

Laura

My daughter is improving on a higher dose of zith than she used to take. She's kind of stabilized as far as # and severity of symptoms-a great deal better than she was all of last year, but I think I'm beginning to see newer compulsions fading as old ones re-emerge. (she's tipping over trash cans again-haven't had that in a few years!) I think she's slowly "turning back the pages" as I've heard it called here.

 

We will be doing IVIG soon (please God) and hoping to see more improvement then.

[MomWithOCDSon]

Do you by any chance keep a journal . . . even a cursory one . . . on a day-to-day basis regarding your son's behaviors?

 

For the first two abx trials we did with my DS12, we perceived a "plateau," seemingly very similar to what you're noting, after 3 to 4 weeks on the abx. So, both times, we took him off, thinking maybe the abx had done all it was going to/could do. And then, both times, after about 8-9 days, he began a backslide that was unmistakable.

 

I took another glance through "Saving Sammy" and realized that, once Sammy was on abx for a longer period of time, Beth stopped noting each and every little behavior that was changing for the better and seemed focused, instead, on how many days he could go without a meltdown, how many meltdowns, etc. So that sort of changed my perspective a little, and when we went back to abx for the third time, I resolved to chronical not just the big, in-your-face changes, but also just note his attitude throughout the day, the meltdowns (frequency, intensity, duration), etc.

 

What I found was that, like Sammy, though the BIG behavioral changes did indeed seem to sort of plateau after a few weeks, the overall improvement was still coming. Most noticably, first his meltdowns were decreasing in intensity and duration, and then they started decreasing in frequency, as well.

 

In the end, I think we were so enthused by the almost instantaneous, big improvements we saw in the first couple of days on the abx, we sort of got "spoiled" and fooled into thinking that that sort of exponential improvement could maintain the trajectory. But it couldn't. In a way, though, I think that's a good thing because some of those bigger behaviors are likely the easiest to dispense with, and then, as the healing continues, your kid has to deal with some of the "deeper," more subtle stuff. So that's a quieter, slower, less obvious improvement trend.

 

So, while it's possible you might need a different treatment, before you abandon the course that's taken you at least SOME of the distance, especially if he's only "plateauing" as opposed to decompensating, maybe try taking a second look at some more subtle signs? Just an idea . . .