Strep has hit the house again!

[Kayanne]

Here we go again…(sigh)…three out of four of my children have tested positive on rapid strep tests. I have a very slight heavy feeling in my throat with stomach pain, so I am going to the doctor tomorrow, and hopefully my husband will be able to get to see them within the next day or two…he works far from home…

 

The good news is that my PANDAS daughter is not testing positive, and is not showing any troubling or sustained uptick in symptoms since Thursday when my dd9 tested positive at her well visit…

 

Any way…

 

dd9 (87lbs) is on Ceftin 250 mg twice a day for 10 days—her sinuses are also infected the pediatrician wanted to double check because her throat looked red at her well visit…(my PANDAS daughter was also swabbed Thursday, and it was negative)

 

ds4 (37 lbs) is on Duricef 750mg once a day for 10 days—he wet the bed on Friday night, and had a brief fever Saturday afternoon, and seemed fine this morning, but I didn’t want to risk not treating the strep so I still took all three kids in to be tested this morning.

 

ds2 (31 lbs) is on Duricef 500mg once a day for 10 days—he hasn’t had any symptoms of being sick, I took him to get his throat checked for my own piece of mind.

 

PANDAS dd7 (she’s 7 today) was negative on the rapid again today so she continues on 200mg of pen vk twice a day as a prophylaxis—the pediatrician felt that it was doing its job so an increase was not necessary.

 

So needless to say, I’m hoping and praying we get through this with just one round of antibiotics (last year it was several) and without any PANDAS symptoms.

 

Please keep your fingers crossed...

 

~Karen

[jewels]

Karen,

 

It's like walking on egg shells ..........all my fingers crossed for your children.

[thereishope]

I hope the abx continue to work! Did the one that had the swab at the well visit have symptoms?

[Kayanne]

She was congested and missed some school because of a cough...I took her to the doctor's on February 1, and that pediatrician said to wait a week...her throat looked good, so I didn't subject her to a swab....she did seem to be improving, so I didin't take her back on the 8th because I knew my daughters had a well visit on the 11th.

[Kayanne]

An update--My husband and I were negative for strep.

 

This past week we have seen some low level PANDAS symptoms return to my daughter...

 

She kept saying all week, that the different foods that she was eating felt like they were getting stuck in her throat, and taking a long time to eat...making sure all her food was "liquified" before swallowing, loss of attention span, inflexibility -- leading to emotional lability, baby talk (this has been ongoing for a few weeks), and an edge to her personality.

 

Well, we were hoping it was just her reacting to the strep in the house, but this morning when she couldn't decide which dress to wear to Sunday School, ended with her not going at all, and crying in the bottom of her closet...we knew we had to act more aggressively.

 

I took her to the pediatric practice this morning...again her rapid (a really good sample) was still negative. The pediatrican said that she was not expecting it to be positive because of the pen v k, but she didn't say it was because it would be a "false negative". However, she did think it would be worth a try to send out for the 72 hour culture...so we will see.

 

She did say the only real way at this point to confirm a strep infection is an ASO titer, but (to my relief because I haven't seen this particular dr in this practice very much) she said that as far as PANDAS is concerned, the ASO titer really won't tell her much...it would just confirm her treatment choice.

 

She decided to put my daughter on Omnicef 250mg/day for 10 days and to split the dose in half to give every morning and night...she said she likes to split it for strep infections.

 

I was so pleased that this doctor really seemed to get it....

 

I am totally blaming myself...I should have just pushed for a different antibiotic last Sunday when were were there...I asked her teacher to inform me if she sees anything, and so far it is not interfering with school.

 

~Karen