Canary effect w/ MycoP?

[peglem]

Allie took a bit of a dip on Friday and Saturday. On sunday her gma (who lives with us) was dx'd w/ walking pneumonia. They didn't identify mycop as the culprit-but I was just thinking...

So has anybody ever seen the canary effect w/ myco? Allie has never been tested for myco, mostly because the treatment she's been getting would treat for that anyway.

[Megs_Mom]

Oh, I am so sorry. For Meg, we see a ramp up with major exposure to any kind of respiratory illness - generally the ramp up is about 3-5 days before she actually gets sick. It feels really odd when it ramps before she is sick, but I am now assuming this is because her antibodies are ramping up trying to fight off the illness. We have a prescription to ramp up the azith when this occurs (for the immune modulating effect), so we are normally on a low dose, to allow the ramp up. I think Allie is already on the full dose, since the IVIG was so recent? So maybe ask if anything else can be added for 5 days (another abx) - I assume you are already using Motrin, if she tolerates this? We start the motrin pretty quickly when the ramp up starts and that really does help us, especially if we catch it early.

 

Hope it's just exposure & passes quickly.

[wornoutmom]

I'm pretty sure all walking pneumonia is caused by MycoP. And like, Meg's mom, we always see the ramp up 3-4 days before the illness too. I know Dr T told me people don't "shed" mycoP the same way they do strep, but if gma is living with you, chances are so much higher.What abx is Allie on? Some of them will not effect MycoP at all. What did they put gma on? Would your abx prescribing doc be willing to do a short course of Biaxin to try and protect Allie for now? I know even our lousy pediatrician would give us abx for ds if someone else in the home had strep, as a prevention, and it did help.

[peglem]

Allie is on zith. She's not having a full exacerbation- just a few days of a a little emotional lability. Ibuprofen has helped and we've been working hard on self regulation, so she got some practice with that! Gma is allergic to macrolides, so she's on augmentin and steroid breathing treatments. She did a course of Keflex just previous to this, which did not help. She's had this for at least a month.

[norcalmom]

Yes - we have canary effect with all kinds of illness. Maybe it isn't a true canary, but when another household memeber is sick, ds will react. Sometimes it is just a couple days, and it will go away and he won't come down with he virus, but sometimes it seems his body will be fighting of the virus for a couple weeks (showing pandas symtoms when I am sick for example) and then when he actually gets the virus, his pandas will start to turn around- just when his cough is at its worst. It sin't a full blown exacerbation, but it is still an obvious increase.

 

I guess ds has PITAND. Theroy is that the immune system isn't all that great at sending out only antibodies for specific antigens - so when the body is fighting a virus, antibodies for everything are produced (even the ones for strep).

[TessaKrista]

How long has Allie been on azithromycin for, and at what dose? Has she been on the same dose right from the start? Can the azithromycin help prevent her from getting what her gm has, diminishes the symptoms, or we just don't really know?

[peglem]

How long has Allie been on azithromycin for, and at what dose? Has she been on the same dose right from the start? Can the azithromycin help prevent her from getting what her gm has, diminishes the symptoms, or we just don't really know?

 

Allie has been on 500mg zith every other day, roughly from December '09. She had a break for 2 weeks in May, when she went on rifampin/augemtin, but then right back to the zith at the same dose. The zith should help her keep from getting an infection, but not necessarily keep her from making antibodies. In retrospect, I think this slight episode may have been PMS. She's doing good again, but Gma is only a little better. We do another IVIG tomorrow and Friday.