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Go to the doctor or not?


becjonz

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My ds has been on Penn VK 250mg 2x/day for about 2 weeks. School starts for us Tuesday, it is a holiday weekend and he of course now has a cough, on and off sore throat and hoarse voice. His cough has lasted a week and is only seeming to increase. His anxiety and irritability have increased as noted both by myself and my mother separately. But again school starts Tuesday...is illness triggering symptoms or anxiety witch did preexist PANDAS at least in part. I did a home strep test, it was negative but don't know how accurate it is. He has in the past had both elevated strep tests and MycoP so both seem to be triggers for his PANDAS.

 

So my constant struggle is do I go to the walk in to have them look at him and force them into rapid strep (which I'd guess to be negative) or wait until things get worse. I feel torn due to the weekend and not able to see reg. docs and yet the pressure of school starting.

What would you do?

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I'm one who took my daughter to the doc for everything...I thought it was good to at least get documentation of symptoms in her medical record. But, now that we are firmly in treatment mode, I take her in less. On the other hand, she's sick less anyway! I know you don't want to miss the 1st day of school...but how good will it be if he's not feeling well?

 

My daughter got strep on prophylactic penVK. The trouble is, the abx can cause false negs. If the anxiety/irritability are what you usually see w/ a PANDAS flare- I'd trust that more than the swab.

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What antibiotic was he prior to the penn vk? I have noticed a pattern with some PANDAS kids and pennicilin They do well for 2 weeks then backslide. What is with that magical 2 weeks. Does anyone know? Just because of that patten I've seen, I'd want to take him for strep test. Usually, I have my own 3 day rule unless it's my son's hallmark meltdown which is indicative of strep. The thing is, as Peglem has explained, that you can get a false negative since he is on antibiotics. So....if your ped is off for Labor Day weekend, you can take him to a walk in if you feel you can talk your way around convincing the dr that your son needs a different med. Or allow them to do a rapid, but insist on a culture and tell them he has a history of false negative rapids as there is a 33% failure rate with rapid tests. Then ask for an antibitiotic while waiting for culture results. Now, if you are well established with a doctor that has given you antibiotics in the past and you can get into contact with now, call them. If they give you a hard time, ask for a script to get you through the weekend until you can see them on Tuesday morning. Perhaps ask for Azith sinc your son also has a history of Myco P.

 

Why do these things happen on holiday weekends? I needed to get a hold of a dentist or doctor for my son and every is out for the entire weekend.

Edited by Vickie
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What antibiotic was he prior to the penn vk? I have noticed a pattern with some PANDAS kids and pennicilin They do well for 2 weeks then backslide. What is with that magical 2 weeks. Does anyone know? Just because of that patten I've seen, I'd want to take him for strep test. Usually, I have my own 3 day rule unless it's my son's hallmark meltdown which is indicative of strep. The thing is, as Peglem has explained, that you can get a false negative since he is on antibiotics. So....if your ped is off for Labor Day weekend, you can take him to a walk in if you feel you can talk your way around convincing the dr that your son needs a different med. Or allow them to do a rapid, but insist on a culture and tell them he has a history of false negative rapids as there is a 33% failure rate with rapid tests. Then ask for an antibitiotic while waiting for culture results. Now, if you are well established with a doctor that has given you antibiotics in the past and you can get into contact with now, call them. If they give you a hard time, ask for a script to get you through the weekend until you can see them on Tuesday morning. Perhaps ask for Azith sinc your son also has a history of Myco P.

 

Why do these things happen on holiday weekends? I needed to get a hold of a dentist or doctor for my son and every is out for the entire weekend.

 

He was on no antibiotics prior to this, not since March. He had had a possible abx allergy so no abx were given until allergy was cleared in July.

I've taken him to walk in before and got them to do strep test after explaining about PANDAS.

I can't get in contact w/ reg. doctor until Tuesday. I think we are going to go to walk in in the morning and if needed call reg. doc on Tuesday. I hate trying to feel my way through this all the time. I think I too need to just establish a rule for us and not put myself through the torture each time. Instead just leave it to the rule.:)

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How did he do in school today? I hope he's feeling better!!!

 

I'm like Peglem - I take my son in for everything - and my non-PANDAS daughter too, simply because I'm so worried about my son! I told my doctor that we were single handedly funding his daughter's college education fund - and when we were done with that we'd be building him a new pool and a summer house. :P

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