new member-some questions (Long)

[Guest guest]

Hello.

I have a very gentle and kind 13 yo dd who three weeks ago started suddenly

with very intense, intrusive " bad thoughts. " Interestingly, she had been

exposed to strep four days before this occurred. (A family of four children

played

at our house for the day and were all symptomatic the next day..diagnosed

day after that.) We already had a scheduled appt. with her neurologist on a

Tuesday (bad thoughts started on a Saturday)...she sees him for migraine. He

asked about strep exposure and did a swab which was neg.. The culture was

questionable?? (What does that mean?) Her pediatrician decided to give her a

round

of Amox.... 10 days. Her neurologist decided to take her off the Topamax...

she has been on it for several years and we had decided to try weaning her

from it before all of this happened anyway. It takes awhile to go off it.

We saw a big improvement after the antibiotics. But, she also at that point

had lowered the Topamax some too. We are still lowering the Topamax, and she

is doing about the same...which means she is still have bad thoughts but they

are not occurring so frequently. Also they do not seem to be upsetting her so

badly as they initially were. The all day " confessions " and reassuring

questions I was getting, have tapered off quite a bit. I got and read " What To

Do

When Your Child Has OCD " and dd and I talked a little about what I learned.

Monday the neurologist called and asked if I would have some blood tests

done. ASO titer and DNASE B. The ASO titer result was normal: 13 with a normal

range 1-100 no result on the other?

My child has been vulnerable to compulsive behavior for years. She is the

type who straightens the gum packages in the grocery aisle, sorts the sweaters

by color if we pause at the department store, alphabetizes her books on the

shelf... She has always been very very honest and goes through periods of

asking questions she knows the answers to, just for reassurance. All this has

been

in the past a " quirky " part of her personality, not an overwhelming part.

Here are some of my many questions....

1. Has she had OCD all this time and we just didn't get it? Or was she just

vulnerable and something " turned it on? "

2. She couldn't be diagnosed with PANDAS, right? because of her age?

3. What does that titer result mean in a child who just had antibiotics?

What di the tests mean together?

4. Should I wait until she is off Topamax until I seek out a therapist?

5. I am a little overwhelmed with finding a therapist...she seems so

vulnerable...I worry I will make the whole situation worse if I hook her up with

the

wrong person. Advice?

Thank you for listening and for any advice you can offer as I try to wade

through this.

Tamara