On Tuesday, I took LuLu to the pediatrician. Her DAN! doctor and I had been discussing whether or not she was showing signs of strep. When KayKay was sick too, I decided to pull a two-fer at the doctor's and see if either child qualified for a diagnosable illness. Well, KayKay had a raging sinus infection and ear infection. But LuLu's rapid strep test was positive. LuLu has a history with strep tests --sometimes the rapid test has been negative and the culture was positive -- sometimes just the opposite. So we opted to wait on the antibiotics until after we had the culture results.

Yesterday, LuLu's behaviors spiraled out of control -- and she'd been doing so well (heavy sigh). And last night she started running a fever and complaining of a sore throat. Then, there was that nasty strep breath -- a dead giveaway. But it was most interesting that the symptom that surprised us all was a major eye-blinking tic. LuLu has lots of tics, but eye blinking isn't usually one of them. This tic was severe enough that actually prevented her from being able to watch TV.

What did this crazy mom do? I excitedly called our DAN! doctor to report a major clue in our theory that LuLu's OCD and Tourettes are related to PANDAS, an autoimmune disorder caused by the strep bacteria. I wrote on PANDAS a few weeks ago.

Doctor prescribed a very strong antibiotic, and I started it immediately, shuffling her off to bed. Today we discussed it a bit further and will probably treat her with Actos after she's over the infection. What's Actos? An immune-boosting medication of some sort. Guess I have my new research project cut out for me!