This week, I’m heading back to college. Is that crazy? Probably, but I’m going to try.

As it is, my main PANDAS symptoms are choreiform movements/tics, physical and mental fatigue, hand tremors, a bit of OCD, and general anxiety. But I have my mind back. My mood is stable, I feel like myself, and I don’t fall asleep every time I sit down for more than ten minutes. I’m a functional human being again.

But the problem is that I have to be more than “functional” to get through college. I’m studying in one of my school’s most demanding programs. If trying to read a chapter of my textbook right now for an online class makes me have to lie down and rest for two hours afterwards, how can I get through a week of classes?

And then there’s the fact that I just had another panic attack last week.  My doctor said it was because I’m tapering off the Prednisone.  But I had gone two months without a major attack, and the other night, when I was thinking about going back to college, it happened again.  I thought I was done with those.  What if I get one in the middle of a class?  Now I’m anxious about being anxious.

What I’m most concerned about is my chorea, because it’s so obvious, and walking is still difficult sometimes. There’s a reason why Sydenham’s Chorea (which I may or may not have) is also called St. Vitus’ Dance—you really look like you’re dancing, though it’s completely involuntary. I try to walk normally, and instead, you’d think I were jamming out to some dance music. My hips sway. My head nods forward. I kick around my feet and swing my arms. I make weird faces.  My legs randomly decided to stop working, and I fall to the ground.

Sometimes, I find my chorea hilarious.  Sometimes, I don’t think much about it.  Other times, it’s extremely frustrating, and it can be very disturbing to watch your body move when you didn’t tell it to.  Socially, how am I supposed to handle that? Maybe I should just stick some earbuds in, and no one would think anything of it—I’d just be rocking out. Maybe I shouldn’t care what people think. And how am I going to walk across campus to class?

I’m going to tell my professors what’s going on for sure so they don’t think I’m grimacing at their lectures. And I need to figure out a quick way to explain my chorea to friends. I think the key is to not make a big deal about it. Everyone doesn’t need to know everything about what I’ve been through. I’ll just say I’m recovering from autoimmune encephalitis (it’s my official diagnosis) and that I’m still left with the movements for now—and then I’ll make a joke about how good of a dancer it’s made me…

I think the key to going back to college is to be able to not take myself too seriously, to know my limits, and to realize how far I’ve come. It’s a miracle that I’m even trying to go back to school after the summer I’ve had, and I have to remember that I was in much worse shape in the spring semester—yet I still was recognized as a top student. Now that I have my mind back and the ability to stay awake, I can’t imagine it will be harder than it was before.

And you know what? I’m not alone. My family is there for me, even if they physically aren’t anywhere near me. I have awesome friends and a great church. I met another college-aged PANS patient during IVIG that I can talk to.  Best of all, I have Jesus. Sometimes, I’ve felt like God just wasn’t there through this ordeal, but looking back, I know He was looking out for me in ways I couldn’t possibly have known. And one thing I’ve learned is that, no matter how awful and unpredictable PANDAS is, God is always good and never changes—He’ll be there no matter what happens this semester…