Last week, I had my worst flare since everything really went downhill in June. I’m happy to say that the flare is gone now (thanks to more Prednisone and maybe the IVIG), but now that I’m coherent again, I thought I’d share what my PANDAS flares can look like. Please bear in mind that every person reacts differently to this disease, though.

One morning last week, I woke up and didn’t want to get out of bed. It felt like I was in slow-motion. By the time I got to class (a miracle in itself), I realized I was completely out-of-it. I felt removed from everyone and everything—like I was outside my body. I felt like my personality was gone. I couldn’t pay attention for very long no matter how hard I tried. When I did manage to catch something my professor said, I couldn’t process what he was saying.

Attempting my homework was a disaster.  I tried to read the questions on the assignment, and while I could understand any of the words in the sentence individually, I could not piece together what the sentence as a whole meant.  I had to reread it over and over again very slowly until it made sense. It felt like trying to read another language.

To make matters worse, it was a timed assignment online that I was working on. I’m supposed to have double time for everything, but for complicated reasons, I didn’t have it on that assignment. Naturally, anyone would be a little anxious about that. But in a PANDAS flare, to say being timed made me anxious is the understatement of the century. My heart was pounding. My hands began to sweat. I hyperventilated through most of the assignment. It felt like life or death.

Then, there were the OCD symptoms.  I had intrusive thoughts a lot of the time.  I wouldn’t touch anything in my apartment without wiping it down or washing my hands afterwards.  I must have spent two minutes washing each time.  I had to feel decontaminated and “just right” before I could stop.

Later that night, when I finally managed to get in bed, there was a new obsession to torment me. This particular obsession was especially bad, and the compulsion I had was impossible to carry out at that moment, so I was stuck just sitting in bed with the anxiety. In the long run, it’s better to try to resist the compulsions, but having to sit on the verge of a panic attack was extremely unpleasant.

As the anxiety began to sky-rocket, the movements also got out-of-control. After a few minutes of breathing into a paper bag and trying to distract myself from the obsession, I jumped out of bed and reached for some ibuprofen. (Ibuprofen often helps PANDAS/PANS patients like me, because it apparently reduces brain inflammation.)  Because of my chorea, I was flailing all over the place and fell down at least twice on the way across the room. I tried to stand still to open the bottle, but instead, my brain just made me slowly crumple down onto the floor. Amazingly, once the ibuprofen began to kick in, the movements and the OCD became manageable.

One thing that makes PANDAS/PANS different from regular OCD or tic disorders is how suddenly it comes on. Keep in mind that the day before my flare started, I was feeling close to normal (okay, whatever I think of as “normal” at this point). My OCD had been moderate, and it suddenly turned very severe over several hours. But my doctor has put me back at a higher dose of Prednisone for three weeks, and thankfully, after a few days of it my OCD has gone back to my baseline—without even needing ERP or CBT. Severe OCD isn’t supposed to just go away in a few days when you take steroids—unless it’s PANDAS or PANS.

Going through another flare was extremely unpleasant, but it’s made me so grateful all over again to have an answer and to be receiving proper treatment. I can’t imagine continuing to have to live my life spending weeks or months recovering from each flare and wondering when the next one will be—but I won’t have to before long. Things are getting better now. I’m daring to hope that last month’s IVIG is going to work and stop these flares…