It’s been over four months since I had IVIG—and six months since the abrupt onset of my tics and other movement problems. On the whole, I’d say I’m much better. I’ve even started tapering off the steroids. The way I put it with my family is that I finally feel like a person again. I’m almost back to where I was before I started flaring two years ago—with the addition of tics, some walking issues, and hypersomnia. It’s not all forward progress, though. It’s really more of a two-steps-forward-one-step back process.
Tag: Medicine
What I Wish I’d Told My Parents
This time of the year is always difficult for me. Seven years ago at this time, I had the worst PANDAS flare of my life and descended into a terrifying world of OCD, odd behavior, insomnia, and depression. For a time, my symptoms completely tore apart my family.
I’ll never forget when I first made my parents cry. I was twelve years old, and we didn’t even know I had OCD, let alone PANS. Had we known, things never would have gotten so bad. My parents were almost as terrified as I was at the change they had seen in me.
3 Months Post-IVIG: A Wild Ride
Today is the three month anniversary of my IVIG treatment. It’s hard to believe it’s already been that long, but at the same time, it seems like an eternity ago because the last three months have been such a wild and difficult ride.
So far, the main improvement I’ve seen is with the chorea and tics. I’m starting to have a lot of days where they’re barely noticeable. The chorea is usually just a slight arm or leg jerk here or there—I don’t look like I’m constantly dancing anymore. I can actually sit still!
Signs of Hope
For the first time in four months, one night, suddenly, I realized my choreiform movements were gone. When I woke up the next morning, my body felt completely different. That night, I felt a tingling session in my head and legs, as if my brain were healing itself. The next morning, I had a sense of the disease departing from me, and people were even telling me that my “energy” was different. For the first time in several months, I was enjoying my life again.
Since those wonderful two days last week, I have had some mentally rough days, although the chorea and tics continue to be quite mild. Could the IVIG actually be starting to work? Continue reading “Signs of Hope”
IVIG and the Waiting Game…
So I just got back from IVIG, and it really wasn’t that bad. I did it over two days, with the first day lasting about four hours and the second for six. I still have headaches from it, a bit of nausea, and some fatigue, but I don’t really care, because I feel hopeful that the therapy will give me my life back. These temporary side effects are such a small price to pay for my freedom.
Now, I just have to wait for the positive effects to kick in—and hope and pray that they actually do kick in at all. Apparently, for most people, it takes three to six months to see a big improvement, but sometimes you start feeling better in a couple weeks. It can take up to a year for all the PANS/PANDAS symptoms to disappear completely. Occasionally, IVIG doesn’t work at all. But my nurse said to me, “Don’t worry. If you responded really well to steroids, IVIG is going to work.”
I don’t usually show my emotions much, but I broke down and cried as soon as she said that. Could one IVIG really heal me? Yes, it should. The thought that this eight-year ordeal is going to end and the idea that I will know what it’s like to feel good again—well… It’s overwhelming. But I’m ready for it.
A Day in the Life of Recovery
The strange thing about my condition is how suddenly it changed everything about me and my daily experience. Four months ago, though I was sick, you wouldn’t have known it—unless you happened to notice me nodding off in class, day after day, after consistent eight or nine-hour nights of sleep—or if you noticed the ever-increasing amount of dents in my car from suddenly not being able to tell where the edges of my car were. But now, with one look at me trying to walk across a room, it’s extremely obvious that something is going in my brain that I have no control over. Welcome to my new world of PANDAS.
One of the hardest things about recovery is learning to be honest with yourself by being willing to admit how hard everything still is. It’s often difficult for me to explain to my friends and family just how challenging each day can be, so I decided that instead of explaining, I would tell you about what it takes to get through a typical day…
Takin’ Roids
I’m no doctor, but recent developments have shown I almost certainly have PANDAS or PANS.
A standard way to see if symptoms are autoimmune-related is to do a steroid burst for five days. The theory is that if inflammation is the culprit, the symptoms will improve with the steroids. Continue reading “Takin’ Roids”
“You’re Just Tired”
So I tried Xyrem for a week, and I did sleep like a baby. It was actually wonderful—I would wake up in the morning feeling completely rested and not feeling like I needed twenty more hours of sleep. I hadn’t felt that way for eight years. But it upset my stomach so badly that I lost even more weight because I was unable to eat anything. I’m down to a hundred pounds. I was around 111 before this summer…
My doctor is just plain flummoxed by my strange reactions to meds, so he made me stop everything over the weekend—even my anti-depressant. As would be expected, I felt horrible in every way. But one of the worst parts was what someone said to me about how I would be off my meds: Continue reading ““You’re Just Tired””
Why I Can’t Stand All These Meds
So, my Xyrem finally came.
For my non-narcoleptic readers, Xyrem is one of the meds used to treat narcolepsy and cataplexy, but it’s a controlled substance with only one pharmacy in the US that makes it. After getting a prescription from the doctor, I had to go through two weeks of phone calls from nurses and pharmacists at that pharmacy. The best part of one conversation went like this:
Nurse: Do you have cataplexy in addition to narcolepsy?
Me: *falls to the ground…*