Update on Haylee

First and foremost, God is good. I am so thankful for answered prayers. I am thankful for every single person who has prayed for Haylee and our family. I was speechless to see that over 400 people read my blog post about Haylee. As we hoped and prayed, Haylee's blood work (ASO Titer) came back slightly elevated for strep antibodies in her blood stream. Her doctor put her on Clarithromycin Friday night and she'll take that for 10 days.

So far today, Haylee has not asked one single "is it ok if I do this" question. This is HUGE! I am so grateful for every improvement I see. I can only pray that as she continues to take her antibiotic every single symptom she's been displaying will be gone and we will have our "normal" Haylee back. As I read the email from her teacher today I couldn't help but cry- I am happy to let you know she is doing great today and participating today.  Yesterday she just seemed really tired and kept kind of like holding her head up at times.  I asked her if she wanted to go home and if she was doing okay periodically throughout the day, but she told me she was fine.  Today, on the other hand, she seems happier and much more alert. Do I dare say she has turned a corner?

Josh and I met with Haylee's psychologists today and she didn't have a lot of answers like we had hoped. Every kid is different and every situation is different so we have to wait and see what's going to happen with Haylee. It's not a definite, but it seems she has P.A.N.D.A.S by the way the OCD appeared overnight. We don't know if this is going to be a reoccurring problem every time she gets sick or not, only time will tell us that but sometimes future sicknesses will trigger the OCD again. And it doesn't have to be triggered just from strep. So for now we pray the antibiotic reverses all her current symptoms and if it "flares" up again we'll know to immediately do the ASO Titer blood test and put her on an antibiotics.

She could also continue to have minor OCD symptoms that change from time to time. Like it use to be (up until today) that she constantly said "is it ok if I do this?" and she'd say it over and over as she touched/scratched different things. She hasn't done that today but she's been saying things to Natalee and then turns around and asks if she said that. Like she said she didn't want Natalee coloring while they were playing teacher and then she asked me a couple times "did I not want Natalee coloring while we were playing?" or she told Natalee to come upstairs because she wanted to tell her something and then she turned around and said to me "did I want Natalee to come upstairs so I could tell her something?" Just weird stuff like that. She's unsure about things. I asked her if she was cold this morning and she said "I don't know, am I?" She's been doing that all along though. When I ask her a question most of the time she says "I don't know." For a few days she'd say "Mom look" and she'd do something weird with her mouth or squat funny or just do something random. So it changes but I still think she's getting better. Just the fact she can go all day at school without asking her teacher any obsessive questions says a lot.

Haylee will meet with the Psychologist Thursday for the first time. Please continue to pray for a full recovery and protection against reoccurrences.

My hope is to spread awareness about P.A.N.D.A.S and hopefully help another family who's child wakes up with OCD out of the blue one day. If you want to know more about P.A.N.D.A.S our Psychologist shared this link with us today.