strep in legs | Imamother

Happy Mom

Tue, Jan 10 2012, 8:29 am

It sounds like you're describing cellulitis, which is is a skin infection caused by staph or strep bacteria. This can be pretty serious - my son had this several months ago - generally antibiotics are the recommended treatment.

We didn't find antibiotics alone effective so we supplemented with alternative strategies that I had more confidence in - namely mega internal doses of vitamin c (eg 50 grams/50,000 mg daily), also applied the powdered vitamin C to the wound site itself where the infection entered the leg. I did some other things (compresses, cream, and herbal washes of the infected area) but this is the main thing I credit the quick turnaround in the infection to - even on powerful antibiotics it continued spreading from his leg down to his foot, which was streaked with red and hot to the touch, until we did this. The alternative would have been to wait until the morning until we could get to a doctor (which I felt would have been dangerous) and get more antibiotics intravenously.

Refuah shleimah!

YALT

Tue, Jan 10 2012, 8:42 am

my son woke up one morning with his knee in so much pain he couldnt walk. the doc checked him out and thought he had strep. But the results came back nothing. It got worse throughout the day. But the next morning he woke up totally fine with not a isngle pain. Apparently it was growing pains.

But now I wonder, I think after that is when all the nervous twitches started, and most of the times it was minimized with strep antibiotics (meaning: when he had strep and we'd give meds it would minimize the tics)

Good luck! refuah sheleima!

amother

Tue, Jan 10 2012, 11:56 am

YALT, what you seem to be describing is PANDAS which actually is the fist thing I thought of when I read "strep in legs". My son currently has PANDAS and his first symptom was leg pain. Strep can be anywhere in the body, including the blood. When it is in the blood, due to anatomy it can cause leg pain. PANDAS is similar to reumatic fever in that the body has autoimmune reaction. In both reumatic fever and PANDAS, the body reacts to the strep antibiodies the body produces to fight strep, wheter it is an actual strep infection or merely exposure to strep. In reumatic fever, the antibodies not only attack the strep bacteria, they aslo attack the heart valves, thereby causing reumatic fever. In PANDAS, the antibiodies attack the basal ganglia in the brain and nervous system, and can cause tics, leg pain, and changes in behavior. Did the doctor do a blood test? With intensive antibiotics, strep, whether in the throat, legs, blood etc. can be managed and cured. Refuah Shleimah.

granolamom

Tue, Jan 10 2012, 12:34 pm

I used to get strep in my knees. my throat culture would come back negative but I'd insist I had strep (I was like maybe 10 when this started). finally my ped did blood work and every.single.time. I was right.
strep can be anywhere, its just the name of the bacteria.
refuah shelaima!!

YALT

Tue, Jan 10 2012, 5:32 pm

amother wrote:

Can u pls PM me? I'm desperate for answers. My pediatricians seems very against pandas. But I've heard about it so many times in the past year plus. I've been trying to find out more but its not easy. We've done bloodtests on him about 4-5 times since then. When it comes up strep on the overnight, it showed up on the bloodwork. But if not on the overnight then the blood also came back negative. The last test was about 3 weeks ago which came back fine.
Are you in NY area? who do u go to? if u prefer to remain anon, u can send me an email at fay123@gmail.com
Thanks.

amother

Wed, Jan 11 2012, 12:10 pm

Dr. Susan Schulman's phone number is 718-436-3705. I actually recently scheduled an appointment for a consultation for my son's PANDAS issue. Her secretary had me email her his history, and we haven an appointment scheduled for two weeks. I would highly recommend doing the same thing, especially if your pediatrician is not supportive or knowlegable about PANDAS. It's not something that should be ignored.

YALT

Thu, Jan 12 2012, 1:03 pm

I called. Apparently she charges $300 and does not take insurance. This will be very tough.

I have a question: what happens? she diagnoses it, maybe gives some meds, then does he completely lose all symptoms for good? Or is it just a med to mask the symptoms? Will the symptoms come back at a later date? Is it something he'll always have to live with? What kind of meds does she normally prescribe? Is it just an antibiotics for strep?

ra_mom

Thu, Jan 12 2012, 5:39 pm

YALT wrote:

If you think your son has PANDAS (it sounds like it), the consultation fee is worthwhile. I should have written about it when I recommended her. I once inquired about a consult with her (about recurrent strep, a different issue) and was going to go ahead with it. But them at our ENT appt, we got the guidance we need/ed BH.

Dr. Schulman has found that only one type of antibiotics works for Pandas and most doctors are prescribing something else.

I believe there is a round of antibiotics, and that when symptoms resurface, antibiotics is administered once again.

Although sometimes they put the child on a low dose antibiotic for up to a year.

But you have to make sure it's PANDAS before you begin treatment.

Here's an except from her book.
http://rbsmedical.com/?p=21#high_1

YALT

Thu, Jan 12 2012, 6:17 pm

and how do I make sure its Pandas? and not something else? is there a test they do? what type of test? is that something she does included in the $300 fee? Or do I need to have my doctor do the testing? Will the meds she prescribes b covered by his insurance?

Is there anyone that actually went to her, and is finished/not finished? so far everyone is saying I must go, but it seems everyone else is finding solutions before getting to her. I want to know that she's a real doctor, that she's not some kind of psychiatrist or scammer that pretends to diagnose and makes the money. I dont want to put my son on medications if it won't help. If it's just a temporary cover up.

ra_mom

Thu, Jan 12 2012, 7:35 pm

There are no tests. You need someone who knows PANDAS inside out to dertermine if it's it or not. Like Schulman. Only way she can determine is through a thorough history and examination, which is what she provides.

I've been to docs who don't take my insurance. Meds they prescribed were covered by insurance through pharmacy. Tests I wanted done covered through insurance were done through labs that were covered by my insurance.

If I had an inkling that it might be PANDAS I'd go to her in a heartbeat. My daughter has chronic strep since she is 6 months old. Totally unrelated. I just figured bec she knows so much about step, I'd go to her.