10-Year-Old with Panic (PANS)

Today is Friday, 5pm. We are at home relaxing. The girls are playing the Sims in their room and talking up a storm together and being very imaginative. Ewen is Face-timing with a new friend from his school. They are playing on the same Minecraft server together. I gave Ewen his first Guanfacine tablet this afternoon at 4pm, only a 1/4mg. I gave it to him an hour ago and just asked him how he feels... if he is tired at all? I suppose it shouldn't start working immediately anyway. I'm curious if he will sleep better/longer tonight. He was up at 5am this morning after going to sleep at 10pm. I want it to be the miracle pill although I know they don't exist. But he had a good day at school. He teacher said he is very happy and does his work, takes direction well and plays well. I think that is good that he has already found a friend to play Minecraft with on the phone. So things are good with Ewen I suppose. He still huffs all the time and he still wants things to b...

We have an appt with Ewen's psychiatrist today. He told me on the phone this morning that he is going to prescribe him Tenex (same as Guanfacine) to help with the tics. The reason I called him was because I was worried that Prozac was harming Ewen, not to get another prescription to pile on top of it. I asked him again about the Buspar and he said no because there is no evidence. He basically told me on the phone that it was Prozac or nothing and that it seems like Prozac is very much helping Ewen. He said that it sounds like the problem is that the tics are bothering him and that the first line of defense is to add Tenex. I told him that Ewen wasn't your typical patient and maybe the first line of defense wasn't right for him. He said he understood...but does he? I went and read about it and it looks like it will make him tired, which the Prozac already does. I don't know. I also read that the tics aren't hurting him and that we only need to treat them if the...

Good morning. It is Friday, 8:30 am and my mom came to the house and took our 6-year-old to school since DH has had to leave early this week for work. Both Ewen and Amira are still asleep. I'm sitting in bed on the laptop, letting them sleep because Amira was up in the night a couple of times and I want Ewen to have lots of time not twitching, which is only when he sleeps.  He did fall asleep last night at 9:45 though so I think now we are going on 11 hours! That is good since he was up the night before at 3am and didn't go back to sleep after that. Both kids will be home with me today too since I told Ewen he could start school on Monday, and Amira's tutor's daughter is sick. So I won't be getting much work done I suppose today. Ewen has CBT this afternoon too which is good. I don't know if bringing down his medicine dose to 3.5 ML's will ease his tics or not. I look up sudden panic disorder online and I can never find a match of exactly what happen...

So I took Ewen to see an acupuncture specialist today. She came very highly recommended and so Ewen and I drove out to her house on the other side of town in a neighborhood of hills and trees with lots of space between each house that was built in the 70's. She was very welcoming and happy with an English accent. Her home was tidy and serene and she took us back to a room with the table and lots of space and string heart lights and  string butterflies. She asked a lot of questions about how and when all this anxiety business started then she did some needles in his belly, legs and feet. She did some more talking and then did a couple of needles in his back. He was a great sport about everything. Then she wanted to rub his neck and head but he wasn't so excited about that and said "ow" and that she was pulling his hair. When we left he said that the needles were cool but he hated that she pulled his hair when she was rubbing his head. I gave him some inositol m...

Tuesday Dec 22nd Benadryl 10 ML's 9:30 am Benadryl 10 ML's 1:00   1/2 propanol 3:12 1/2 propanol 4:17 1/2 propanol 6:14 1/2 propanol 8:55pm 1/2 propanol 10pm Sleep at 10:50 , worried, eyes hurting, swallowing still bothering him. Loose stool at one point. Took Jeff and I to get him to sleep with music and calm story but no panic attack. Nightmares. Swallowing excessive saliva all through sleep all night long until the morning.  Wednesday Dec 23rd 1/2 propanol 8:40 am 1/4 Lexapro 8:40 am At 11am, not panicky and didn't need more propanol he said. But he can't swallow food through tight throat. Had some smoothie for breakfast. Wants to keep head in iPod video games and constantly chew gum to control excessive saliva. 1/2 propanol 1:10pm still can't swallow food. Had a bit of a smoothie for lunch. But happy and not chewing gum for saliva. 1/2 propanol, 4:50 pm he said he was thinking bad thoughts so he knew he needed it again. 1/2 propa...

Today we went to see a new doctor and we talked about instead of Intuiv, starting Ewen on a very, very lose dose of Prozac and titrating up very, very slowly. I think that makes sense.  It is in liquid form so we can titrate it how we want to. He will have such a low dose that it will barely do anything at all for a week but his body and brain will be getting used to the weirdness of a new drug. Then we can put it up super slowly, hopefully with no "activating".  I hope it is the right thing to do. We can continue with the Propranolol with it too. I feel a bit of hope again. I met with the Dr. by myself today to make sure that he was right for Ewen and that I liked what he said. He made the most sense in correlation with what I have read and researched and experienced myself. He knew the science and was able to explain his reasons for why kids don't get benzodiazepines (they just don't respond and react to them like adults do). But he said we could give one at night...