Waiting on any type of test results is probably one of the scariest things someone will ever have to do. I have been waiting on My Cunningham panel results for several weeks and today I finally got my results.
As many of you know, I have PANS (or so we thought). Today I found out that I have “PANDAS.” This wasn’t exactly shocking sense my last doctor didn’t make get tested for the Cunningham Panel. For some of you who don’t know what PANDAS is, it is an autoimmune disease that is caused by Strep. Supposedly, getting your tonsils out helps you not get strep as much. My mom decided it would be a good idea to get mine out because I wasn’t breathing at night and I was continuously getting strep. That did not work for me. After going back to my pediatric doctor to get some records, the doctor told us that he counted at least 14 times that I had strep after getting my tonsils out. Keep in mind I got my tonsils out in the first grade and that means I was getting sick at least twice a year. Most of the time we just thought it was the Flu, but I guess we were wrong.
After learning that I have PANDAS, I learned that my body cannot handle gluten. It’s not that gluten makes me sick, but my body is trying to build an immunity against it because of what it is doing to my body. The doctor was very shocked to see that. The doctor also told me that she wants me to learn another language, learn more dances, do more activities that I like, and learn song lyrics and sing. This helps with my cognitive therapy and helps my brain gain more of itself back. I just have to take this one day at a time.
-Egypt