One day we wished upon a star and Esmae-Rose came true.
She was perfect. She was funny. She was our family's dream come true.
Always happy. Always playing. Always the light in everyone's day.
The only worry she ever had was having to wait for cookies.
Always fearless, always busy and always excited.
Beautiful. Intelligent. A social butterfly. Kind. Perfect.
On the first day of the school holidays (2017) Esmae came out in chicken pox. Everything seemed to go swimmingly and the pox didn't seem to bother her.
Over the following week we noticed Esmae started raising her shoulders and tipping back her head. Like a tic. It seemed purposeful at first and we thought it was just a funny phase she was going through.
Over a matter of days Esmae started to become distressed if she couldn't wave or blow kisses from a particular spot in the window.
She started smelling her hands after touching things and her behaviour became 'naughty' and 'bossy'.
Esmae became distressed at bedtime if things weren't 'right' or untidy - including her bed covers.
Esmae became angry, aggressive, repetitive, sad, violent, frustrated, anxious, vacant, impulsive, forgetful, emotional and 'lonely'.
Esmae's tics worsened. We were terrified.
We went to DMH and asked them to help us. Esmae was admitted. She had an EEG and a liver function test. They couldn't help us.
Esmae stopped eating. Even the things she loved. The tics got worse. We watched her deteriorate.
She had developed horrific OCD symptoms and started begging us to help her.
Finally, our case was passed to the RVI.
Esmae-Rose had Strep.
Esmae-Rose has PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Strep) / PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome)
Our four year old needs CBT to be able to have a chance at a childhood and it needs to be with a private therapist that specialises in PANDAS/PANS.
Please help us try and get our daughter back. Please.