Shining light on PANDAS in Yukon
YUKON — Fifteen days ago, Yukon football coach Jeremy Reed stood beside his wife beaming with pride and emotion.
Their 8-year-old son Jeymon stood behind a brown, wooden lectern inside the state Capitol building and told a joke to a group of strangers.
“What does a panda say when he is forced out of his natural habitat?” Jeymon asked before he continued a personally monumental speech that lasted nearly six minutes. “That is unbearable.”
Six months ago, no joke would come. Jeymon would not have the comfort to publicly speak.
For most of Jeymon’s young life, things have been uncomfortable. He deals with obsessive compulsive disorder tendencies and nervous ticks. He has mood swings.
It all stems from PANDAS, a rare condition known as Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infection that affects 1 in 200 kids.
On Oct. 9, Jeymon spent the day with his parents hoping to raise awareness of the condition and its effects. Throughout the past year, Brooke, Jeymon’s mom, has become a huge advocate across the country as she’s learned to navigate it with her son.
“When you feel like you have lost your kid forever, I want to show them with the right treatment plan you can get them back,” Brooke said.
But for years, the condition was a struggle for a family dealing with more.
Jeremy is the Millers’ second-year coach. He has his own worries working to turn around a downtrodden program on the field.
He's also privately dealt with Lyme disease that he contracted nearly a decade ago. He’s in constant pain, often without explanation, and only in the past year has he been properly diagnosed.
“There are some days I come out here and I’m just dying,” Reed said. “I get through it until I can and then I go home and crash. Go to sleep sometimes is the only way to endure the pain.
“I never know when it’s coming or how severe it’s going to be.”
That was passed genetically to Jeymon, but it affects his brain more than his joints. That led to PANDAS.
As a child, Jeymon did not want to be around Jeremy or any other man. He couldn’t be left without Brooke. A former special education teacher, she first thought he was autistic.
But then Jeymon got strep throat when he was 3. His clear speech turned to stuttering.
Brooke plugged every symptom through the years into Google. She discovered PANDAS.
“Every doctor I went to didn’t have a clue what it was or where to send him,” Brooke said.
Since, the Reeds have tried regiments of antibiotics and steroids, but in the past year they’ve seen the most improvement with holistic treatments in McKinney, Texas.
Jeremy has improved. Jeymon has drastically improved. Even their 3-year-old daughter Rylan is undergoing treatment with Jeremy and Brooke fully believing she also has PANDAS.
“I feel like we’re ahead of the game now,” Brooke said. “I definitely feel better about it, but I feel like it’s going to be a rough road for her also.”
But two weeks ago, the Reeds took a huge step in helping others. Jeymon perhaps took the biggest step of all with his speech.
“That was a big win,” Jeremy said. “Knowing where he started and where we’re at now it’s a large improvement.”