A father and son’s journey from PANDAS to healing

LP Gas sat down with Brand Manager Brian Kanaba and his son Drew to talk about their family’s experience with Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS), which Drew was diagnosed with as a child.

▶ Life with PANDAS

PANDAS describes a variety of sudden and severe neuropsychiatric symptoms that develop in some children after a strep throat infection. Drew was diagnosed with PANDAS in the fourth grade. His symptoms included visual and auditory hallucinations, debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety and panic attacks.

“In fourth grade, post-viral strep infection, I went to bed normal, healthy, happy, no symptoms, just like a normal kid, normal life,” Drew recalls. “And I woke up the following day with visual and auditory hallucinations that lasted on and off for about 10 years.”

On top of these symptoms, Drew also suffered from a compromised immune system, meaning that he would get sick often.

“We did not know what was happening, but knew something was wrong,” says Brian, recalling how he and his wife, Jen, felt watching their son experience these issues. “Not being able to ‘fix’ your child is an absolute empty feeling.”

▶ Changing course

After 13 years of suffering from these mental and physical health issues and finding no relief from medical treatments and no help from any of the doctors he visited, Drew reached a turning point.

“In 2019 … I had my suicide planned out,” Drew says. “By the grace of God, I got through it.”

Around then, Drew says, his symptoms started to fluctuate and change, getting better some days and worse on others, which made him think there must be a way to treat the underlying cause.

“If there’s an ability to go from bedridden to not and then suicidal for eight months of the worst year of my life, back out of this pit to a decent state – not great, but decent – there has to be an ability to heal,” Drew explains. “If there’s an inability to heal, you would think your symptoms would just stay linear. There wouldn’t be a fluctuation.”

That’s when Drew took his healing into his own hands and started relentlessly studying the biology behind PANDAS. In addition, he started studying to become an integrative health practitioner and learned about holistic medical practices he could incorporate into his life.

With this holistic mindset, Drew “attacked the root of the issue,” he says.

“Ultimately, I began to heal more and more and then solidified my healing.”

And today, Drew says, all of his symptoms are completely gone.

▶ A family act

Drew’s experience drove the Kanaba family to open its clinic, Root Cause Integrative Wellness. Drew says he wanted to take what he learned through healing himself and try to help others with the same holistic concepts.

“What we do now is we work on addressing the root cause of any symptom, ailment or disease instead of just symptom management and suppression,” Drew explains.

“There is always a root cause,” says Brian. “No one has an affliction of something ‘just because.’ There is a root cause.”

After working alongside his son through his health journey, Brian offers simple words for parents who are watching their children navigate health challenges: Don’t ignore it.

“Support was essential. Trying to understand was essential. You become mini doctors and try to diagnose so he knows we are in that same boxing ring with him,” says Brian. “As they see you fighting with them, it shows they are not alone.”

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