Help with PDO query

[fastsol1]

So I am just starting to convert my site to PDO but have come to a snag in my knowledge of this. I have this function for a search of products in the db and I don't know how to build this in a way that I can bind the values for security because of how the query is built with the $construct var. Since using PDO doesn't allow for a normal mysql_real_escape_string() escaping I am confused as to how to proceed.

Here is the function

function searchResults($start)
{
    global $db;

    $search_term = sanitize($_GET['search-term']);
    if(empty($search_term))
    {return FALSE;}
    else
    {
        $search_xplode = preg_split('/[\s]+/', $search_term);
        $m=1;
        $construct='';
            foreach ($search_xplode as $ste)
            {
                if ($m==1)
                {
                    $construct .= "`".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_number` LIKE '%$ste%' AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE 
                                OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_desc` LIKE '%$ste%' AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE
                                OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_name` LIKE '%$ste%' AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE"; 
                }
                else
                {
                    $construct .= " OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_number` LIKE '%$ste%' AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE
                                    OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_desc` LIKE '%$ste%' AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE
                                    OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_name` LIKE '%$ste%' AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE";
                }
                $m++;
            }//End foreach loop.
            
        $get = $db->query("SELECT 
                                 `".BRANDS."`.*,
                                 `".PRODUCTS."`.*
                                FROM `".PRODUCTS."` 
                                INNER JOIN `".BRANDS."` ON `".BRANDS."`.`id` = `".PRODUCTS."`.`brand_id`
                                WHERE $construct
                                ORDER BY `".BRANDS."`.`brand_name` ASC, `".PRODUCTS."`.`price` ASC
                                LIMIT $start, {$GLOBALS['settings']['prod_per_page']}");
        
        if($get->rowCount() <=0)
        {return FALSE;}
        else
        {
            $the_prod_info = array();
            while ($prod = $get->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC) !== FALSE)
            { $the_prod_info[] = $prod; }
            $the_prod_info[] = recordCount(PRODUCTS, "WHERE ".$construct);
            return $the_prod_info;
        }
    }
} 

Don't be concerned about the sanitize() I use cause that is something I have built but doesn't have any bearing on the issue. Typically I have been doing the binding the easy way like this

$get = $db->prepare("BLAH BLAH");
$get->execute(array($var, $var)); 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[fastsol1]

Nevermind, figured it out pretty fast once I thought about it. I also learned of a new SELECT feature to get the total number of rows in the first query without the LIMIT being factored and then you use the SELECT FOUND_ROWS() in the next query right after and gives the result from the first query but is much faster and if you have a complicated query for the first query string you don't have to duplicate it again for the second, VERY nice feature for pagination purposes.

Here is the result

function searchResults($start)
{
    global $db;

    $search_term = sanitize($_GET['search-term']);
    if(empty($search_term))
    {return FALSE;}
    else
    {
        $search_xplode = preg_split('/[\s]+/', $search_term);
        $m=1;
        $params = array();
        $construct='';
            foreach ($search_xplode as $ste)
            {
                $params[$m] = '%'.$ste.'%';
                
                if ($m==1)
                {
                    $construct .= "`".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_number` LIKE :$m AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE 
                                OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_desc` LIKE :$m AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE
                                OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_name` LIKE :$m AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE"; 
                }
                else
                {
                    $construct .= " OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_number` LIKE :$m AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE
                                    OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_desc` LIKE :$m AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE
                                    OR `".PRODUCTS."`.`prod_name` LIKE :$m AND `".PRODUCTS."`.`active`=TRUE";
                }
                $m++; 
            }//End foreach loop.
            
        $sql = "SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS
                     `".BRANDS."`.*,
                     `".PRODUCTS."`.*
                    FROM `".PRODUCTS."` 
                    INNER JOIN `".BRANDS."` ON `".BRANDS."`.`id` = `".PRODUCTS."`.`brand_id`
                    WHERE $construct
                    ORDER BY `".BRANDS."`.`brand_name` ASC, `".PRODUCTS."`.`price` ASC
                    LIMIT $start, {$GLOBALS['settings']['prod_per_page']}";
        $get = $db->prepare($sql);
                             
        foreach($params as $key => $val)
        { $get->bindValue(':'.$key, $val, PDO::PARAM_STR); }
        $get->execute();
        
        $total_rows = $db->query('SELECT FOUND_ROWS();')->fetch(PDO::FETCH_COLUMN);
        
        if($get->rowCount() <=0)
        {return FALSE;}
        else
        {
            $the_prod_info = array();
            while ($prod = $get->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC))
            { $the_prod_info[] = $prod; }
            $the_prod_info[] = $total_rows;
            return $the_prod_info;
        }
    }
}