Ugh - have a strep throat infection that just won’t quit.
i am starting my third round of antibiotics today - the first round worked but the walk in clinic doc only gave me 7 days worth. i finished them all, but about 3 days later the symptoms start coming back.
By this point i was two provinces away from home so i visited another clinic and was given an Rx for a different antibiotic. i started taking it and it was working; however, then, mid-course, the symptoms started coming back again.
So today i’m home again and saw a doctor in my extended health care network - he’s given me a 10 day Rx for Bactrin which is stronger, apparently.
I’m sorry, but your story as reported does not make a lot of sense from a medical standpoint.
Have you had an actual strep culture or other strep test taken?
Strep throat symptoms go away on its own just about as quickly without antibiotics as with them. Antibiotic treatment is given only to reduce the risk of complications such as rheumatic heart or kidney disease, which is caused by the strep bacteria, and to reduce the risk of abscess formation. This is a very good reason to treat strep with antibiotics. But these complications are uncommon.
Bactrim would not be an appropriate medication to treat a strep infection with, including recurrent strep infections.
Most other common causes of severe sore throats are viral in nature, and as a result don’t respond to antibiotics.
Viral pharyngitis is more common than strep pharyngitis.
I had been sick for about two weeks when I finally saw the dr - I’m asthmatic and henput me on prednisone for bronchitis as well.
FWIW the initial antibiotic did seem to work - it Wa’s a few days after I stopped it that the symptoms returned. The last dr seemed to think it sounded like an uncleared stream infection.
From the lab perspective, “confirmed with a culture” also means that they did the susceptibility tests on which antibiotics will kill what you’re growing - it sounds strange to me, too, that what you’ve been prescribed doesn’t seem to be working.
Also, was your last post from your phone by any chance?
For Strep throat it’s usually only confirmed by rapid antigen test, at least in my lab. Takes under 10 minutes for me to run the test once I get your swab, and no sensitivity is done. Culture is only done if the test is negative and the doctor wants a culture to double check (or look for other things, I guess - I’m not a micro tech).
Many people are colonized with Strep and will almost always have a positive Rapid Step test even in the absence of pharyngitis symptom. That doesn’t mean you can’t also have a virus.
Also, Qadgop, as I’m sure you know, antibiotics do *not *reduce the incidence of kidney disease (post-infectious glomerulonephritis). Additionally, the antigen profile of current common strains of strep are far less likely to cause rheumatic heart disease compared to the past. In fact, treatment of strep is really pointless these days!
My son had strep last summer and mono – he is a strapping six foot 16-yr old and it put him flat out for weeks.
Have they tested for mono? Apparently, people commonly have both.
There is a possible mutated strain of Strep causing an out break of scarlet fever in Hong Kong. In the small world we live in, it could travel easily. Get retested.
I’m really not sure what’s going on other than my throat has been hurting like a mofo.
The final Dr. did actually ask some differential questions to rule out mono because the glands in my neck are so swolen; however, he kind of ruled it out. I can say that I had it in high school and felt MUCH worse than I do at the moment. Honestly now I feel decent, but I stop the antibiotics and my glands swell back up and my throat starts hurting again. Apparently it’s also bright red.
Now to make things really interesting, my lips have started tingling and I’m worried that I’m alergic to the Bactrin - it’s in the same family as erythomycin (sp??) which I had a reaction to as a child; however, the reaction was nausia and vomiting which apparently EVERYBODY gets with erythomycin so I was told it’s probably not really and allergy.
I’m very allergic to Bactrim. The symptoms were severe hives and low-grade fever after a few days of taking it, but before that I had insomnia, palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, vomiting (no nausea), and psychotic nightmares. For whatever reason, I thought these were normal side effects. They aren’t. IANAD, but I don’t think tingling lips is a normal side effect, either. Call the doctor.
Bactrim is a sulfa antibiotic, mixed with trimethoprim. It’s unrelated to the erythromycins.QUOTE]
Ok, I must be quoting the wrong drug, because even the pharmacisit said bactrum was essentially the same as erythomycins. I’ll have to check the bottle and figure out what I’m talking about.
Do labs routinely do the susceptibility tests? I think it’s a dandy idea, just hadn’t heard that it was routine.
Also, was the original confirmation truly a full-on culture or a rapid-strep swab (which would yield a positive/negative but nothing more than that).
I do feel your pain. I’ve several times gone through bouts of having a severe sore throat, having it treated by antibiotics, having it respond quickly (within 24 hours)… then a couple of days after the antibiotics ended, it came roaring back. New scrip, pain went away. Lather, rinse, repeat. No clue why it appeared to respond to antibiotics so thoroughly, but then came back (I always finished the medication).
Each time, after 3-4 rounds of antibiotics, I toughed it out and it ultimately went away. One such time, I actually had a strep culture that came back negative. So I never knew whether it behaved like it was bacterial (by responding to the antibiotics) but was really viral, or whether it WAS bacterial, just not strep. Or maybe it was an odd manifestation of a sinus problem…
Might you be on Biaxin (clarithromycin)? I can see getting those two terms mixed up.
Regardless - tingling lips is something that would make me wanna call the doc. It might be an allergic reaction (though if you’re still on the prednisone, that should mitigate that I think). I suppose it could be a manifestation of oral thrush (same reason you’re eating that yogurt, I imagine, only a different orifice!) though mine has never manifested as tingling, just soreness / white patches.
I was a lab tech a long time ago (just about the time rapid strep tests were just coming out, I think) - when we plated stuff, we always did susceptibility tests as well.
