The mystery infection is back!

[EmersonAilidh]

Getting an infection while on this many antibiotics should literally be impossible. Oh my God. But leave it to me, I suppose.

 

A little background is required for this one. Skip to the end if you already know why this is significant.

 

Okay. Positive for strep from birth to 14yo. Completely stopped getting symptoms at 7, but my pediatrician knew to always swab anyway & sure enough, I was ALWAYS positive. Octoberish this past year I started waking up in the middle of the night with gut wrenching stomachaches. I thought it was weird but didn't connect it to strep until I woke up one morning & my throat was hurting. Still didn't really make the strep connection because, well, when I got strep my throat never hurt! Went to CareNow anyway where they, of course, told me I had an upper respiratory infection (it's so cool how they can tell that by just looking at you no matter what your symptoms are, isn't it?) & gave me a five day course of 250mg Azith. Got MAYBE a few days of partial relief. Went back in December, I believe, where they said the same thing & gave me the same prescription. Except they called it "Z-Pack" this time. Guess they felt like shakin' it up a little bit. In January I finally just walked into my pediatrician's office where the only person available was the nurse practitioner. She did a rapid test, it came back negative, but she looked in my throat anyway & immediately went "Oh my God!". She pulled me into the physical therapy room (which has mirrors all over the walls) & showed me how to check my own throat, because you could just see all of the pus pockets in the back of my mouth. I even posted photos of it on here, haha. She gave me ten days of 800mg Suprax, which FINALLY did the trick. A few days later though the strep culture also came back negative, so we never figured out what it was...

 

Started feeling weird on Sunday after starting second round of treatment Saturday night. On Monday got Serotonin Syndrome, ended up in the ER, & just haven't been feeling quite right since... Today I woke up with a grueling headache, horrible hand tremors (which I chalk up to my antidepressants), & really bad facial twitches. Whenever I got home I figured "Why not?" & decided to look down my throat. Yup. You guessed it. Whatever it was, it's baaaaack.

 

What am I supposed to do about this?

[matis_mom]

Getting an infection while on this many antibiotics should literally be impossible. Oh my God. But leave it to me, I suppose.

 

A little background is required for this one. Skip to the end if you already know why this is significant.

 

Okay. Positive for strep from birth to 14yo. Completely stopped getting symptoms at 7, but my pediatrician knew to always swab anyway & sure enough, I was ALWAYS positive. Octoberish this past year I started waking up in the middle of the night with gut wrenching stomachaches. I thought it was weird but didn't connect it to strep until I woke up one morning & my throat was hurting. Still didn't really make the strep connection because, well, when I got strep my throat never hurt! Went to CareNow anyway where they, of course, told me I had an upper respiratory infection (it's so cool how they can tell that by just looking at you no matter what your symptoms are, isn't it?) & gave me a five day course of 250mg Azith. Got MAYBE a few days of partial relief. Went back in December, I believe, where they said the same thing & gave me the same prescription. Except they called it "Z-Pack" this time. Guess they felt like shakin' it up a little bit. In January I finally just walked into my pediatrician's office where the only person available was the nurse practitioner. She did a rapid test, it came back negative, but she looked in my throat anyway & immediately went "Oh my God!". She pulled me into the physical therapy room (which has mirrors all over the walls) & showed me how to check my own throat, because you could just see all of the pus pockets in the back of my mouth. I even posted photos of it on here, haha. She gave me ten days of 800mg Suprax, which FINALLY did the trick. A few days later though the strep culture also came back negative, so we never figured out what it was...

 

Started feeling weird on Sunday after starting second round of treatment Saturday night. On Monday got Serotonin Syndrome, ended up in the ER, & just haven't been feeling quite right since... Today I woke up with a grueling headache, horrible hand tremors (which I chalk up to my antidepressants), & really bad facial twitches. Whenever I got home I figured "Why not?" & decided to look down my throat. Yup. You guessed it. Whatever it was, it's baaaaack.

 

What am I supposed to do about this?

Man! I tell you sometimes one wonders what the point is in taking all these antibiotics... I would ask for a culture with sensitivities and take it from there.

[peglem]

They should be able to do a culture to grow out and identify whatever it is. Wonder if it could be yeast?

[thereishope]

How's your sinuses? I had the same thing as you with the white spots, negative rapid and culture, but abx made it better. They thought I had an infection in my sinuses and the white spots were from drainage.

[emmalily]

Definitely could be thrush (yeast). I have a friend who has chronic thrush thanks to steriods for her asthma...definitely looks like it could be strep pus...kind of slimy white clumps. She can feel them when she swallows...are you noticing that?

[dcmom]

Both of my kids just got strep ( one on Augmentin and zithromax, the other on zithromax and rifampin). The rapids were positive. Clindamycin cleared it for them. I would ask them to culture for type, and if positive consider clindamycin.

[PhillyPA]

Emerson have your doctor give you a blood test for the Epstein Barr Virsus (EBV). It is the virus that causes infectious mono. My son had this last month. He had the worst sore throat that he has ever had. His throat was covered in pus pockets. It looked so scary. His doctor put him on steroids to reduce the inflammation. The thing with EBV is it can come and go and flare for up to three years. You can get flares of swollen tonsils and pain. EBV usually effects teenagers. My son is only 6 years old. His pediatrician kept asking me, "Are you sure he is not around any teenagers?" No teenagers. Ask for the EBV blood test and a mono blood test.

 

Good luck.

[EmersonAilidh]

I don't think it's yeast/thrush/Candida/whateverelse it's called. They're distinct little pockets, can't feel anything when I swallow, there's nothing on my tongue, & it got BETTER with antibiotics last time. Would have done the opposite if it was yeast.

 

Don't think it's strep either since it was negative on three rapids & one culture last time around. I usually have NO problem getting positives. I'm still gonna ask for them when I go to the pediatrician tomorrow though. The nurse practitioner there makes no qualms about being fascinated by me, hahaha. If it comes back positive I will be sure to ask for Clindamycin! Also, if this IS freaking strep I'm finally just going to ask for at least a tonsillectomy, probably an adenoidectomy too.

 

I will definitely ask about EBV/Mono! I haven't been thinking about viruses since it cleared with the Suprax, but I guess that would make sense if it flared & would also explain why the two courses of Azith didn't make a dent in it. I'm not any antivirals, either.

[Mary M]

Emerson-

Just wanted to say I'm sorry and hope your appointment on Monday provides some answers.

Mary

from Michigan

[SarahJane]

EBV is good advice! There's a rapid test (mono spot) they can do & run the blood. (I have one tonsil that is kind of wonky that I was feaking out about it back b4 my ds's Nov IVIg...they tested me for mono. My EBV IgG was high but I didn't really have other symptoms so I let it go. And my ND found other stuff wrong with me anyway back in Feb.) Might have them check for cytomegalovirus too. (They talked about checking me for that.) Maybe HHV6 too...I just read it can cause mono-like symptoms in adults. Have you run any gut samples to see what's in there. (I have strep in mine that we're working on digestion to handle it.)

 

((((((((HUGS))))))))

[PhillyPA]

One more thing Emerson - those gut wrenching stomaches are a sign of EBV. My son also had some back pain where the liver is located. The spleen swells and enlarges with EBV. You have to be very careful not to do physical activity that could hurt the spleen. During the first month or so, if the spleen is hit or injured there is a possibility it could burst which is serious. My son got an ultrasound of his spleen to see just how large it swelled. It is a brutal virus. My son, who was in pandas remission, had a horrible outbreak of OCD and rituals during the worst of the virus. Luckily, it all went away after a few days. He is back in remission.

[butterflymom]

=

Edited October 9, 2015 by tampicc

[browneyesmom]

What happened at the appointment? I hope you got some good answers! Hugs ♥

[EmersonAilidh]

Wow, I am horrible!!! We decided to nip it in the bud & schedule an appointment with an ENT, which is tommorrow. So of course it went away yesterday. But aha, stupid whiteness, we snapped photos of you just in case! I'm really leaning towards EBV at this point but I'm about to make another post about all of that.