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Patches in throat not strep?!


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Help! I am so confused!

 

Our background: 21yo dx'd w/Lyme and bartonella causing him to have Tourette's, 18yo w/bartonella rash & emotional lability. LLMDs think dh gave the Lyme or both to me, & I passed it on to our 5 kids during pregnancy.

 

All but 2 of us got sick w/flu symptoms over Christmas break, but it was weird - we started to feel like we were getting better, but then we got sicker with our sinuses rapidly backing up to fill up our ear canals and leading to sore & swollen throats. My 18yo & I had to go to the dr & ended up with rx's for 10 days of Suprax.

 

During this time my 21yo got some of the symptoms and his tics got significantly worse (as they always do when he gets exposed to something).

 

We still had some sx's after the Suprax was finished, but I attributed them to the drainage that was so very slowly beginning to move out of the ear canals. When the Christmas break was over, I learned that one of the families at our taekwondo school had the same sx's as us & had been dx'd with both flu and strep. Our family was finally starting to feel like it was just about gone about 2 wks ago, though, and I was hoping it wasn't an issue for us. Still my 21 yo's tics did not seem to be getting better - possibly were even a little worse - and I have been very worried about him. Then we had a taekwondo tournament this past Saturday & after it was over, we were so incredibly & unusually wiped out from it. Sure enough, by Monday we were developing sinus-crud & I though thought we were all fighting a cold. Until last night.

 

My 18yo has been complaining about her throat hurting, but she is soo negative & complains all the time (bartonella doesn't help) that I have an unfortunate tendency to tune her out. Last night I finally took a look at her throat & freaked out when I saw what looked like white patches back there as well as being swollen & red.

 

So today I ran all of us to the dr's office convinced that we have strep. Just got back from the dr’s & 5 rapid strep test$ later – the nurse practitioner says they’re all negative & she doesn’t see white patches in my 18yo's throat (suggested perhaps I was seeing drainage?). She did say that she saw signs of infection in the 4 kids that were there (my 21 yo didn’t go - his tics have made it so hard for him to get to bed that he is up almost all night right now) so she gave the 4 kids antibiotics anyway - amoxicillin 875mg 2xd x10days for the 2 older & Omnicef 250mg 2xd x10 days + zith for me but only if I feel like I'm getting worse over the weekend.

 

I looked at my 18yo's throat after we got home from the dr's office. Now the white patches actually look more kind of yellowish, sort of like when the skin in the mouth gets ulcerated - except that her skin doesn't seem to be. She does have constant problems with candida so could it be that? But I would think that would be something even a nurse practitioner would have no problem recognizing. Could the fact that I've been having her gargle with salt water have anything to do with it? We've also been taking monolaurin, oregano oil, lysine, astragalus & olive leaf in my effort to help us get better.

 

I am totally stymied! I know the rapid streps can give false negatives, but all 5 being so seems kind of less likely – yet what on earth did I see in my daughter's throat then? yeast overgrowth or is there some other bug that can cause patches at the back of the throat? - so I’m here to consult my strep experts in the PANDAS forum! We just switched to an LLMD in Colorado & have only seen him once, & I had to postpone our followup till April because of some major things that came up at the end of last year, so I don't know how willing he would be to call us in anything. Any advice?

 

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Last year, DD17 had white patches in throat and strep test was negative (I thought it would be positive for sure)...it must have been yeast. It went away after we gave her one fluconazole pill that we had left over. She is on Pen VK daily, so it would make sense to have some yeast, but it sure looked like strep white spots.

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OMGosh, that was a great suggestion to google the images, but I'd advise against anyone with a weak stomach doing it - yuck.

 

My 18yo's throat looks quite a bit like the first picture on this page - http://www.foodpyramid.com/conditions-disorders/white-spots-on-throat-causes-and-symptoms-10618/ (hers looks more like the right side of the throat in that pic with its spots as opposed to the left side with its patches)

 

So from what the article at this link is saying, apparently you can have whilte spots & patches just from having inflamed tonsils. It that's correct, then it's probably not strep (because of the 5 negative rapid tests), but still leaves the door open for almost anything, right? No one's been running any fever, though, FWIW.

 

My 21yo was up when I got home and says he actually feels sicker today. It is so tempting to go ahead & give him something I still have a leftover bottle of clindamycin caps from our old LLMD that's still in date & enough for more than 10 days treatment, but then that might complicate things & we have an appt w/ the dr for some labs on Monday. Should I grit my teeth and wait & see - or go ahead & use a drug that the old LLMD thought would be beneficial for his case & my ds had no problem taking previously?

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My son had white pathch's on his tonisls and tested negative for strep last year. He was diagnosed with Tonsilitis and had it for 6 weeks. Also, I am sure they sent it out to the lab, I believe they always do, so wait for that result. Does she have bad breath? Another indication that something is up.

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My son had chronic throat issues for 1.5 years. Sometimes strep sometimes not. Sometimes with puss pockets and or what looked like ulcers. It was terrible. So much pain. No answers. 9 months of IV Rocephin cleared it all up and so far no return of any of it 2 years later. He is still on heavy Lyme treatment.

Hope you can find an end to the family misery soon!

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