What Would You Do?

[Suzan]

My dd8 has been sick since Monday. It started out with a headache and stomachache and VERY stuffy nose. Now she has a cough, stomachache and feels like her neck is swollen with a marble stuck in it and it hurts. Plus her pandas symptoms have been starting up but they are not horrible at this point, just annoying and concerning. She does get triggered by things other than strep.

 

I took her to the doc today and he said it's either a virus or a resistant strain of strep that is not responding to zith, both of which he's seen in the office in the past week(s). He feels it's probably the virus but he just doesn't know and because of her pandas diagnosis, he is concerned So he wrote us a script for Omnicef. He said to wait a few days and see if she gets better. If she doesn't it's probably the strep. If she does, it was the virus.

 

So, would you wait or would you go ahead and treat? I want to do both, LOL, that sounds like a problem my dd would have!

 

She's on 500mg of zith daily. He did not swab for strep because by the time the culture came back, we would have either started the onmicef or she'd be better and I guess the zith might make the culture negative anyway??

 

Susan

[EAMom]

Hi Susan,

 

It would have been interesting to swab anyway...so at least you could know for sure if you did have an Azith. resistant strain of strep! I mean, if it was positive, you'd know if it was strep (if it was neg, you're right, you couldn't be sure).

 

I believe stuffy nose is something that tends NOT to occur in strep. So perhaps I'm thinking viral? There sure is a lot of illness this time of year! Can you ask around...find out if other kids in her class are sick and with what (if anyone has had strep)?

[smartyjones]

sorry - no advice - only commiseration! i'm sorry for your having to decide! why don't you want to do the omnicef?

 

my son had a flu bug around Thanksgiving. the next week, his behavior was very off. my husband said he must have strep b/c he's so off. he's on a homeopathic protocol similar in theory to long-term abx. i did not want to think that he could have strep!

 

we took him in. ped agreed something was up - gave us prescrip for abx - 10 days. i didn't so much want to use it b/c if wasn't strep, what was it going to do? also, was 10 days, was that really enough to hit our problem if that was it? so many questions.

 

culture came back neg. i didn't go for abx. he stayed in varying degrees of this exacerbation for about 8 weeks-ish. the past few weeks, he's been great.

 

i've gone back and forth during this time - should i have put him on the abx - would he have pulled out of it then? would it have done nothing? oh yes, i should have had him on it. oh no, i'm glad i didn't.

 

i think you're just going to have to calmly, rationally, quietly make the call. and then just go with it - it's a decision based on what you feel is best and you'll deal with what comes next when it does.

[ajcire]

Susan, I have to agree... next time I would ask for the swab anyway unless it is totally traumatizing for your dd... just to know but keeping in mind that it could be neg due to the azith... actually if my peds knew my kids were on the antibiotic they probably would be hard to convince to swab since they would say it would not show positive regardless. The rapid could come back positive as well in which case you would have known instantly... I know with the cultures I get the call sometimes the next day and always by the second.

 

 

Hi Susan,

 

It would have been interesting to swab anyway...so at least you could know for sure if you did have an Azith. resistant strain of strep! I mean, if it was positive, you'd know if it was strep (if it was neg, you're right, you couldn't be sure).

 

I believe stuffy nose is something that tends NOT to occur in strep. So perhaps I'm thinking viral? There sure is a lot of illness this time of year! Can you ask around...find out if other kids in her class are sick and with what (if anyone has had strep)?

[thereishope]

Does she have a fever? Is she usually symptomatic with strep?

 

Is this the daughter with the bad allergies?

[Suzan]

Does she have a fever? Is she usually symptomatic with strep?

 

Is this the daughter with the bad allergies?

 

This is the dd with bad allergies. She has not had strep throat since we got her tonsils out 3 years ago, but she was getting V. Strep. When she has gotten strep throat in the past, she was not symptomatic (meaning sore throat mostly).

 

Susan

[Suzan]

sorry - no advice - only commiseration! i'm sorry for your having to decide! why don't you want to do the omnicef?

 

It's not that I don't want to do the omnicel per say, I kind of just want to blast her with any antibiotics I can get my hands on so part of me is thinking, why wait?! But I guess I don't want to medicate her if she doesn't need it.

 

I know, I should have gotten the culture anyway. I'm kind of kicking myself for that. She would not like it but she can stand it. It's my other dd we would have had to hold down not her. Shoot.

 

Susan

[Kayanne]

I'm not sure if it is common, but my daughter was coughing and stuffy for a couple of weeks before the doctor decided that he wanted to treat her sinuses with an antibiotic. She was not complaining of a sore throat, and when he looked in, he jokingly said, "Oh, your gonna make me have to swab you for strep!"

 

Anyway...positive. She was put on Ceftin 250mg 2X/day for 10 days.

 

It's a hard call.

 

Karen

[thereishope]

I don't know if this even has a chance to have anything to do with it, but I'm gonna throw it out there. I know you had carpets cleaned. Maybe some bacteria got thrown in the air and that made her sick?

[Suzan]

Of course now, she's doing much better all of a sudden. Maybe it was a virus and finally started passing. I hope so.

 

 

 

Vickie, I did clean the rugs but did it myself and was pretty careful on the water but I guess you never know. You did remind me about the humidifier though. I hate those things but finally gave in since dd was getting those bloody noses. So I got that good and clean, just in case, even though I was doing all I could to try to prevent any bacteria, etc. Were you the person I was talking about humidifiers with where we talked about using a crock pot to get some moisture into the air?

 

Susan

[thereishope]

I'm glad she's doing better!

 

I was in on the conversation about the crock pot idea, but didn't come up with it. I forgot about that! I may have to do that during the day. I think my boys need a humidier in their room but I'm nervous. I was reading up on them and I just don't know which one is the safest. Each had pros and cons. I think I will throw out my old one with the replaceable filter and get one that can go in the dishwasher. I hate worrying that every little decision I make can somehow affect him.

 

Now I'm not even convinced he has allergies to dust mites. I stopped giving him the flonase and he seems okay. Unless I'm just keeping things clean enough that the dust mites are under control? My husband is allergic to dust mites and he's okay. Come to think of it, I need to change the filter on the furnace tomorrow.