Strep while on abx? or something else?

[simplygina]

My son is on day 4 of a second round of 10 day Augmentin. He was off for 4 days in between until we could see the doctor again last Thursday. Saturday morning and afternoon he had zero tics and no OCD (from my own observation as well as his). Around 5 pm we went up to a cabin with my son's friend's family. To get there we had to go in a snowcat, which was really exciting to the kids. Inside the cab you could definitely smell gas fumes and within a few minutes I started to notice some tics (craning, head shaking and finger smelling). At the cabin everything got worse. He was emotional, he was touching and evening things up constantly, he wasn't very social, and extremely touchy. The cabin is really old and has super old shag carpet and furniture. As they were talking about the flooding problems they've had over the years I began to wonder if there was mold in the carpet. I'm sure there were tons of dust mites. The next day his tics and OCD continued to get worse. As we went back down to our car in the the cat his head shaking tic showed up again. He told me he sees lines and has to even them up by shaking them into place. As the evening went on his mood improved but he was tired. Before bed he told me his throat feels weird. That is what he always used to say when he had strep before we took his tonsils out. Not that it hurts, it just feels weird and swollen and hard to swallow. He hasn't had strep, as far as I know, since his tonsil were removed about a year and a half ago. His strep titer tests from 3 weeks ago were all normal so I don't think he has had it in awhile. This morning his throat was definitely swollen and had some white spots where his tonsils used to be and a bunch of small red dots all over the back of his throat. His tongue was also coated with white slime. So now I'm wondering if he has strep, or if his throat is inflamed because of environmental exposure to fumes and allergens, or if he has thrush from the abx. I see how he could have either, or both of the last two, but could he have strep on abx? Should I take him in regardless? His doctor can't see him today but I could take him to the Express Clinic for a culture. If it is thrush we would want something to clear that up wouldn't we?

[thereishope]

Take him in for a strep test. Remind them he is on antibiotics so there is a chance he could have a false negative. You can say the child you spent the weekend with was dx with strep and with his physical symptoms, you belive he caught it even though he is on meds.

 

They may do a few things....

 

Tell you he cannot have strep because his tonsils were removed...FALSE

Tell you he cannot get strep because he is on abx...FALSE

They may make a clinical dx w/o a strep test

They will do a strep test. If so, if the rapid comes back negative, make sure they run a culture too.

 

If they await the cultrue, ask them to up his meds or switch and/or add Zithromax until you get the results.

 

There is a chance it may be environmental or an allergic reaction. But because of physical throat symptoms, I would get him tested.

 

 

Does he take probiotics since he started meds?

[simplygina]

I've been giving him 2. I give him a Culturelle after school and an Natrol Probiotic Acidopholus beads. Both are supposed to have 1 billion+ cells. But over the weekend we weren't as good as we have been.

 

I guess it makes sense to take him in and have him tested. I realize that I'm beginning to worry that they think I'm nuts. I had my other son tested twice because his throat was red and he sounded weird. It turned out to be allergies, but the instacare doc acted like i was a wacko for bringing him in twice in two weeks. I think I'll take him to a different instacare I'm actually leaning toward thrush though. Either way, it needs to be treated, so I'm taking him in.

[Joan Pandas Mom]

I agree with Vickie. Take him in have a 24 - 48 hour culture, NOT a rapid, they are useless. I posted the same ? recently and most replied that yes, you can get reinfected while on an abx.

[nomoz]

My daughter had strep while on antbx. If your son does have it, you just need something stronger.

Good luck!!

[thereishope]

If your doctor will not give antibiotics while waiting on the culture results, do a rapid too. My son has had some strep infection where the rapid was neg, culture positive and he has strep infections where the rapid did come back positive.

 

You always have the chance the rapid will come back + and your child can start abs or increase abs sooner. Time is very improtant when trying to fight strep and PANDAS.

 

 

 

I agree with Vickie. Take him in have a 24 - 48 hour culture, NOT a rapid, they are useless. I posted the same ? recently and most replied that yes, you can get reinfected while on an abx.

[colleenrn]

Your description of what his throat looks like, IMO, sounds 100% like strep. I would ask them to grow the cultre for a full 72 hours if the rapid comes back negative. It takes that long for some cultures to turn positive.

 

If he has strep I would ask them to switch him to Zithromax. If the strep is intracellular, Zithromax is effective in reaching the strep.

 

Colleen

[simplygina]

I'm taking him into to see his dr. this morning. He woke up with ear pain as well as sinus congestion. Totally reminds me of the day we went to see the ENT to discuss a tonsillectomy and he informed me that not only did he have strep again , but a double ear infection and a sinus infection. And all DS said then was, my throat feels kind of weird. I seriously hope it is strep because then I will at least have proof that his symptoms do get much worse with strep. And if it's not I guess we also know they get worse with a virus. I hope it isn't thrush because I'm afraid his doctor will pull him off the abx. I guess we'll know soon enough.

[thereishope]

Remind them he can get a false negative strep test if he's on antibiotics.

[simplygina]

Well, as expected the swab was negative but he will culture it as well. No thrush either, which is good news that the probiotics are doing their job. DS does have a raging ear infection which the Augmentin wasn't touching so for that fact alone he switched us to Omnicef. I asked about Zith but he felt it wouldn't get the ear infection as well as omnicef would. I'm OK with that because DS did really well with Omnicef before his tonsillectomy, when he had strep, both ears infected and a sinus infection. Personally I think he has strep as well, but we will have to wait to see what the culture shows. He wanted to run titers again so we threw the mycoplasma and lyme in there for good measure. I think the fact that DS had an ear infection even on abx, and was visibly ticcing like crazy helped our cause because the doctor seemed far more responsive today. He said he had called his infectious diseases doc that morning but hadn't heard back. So here we go again!

[thereishope]

I'm glad you took him to the dr.

 

Strep can be the cause of ear infections. Make sure you take him for a follow up later to make sure it cleared after abx.

[simplygina]

I'm glad you took him to the dr.

 

Strep can be the cause of ear infections. Make sure you take him for a follow up later to make sure it cleared after abx.

 

Good to know! We're heading back next Thursday. I'm actually excited to see if the Omnicef makes any big changes. I've read so many other people say, "we switched from x abx to y abx and within 5 days we noticed a huge improvement". I soooo want to be one of those stories!