arrrrrgh

[emmacrew]

Apparently when the zithromax was out of my system (you take it for 5 days, it works for 5 more), I started feeling sick again. That was yesterday, where by lunchtime I had that odd not-quite-dizzy that happens when you're coming down with something, progressing to fever by early afternoon and sore throat by evening. So today's doctor visit started

Comments

[nosrednayduj]

I had strep FIVE TIMES one year. Turned out that the kids had it without symptoms! Get everyone in your household tested including the healthy ones. We got everyone on a course of antibiotics at the same time and I stopped having it. (I even had the cat tested. Cats can't really get it, but dogs can!)

Also, if you have the habit of "cleaning up after your kids" by eating the rest of the food on their plate, stop. Made me sad to waste all that food but I was healthier afterwards.

Good luck kicking all this!

[sarakate]

I definitely agree with this -- you can most certainly have strep without symptoms, or with atypical symptoms like Pip is having that may not be easily identified as strep (my son has had strep 3 times, and has never had a sore throat with it -- he gets blinding headaches and high spiky fevers instead, poor kid), and you're extra-vulnerable to it when you've had it recently, so there's a reasonable chance it's a reinfection from someone else in the household rather than a resistant strain (and, you're right, that's a horrifying notion).

My sympathies, and best wishes that you get this resolved and are feeling better soon!

[emmacrew]

I've always been susceptible to strep and invariably get it when exposed. My sophomore year of high school I was sick from September through February with a series of throat infections (as far as we know, it was strep alternating with some viral stuff, back and forth and when we'd kick out one, the other would come back). As a result, my tonsils are about 1.5x the size they were before that year, and have lots of interesting caves and tunnels.

ETA: Heh, forgot the point of that. My doc says it's possible everything there's so convoluted that we just didn't knock it out completely even if it isn't resistant, because there could have been some little closed-off colony or something? But also she says we are starting to see resistant strains now, which is why she ordered the full set of tests on the culture.

[sarakate]

I used to be terribly susceptible to it too -- I spent most of my entire second year having a series of throat infections (fun fact: I weighed 26 lbs on my 1st birthday, and *24* lbs on my 2nd) and as a result they yanked my tonsils shortly after I turned two, which did seem to help a good bit, but even so it wasn't until I was 24 or 25 that I first went an entire year without having strep. I've only had it 4 or 5 times since then (I'm 40 now), though, which is a definite improvement, although I don't know if it's really that I'm less susceptible or just less frequently exposed, but I have at least once not gotten it when my kids had it. It probably helps that I moved out of Oklahoma (at the end of college, a couple of years before the last annual strep episode) -- I'm allergic to redbud, which is *the freakin' state tree* and there's a ton of them around, which meant that every spring when they bloomed my immune system was basically utterly overwhelmed with false signal and not available for defense against actual germs; I always

[emmacrew]

I think if they didn't remove them back then, it's much less likely to happen now, this is maybe my third strep infection since coming to WA (in 1994). Also, tonsillectomy is sort of a Big Deal for a serious singer; while it isn't my livelihood on the line, we're still talking a few months of recuperation.

[sarakate]

Oh, that's not exactly a dire sort of frequency, then. And I didn't realize, about the recovery; I think it's weeks, not months, for general recovery, but I didn't think about there being restrictions on a singer for a lengthier period. Makes sense, then.

Anyway, I *do* hope you're feeling better soon, and that it turns out not to be a scary strain of strep. Feel better!

[emmacrew]

Wm had a fever on Monday but tested negative for strep, so I think it's just me and P. If it comes back again, we'll get wrog checked out, too.

[wrog]

I'll have to admit I keep wondering how it is I seem to never get this, what with us sleeping in the same bed and all...

[emmacrew]

I'm told some folks are extra-susceptible (like me) and some folks almost never get it.