To go back to Drs and demand antibiotics

[NaturalRBF]

My DD, DH & myself have been ill for 11 days now with a headachy, snotty, coughing and achey style bug. I took DD to Drs Tuesday last week as she suffers with fits when she gets a temperature. GP told me it's viral and we just had to ride it out with usual paracetamol, duvet days etc

But 11 days on I'm actually feeling worse & DD who is 15 months still seems pretty rough too, along with DH.

Would it be unreasonable to think this is in fact bacterial and we need some antibiotics?

Just for back ground last time DD & I had antibiotics was after birth as I had sepsis in labour and before that I had some 3 years ago for another ongoing cold/fluey style thing.

I understand why antibiotics are not given out willy-nilly but I'm really not sure that this is a viral thing after such a long time feeling so poorly!

[PacificDogwod]

I think mentioning your worry about how prone you are to pick things up/your concern for your DD is really worthwhile - even just to then have a conversation about how immunity works.

Children IMO should come with a health warning - as they are more prone to everything going round, they tend to bring bugs home as well and generously share them with their family.
Hand washing is your best bet in avoiding not just gastrointestinal infections, but also respiratory ones. It may be worthwhile becoming very aware of good hand hygiene - not anti bac this, that and the other thing, hand washing

[NaturalRBF]

Floey shame they can't prescribe anything for being so sour! I greatly understand the dangers of antibiotics being given where they are not needed. However I do not understand the need for such a venomous tongue

[MammouthTask]

If you are feeling worse than a week ago and it has been nearly 2 weeks since you started to feel unwell, then yes I would go back.

It IS totally possible that the GP will still say it's a virus but there are plenty of S&S to take into account to decide.

Is your dd still having a temperature? If this is the case and seeing the issue with thr seizure, then yes she needs to look at by the GP.

Btw, as ar as I understand, this is a normal 'standard' procedure.
Eg for tonsillitis, the 'rule' at my survey is to wait a week before 'asking' for antibiotics. If it hasn't calmed down after a week, and the symptoms haven't abated then they will give then to you.
A cold that hasn't cleared after that long in a child that is less than 2 yo and with a medical history as the one she has would need to be seen IMO.

But yes don't demand antibiotics unless you are very sure of yourself, which I have done in the past

[NaturalRBF]

Cheers Mammoth I'll try and get her an appointment tomorrow. I'm feeling worse and I'm pretty sure she is too. Seeing as she cannot communicate this to me I'm hazarding a guess. Hopefully as someone else suggested it'll disappear on day 14!

[MammouthTask]

Another thing, no one can give a diagnosis over the Internet, not even MN.

A lot of people have reacted to the word 'demand' in your title. I suspect that you would have had a different tune if you had just said 'AIBU to go back to the GP?'

If something doesn't feel right, then have her checked (and yourself).
I have had the experience of a child that I thought was just a bit 'off' actually needing antibiotics because actually the cold turned out to be a full on chest infection.
Same has happened to me and I just felt 'a bit off'.
Every GP I have seen has told me that it was better to have a young child checked up and it was no issue at all if you came for 'nothing'.

[couldntlovethebearmore]

I remember having a virally cough cold and general feeling shit for about 12 weeks over autumn and winter. I had to convince my mother in law hundreds of times it wasn't an immune deficiency I didn't need anti biotics and it wasn't the bloody flu!

[frumpet]

Absolutely fine to get an appointment to be seen again

Absolutely not fine to assume that because you are ill for a while that it will need antibiotics .

Length of time of illness is not necessarily an indicator of virus versas bacterial infection , if anything virus's tend to linger longer .

[MammouthTask]

Xpost :):)

[NaturalRBF]

Couldn't that sounds awful! I honestly thought viruses cleared up quicker than bacterial. Also sympathy on the MIL front.

[NaturalRBF]

Couldn't that sounds awful! I honestly thought viruses cleared up quicker than bacterial. Also sympathy on the MIL front.

[dontcallmethatyoucunt]

When I was in the US I presented with a sore throat. Told, it's likely to be viral, don't expect antibiotics. Next second the doc swabs me, dunks the stick in a tube, checks the colour and declares 'its bacterial, that's unusual, here's a script.

Surely this is what's needed in the UK, dip tests that take away all doubt. Is that beyond science? I can't believe we save any cost with what happens currently.

[NaturalRBF]

Dontcallmethat I saw them trialling something kinda similar on The Doctor That Gave Up Drugs on BBC. I so wish they had that here.

[MammouthTask]

They do that in France too. And add a test to check with bacteria it is so that the antibiotics actually work for said bacteria.

Much much better all around IMO (but it's another test and the NHS doesn't have the money for that. Much easier to fob everyone off with the 'it's a virus' line)

[ohtheholidays]

11 days is a long time and your DD is very young,no one on here can honestly tell you if you need medications or not.

I'd make an appointment for tomorrow and see what the Dr says.Hope your all feeling better soon.

[NaturalRBF]

I really do understand why they try not to give them out but I feel if they'd listened to me before her birth we would've avoided sepsis and if they'd given them to her last time she had the fits it would've saved so much pain, worry, fear and NHS funds

[OhTheRoses]

Funny. I went to minor injuries yesterday (gardening incident - vv vv v v minor) but resulted in angry throbbing red swelling. Nurse "eww, that's a nasty infection". ABs, off you go, er no this isn't wasting my time.

DD had a meds review today. Came one early yesterday from school, barely able o speak. Dr asked if we'd seen white spots. No we didn't think so. Had a quick look "eew, three white spots". Needs abs.

I think if abs are needed they are prescribed. They were several times,after ds was born, I think I just needed something stronger than amoxycillin/ flucloxacillin (sp).

OTH perhaps we only go when we are v poorly. Recalls pleurisy and I had walked to surgery, gripping buggy. They called an ambulance and the receptionist looked after ds until dh sped back from work.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

If you've gotten worse, and especially if mucus has changed colour, then going back to be reassessed is not at all unreasonable. Sometimes a virus can weaken you enough for a bacterial infection to take hold. But just remember that it may still be a virus, so don't be too disappointed if the Dr. just sends you home again. Stock up on nice treats on the way home and look after yourselves.

[Backingvocals]

But having lived in France, I know that they prescribe antibiotics for everything. Every cough, cold, sneeze and sore toe. And as for US rates of over prescribing...

They may well have a test (which they will charge for) but it's not changing behaviour.

This chart says it all

[PacificDogwod]

These tests are under consideration.

The fact remains that 9 out of 10 sore throats/cough/runny noses are viral and that even the bacterial ones usually get better in the same kind of time with or without antibiotics.

Needing to be reassessed, particularly when you are feeling worse, is not that unusual and entirely appropriate.

[OhTheRoses]

Mammouth I agree. We have a home in France. Healthcare there is exponentially better than here, but so are taxes. Unfortunately we can't have it both ways. Just listen though to a bus driver, train driver tell you about their tax bill.

[MammouthTask]

TheRoses I wish my GP was as 'enlightened' as that.
I have been 3 times to see the GP/nurse with tonsillitis, tonsils white with pus. One time it was for ds, aged 5yo, his tonsils were nearly touching each other.
They refused the ABs and told me to wait 7 days...
I refused and demanded ABs because yes it IS a bacterial infection not a virus even if it has the same 'name' of tonsillitis.

[Doggity]

The test from that programme (the CRP blood test) was expensive. I think he said it £4.50 per patient and that's without the up front cost of the machine. I recall him seeing something like 22 patients and tested them all. That was in half a day.

[MammouthTask]

Pacific re 'it takes the same length of time to recover with bacterial tonsillitis', I would want to know with what sort of antibiotics.

A lot of the bacterial infections causing a 'sore throat' are actually resistant to penicillin. So yes, it is a bacterial infection and no it won't really get better with that particular antibiotic. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't get some antibiotics, it means that you need to right antibiotic!

In my experience with the right antibiotic, pain is gone after the first day of taking medication. If it isn't, then I would query the antibiotic first (assuming it is bacterial of course - but then tonsils that are white with pus are infected by a bacteria, not by a virus)

[MotherDuckSaid]

go back, i think offering a sputum sample to be tested would clear up whether it's viral or not.
If you are feeling worse you should chase it up.
Not sharing to scaremonger (but) i was poorly, bad cough, under the weather, tired etc , went back and forth to doctors and was repeatedly sent away .. for Four months! Eventually a new doctor sent me for X rays - had pneumonia in both lungs! I Knew something was wrong !

[UnderTheGreenwoodTree]

OP - basically what everyone else said. You really, really probably don't need antibiotics.

Anecdotally - a few years ago I'd had this horrible upper respiratory infection, for 2 weeks, hacking cough, completely gross. I went to the doctors and he gave me antibiotics. I took them - and I have to admit - they made no difference. This bug just went away slowly and gradually by itself.

When I've had bacterial cystitis - which has gone onto my kidneys - and had antibitotics - the recovery is unbelievably quick. Within 2 days. They actually told me I had to finish the course, because recovery would be so quick, I'd feel like I didn't need them, but I had to keep taking the tablets anyway.

Seriously, most of these lurgies are viral, and most antibiotics given out either as a precaution, or because the patient expects some 'medicine'.