What's wrong with my daughter?

[AnnieTotach]

16 year old daughter had nasty cold over a month cold. Shes remained with horrible lingering cough. Dr prescribed antibiotics but hasn't shifted it. She just seems really run down, tired and pale.
A couple of nights ago she coughed so much it made her vomit. In the morning she woke up with red spots around her lips! She had washed her face and brushed her teeth after being sick so wasnt the acid from the vomit. This is what her lips look like now. What the hell is going on? So worried about her. Dr said to come back for tests if not better next week. What could this be? Why isn't she getting better??

Antibiotics don't cure coughs and colds unless there's a bacterial infection. Could this be hand,foot&mouth? Whooping cough?

Looks like an initial outbreak of cold sores. First outbreak is the worst and has cold/flu like symptoms to accompany.

Ask for a blood test and ask that they check for glandular fever.

My almost 16 yr old daughter was ill recently and gp arranged blood test as above. Turned out she had already had glandular fever (no idea when) but she was so ill it was awful.

Hope your dd feels better soon.

I'm aware that antibiotics dont help if its not bacterial but it doesn't necessarily mean that because these antibiotics didn't work that its not bacterial. I assumed it must be secondary chest infection following her nasty cold when she was prescribed the abs but I guess that's why the dr wants her back for tests.

She was immunised against pertussis as a baby and I assume shes still immune at 16?

We all had hfm when she was little and it was nothing like this (also nasty but in a different way!)

Impetigo? The bigger one looks like it has a crust?

Otherwise it looks very similar to when DD had HFM. I didn’t realise at the time, thought it was a cold sore.

impetigo I think

Looks like impetigo to me.

Looks like a first cold sore breakout. If doctors tests confirm coldsore then l-lysine is a great supplement to prevent breakouts (of course please check if you buy that it's ok for her age as I take it for me)

I’m not medically qualified, but Impetigo I expect especially if your DD is rundown, poor thing I hope she is feeling better soon. I had Impetigo as a child it’s horrible, but it will get better.

www.healthline.com/health/rashes#causes

This says that impetigo can be common around the mouth. But yes, could be cold sore. Is there a pharmacy open with a pharmacist nearby - you could go and ask there?

They don't look like coldsores to me. They are usually tiny little clear blisters to start with before they crust over.

My daughter had a very bad outbreak of cold sores at the same age. It actually got a lot worse than in your picture. But looks very similar. Often cold sores appear when the body is already under stress from something else. The cough and cold
sores are not necessarily related.

In the end on the pharmacist's advice (the initial GP was useless) she was prescribed a longer term anti viral treatment. That sort of worked.

If they're only around her mouth I think they're most likely to be cold sores.

I had an allergic reaction to antibiotics for a wound infection once that presented itself as hives around the mouth just like this.

They do look a lot like cold sores but I don't think they are cold sores because the little pimples appeared overnight and only one of them seems to have become a sore.
We went to a pharmacy but already shut :( Will try tomorrow.
More worried about her overall health than these in isolation, it all seems linked to something weird going on with her.

The lingering cough could well have been viral...my toddler has just been stuck with one. They can take more than a month to go unfortunately. Like pp said if it's cold sore they do tend to come when your run down.

If you ve noticed that over a longer period shes been getting ill more often than normal for her then I'd bring that up at the next gp appointment too. It may be that shes deficient in something or has an underlying cause.

Obviously mumsnet folks here cant diagnose but from my personal experience I have had deficiencies numerous times and struggle to get over minor illness when it happens

I would say it’s the initial start if cold sores. This happened to me at 23. Are the glands under her armpits swollen?

The initial outbreak didn’t look like cold sores either. It looked just like this

How is your Dd now @AnnieTotach?

Thanks for asking!

Blood tests found nothing. Dr said just a nasty longlasting virus.

She is finally starting to get better so I'm less worried now.

Glad your dd seems to have turned a corner.

I think she's just had a bad spate of illnesses. It's easy to pick up new things when you're trying to get over something else.

Oh good, glad she's on the mend.

Great! Hope she feels better soon