Sore throat since November

[whenthelightsgoout]

Hello everyone

My 5 year old daughter has had a sore throat on and off since November. There's been around a week where she hasn't complained about it. She was diagnosed over the phone with scarlet fever in November and then again in December and given antibiotics both times. We have had a telephone call with the gp another time and 1 appointment in person since then and they keep saying viral.

Her symptoms are:
Sore throat- she says her neck hurts and feels like something is stuck in her throat.
Her epiglottis (flap that covers her windpipe) is on show.
Tummy pain
Looks so pale\grey- very off colour for her
Headache
Earache
Body aches and pains
She's generally grumpy and gets upset over the smallest things

This has been going on far too long and I'm concerned. I contacted the gp again Thursday as her teacher has now raised that she is complaining about her neck hurting constantly at school.

Any advice?

What did the GP say? Sounds like you need an urgent referral to ENT.

I'm still waiting to hear back from them. They were supposed to call by Friday evening but I haven't heard anything

photo of her throat

Has she always had a visible epiglottis as that can be a benign anatomical abnormality? It would also explain the feeling of having something in her throat.

Is her breathing normally? Do you have an oxygen finger monitor?

Has she seen a GP in person since this started in November?

Thank you for the reply @Moopsi

We saw the gp two weeks ago in person for the first time. They just shrugged it off as viral because she had a snotty nose. This has been going on long before the snotty nose. They said the epiglottis was visible because she had her mouth open but we have seen it a lot recently. I will see if I can pick up an oxygen monitor today.

I forgot to add in that she had severe silent reflux until 2.5 years old what we thought to be caused by tongue tie and allergies. I'm worried it may have caused some damage or she still has reflux

I think there's nothing urgent here as in you need to call 111 or anything but I would definitely ask for a referral to ENT. Can you afford a private consultation if necessary? It's usually about £200.

Why have you waited to go to the GP for so long? You need a referral to ENT but the GP won't do that until they've seen you repeated times. yes if you can afford a one off private consultation would definitely recommend that to rule out anything serious quickly

My husband had a private referral a couple of weeks ago to an ENT specialist after having weeks of sore throats and discomfort swallowing. (DH was worried about throat/oesophageal cancer).

The ENT man diagnosed silent reflux and has prescribed something to help manage any reflux in the night.

I suggest that you go to your GP, even if you might need to wait weeks.

@YukoandHiro I have made contact with the gp, 5 times since the end of November.

I will be asking for an ENT referral.

@Madcats thank you for this. I'm wondering if it is silent reflux again.

My ds had a similar problem at the same age. After several months of seeing GP and a couple of short rounds of antibiotics, GP referred to local paediatrician. He was diagnosed with a severe strep throat and given a 3 week course of string antibiotics which worked perfectly. The paediatrician said a normal course of antibiotics sometimes isn't enough to knock a strep throat on the head.

@thinkfast that's really interesting. I'm glad you got to the bottom of your sons sore throat. I'm sure scarlet fever is similar to/same bacteria as strep a so I really wouldn't be surprised if it is that. I'm going to push for a referral tomorrow and see what they say.

Update after gp phone call (again).

I’m really cross! I asked for an ENT referral and was told it’s not necessary. She said there is so many viruses going around at the moment, it is likely that. We haven't seen this gp before. There were no photos or videos sent this time. I also said to her that if it's something to do with reflux then you probably aren't going to see anything. I said I disagree and feel something else is going on. She said she will do a throat swab and also bloods. We did the throat swab this morning and bloods are booked for the morning

Hi OP. How is your daughter now?

@insomniac1 thank you for checking in. She's ok, thank you. She has just completed another round of antibiotics for tonsillitis (again). She had a course in march too. It seems to be a monthly thing at the moment

Oh gosh poor thing. Have you considered getting her tonsils out?

@insomniac1 the blood tests came back normal apart from platelets which were higher than the normal range.

@insomniac1 we have considered it. The nhs won't do it yet. We have asked privately and they are quoting £4000 which we really don't have at the moment but if it continues then we will rethink this

Tracheitis?

That's annoying OP. Hopefully she grows out of it or the NHS can reconsider and perform the surgery x

@insomniac1 I spoke too soon. Looks like tonsillitis is back again 🤦🏽‍♀️

Hi
I know it’s been almost a year since you’ve posted but I wonder how you got on with your daughter? I read your initial post and it’s exactly what is happening to my daughter age 5 too! Since beginning of December, so only 2.5 months , she has had tonsillitis/ throat infection/ strep ( I was never given a definite answer what was wrong with her ) 3 times , she is currently on another round of antibiotic for it .
first time it was a 10 day course and it never came back for almost 2 months . She then had it again , 5 days antibiotic course given , cleared and came back 2 days after she finished the antibiotic! So now she is on another 5 day course … I am having bad feeling it won’t clear it fully and we’ll be repeating this again next week.
our GP practice has a terrible issue with lack of doctors and each time my daughter is being seen by a nurse not a doctor. I don’t want to sound disrespectful to any nurse out there , but I think I would feel more assured if she actually saw a doctor . The nurse we saw was looking for information on computer and her mobile phone which didn’t fill me with much confidence !

@KHit

Hello, I'm sorry your daughter is going through this too.

My daughter is currently on a waitlist for a tonsillectomy. She has had less than before, but is getting a 'sore throat' every few weeks and occasionally it flares up needing antibiotics. The Gp is reluctant to give them, we have to wait three days after the onset of symptoms before they will see her.

I hope you get somewhere soon!