Glandular fever or scarlet fever? GP not sure.

[nakedscientist]

I am middle aged and have had glandular fever before, as a young adult.
I work in a university but have been in and out of A and E for unconnected reasons, this week. I had a retinal tear Ans my DH a life threatening reaction to his mess. All these issues are resolved now, thankfully.
In the last few days, I have developed fatigue, hot and cold episodes, teeth chattering then boiling. Irritated throat, tender, swollen neck glands, ( one side worse). Headache and tender patches at the back of my head. last night the pink mottled itchy rash developed all over my front and back, down my thighs and tops of my arms.
Glandular fever lasts months but scarlet fever should be over in a week. What do wise MNers think?
GP didn't know, googled rash and gave me penicillin.

• meds not mess!!

I'd be calling for medical advice. You need to see a doctor with those symptoms.

Holey, I saw a doctor today. He didn't know which of the "fevers' I have.

Scarlet fever is a notifiable disease in the uk. GP should have taken a swab for testing

Keep a very close eye on your symptoms. My brother in law had essentially the same diagnosis in the beginning swiftly followed by confirmation of aggressive lymphoma. Please just keep aware of your symptoms at all times.

Glandular fever is a virus, the treatment may be different. Did they take swabs. It could be neither.

screaming yes, he really should have swabbed shouldn't he?

kate hope your Bil is ok. What did his symptoms progress to?

Did you have a blood test for glandular fever

Yes glandular fever is caused by the Epstein Barr virus. There is no treatment for it but rest, fluids etc. But it does go along with secondary bacterial infections of the throat which he said would be helped by the antibiotics. Also if it's scarlet fever, the penicillin will clear it up.

But it don't have lots of the scarlet fever symptoms like " strawberry tongue" and the rash in Glandular fever is not itchy, and mine is so I'm bit confused.

No he did not give me any tests or take any samples. He googled the rash and we looked at it together!

I think penicillin is not good if you have glandular fever

I'd be going back, you're being treated for something he doesn't even know what it is, I would expect a bit more than Dr Google from my g.p

Yes, the antibiotic will only clear secondary bacterial infections if it's Galndular Fever. But it would clear scarlet fever.
My worry is that my symptoms don't really look conclusively like either condition.

Yeh, Dr google indeed!
I was quite taken aback that he signed me off for 7 days and he seemed sure I had one of these things.
I feel so stupid now for not asking him to take a swab, but I also feel quite ill and am not thinking straight!

Well they can swab for scarlet and blood screen for glandular fever, quite surprised they didn’t?

Sorry X post with everyone else

Yes, so stupid of me! I've had glandular fever before and they confirmed it with a blood test.
I just trotted of with this really uncertain " diagnosis" .

My DH is still in hospital and I just can't even go onto the ward if I have scarlet fever.

Hope you both feel better soon, how is your dh.

@nakedscientist - basically he went from being 100% okay to hospitalised in under 4 weeks. His EBV titers were some of the highest the infectious disease specialists had seen. Even though he fitted all lymphoma symptoms including liver and spleen involvement, weight loss, high fever etc etc it took another 6 weeks to biopsy and even then it was only due to an emergency attempt to drain a swelling that was rapidly closing his throat (idiopathic as it turned out, still no answer on what it was).

All the medics were interested in was the EBV, I know my sister is haunted by one doctor who repeatedly told us "if it is lymphoma another week or another month won't matter on diagnosis". In fact it did. He was given less than 6 months and was an incredibly ill man, I don't know how either of them got through it to be honest. But he did make it through, with some disabilities that have stayed with him. I digress, my main point is don't let them put you in a box and if you know you're getting worse demand a biopsy.

He was in ITU for two days because he had deranged blood electrolytes due to being given a new blood pressure tablet that interacted with another medication. They sorted it out pretty quickly but it looked bad for a few hours on Saturday am. He's probably home tomorrow, in time to look after me!

Wow katie I'm so glad it worked out in the end for your BIL.

We've been struggling with my DH who has been getting sicker and sicker for months and who went back several time to the same surgery I have been talking about. He complained about side effects from a blood pressure tablet, indapamide. The GP said ' well you have to put up with the side effects or die of a heart attack from high blood pressure. It turns out this is a sodium blocker and because he is on an anti epileptic which is also a sodium blocker his sodium, magnesium and potassium were so low, he nearly had a cardiac arrest. I dragged him into A and E in the early hours of sat am and have been with him most of the time since then. I didn't notice me getting ill until I was standing at the bus stop out side the hospital and my teeth started chattering.