Strep throat

[mrsconradfisher]

DS1 is 15 and has been really poorly since the weekend with a horrific sore throat. Saw Gp yesterday who diagnosed strep throat (he has no tonsils) and prescribed a 7 day course of Pen V. He started it last night so has taken 2 already but looks even worse this morning, he is boiling hot (no idea how hot as I don’t have a thermometer and he is never ill) and can hardly swallow. His bed is totally soaked.
At what point do I start to worry? Genuinely he is the healthiest child, hasn’t been to see a GP for about 6 years so I’m freaking out a bit (and I’m not normally a worrier)

111
It’s possible to get Quinsy without tonsils - rare but possible
My DD was admitted to hospital last week with it

Keep alternating between paracetamol and ibuprofen too and hopefully the antibiotics will kick in. keep his blood sugar up too with soup etc and if you see him worse tomorrow or this evening if you're worried, then ring your GP. My son is prone to these things too. Not nice to see. If you don't have a thermometer and can't borrow one off a neighbour or something, feel the back of his neck and see if it's burning hot. Its a good indication also!

This happened to my son. It turned out it was glandular fever. Ended up in hospital. Phone 111.

Not a child but husband had this after failing to keep his mouth shut whilst swimming in a lake in Austria. He was really quite ill and Jesus the stench from his throat had to be experienced to be believed. He was also soaked in sweat like your son , absolutely wringing but once the antibiotics kicked in it did stop. Interestingly though, he was seen by the pharmacist initially who diagnosed glandular fever so perhaps they are mistaken for each other. The gp laughed and said you aren’t a teenage boy.

Thanks everyone, I borrowed a thermometer from work today (I work in a school!) and his temp was nearly 39 degrees so clearly got something going on. He’s managed to eat a couple of mouthfuls of soft pasta but that’s about it. He doesn’t look quite as horrific as he did at 5,30 this morning but still incredibly poorly. He has been asleep off and on all day.
I also wondered about glandular fever, his glands are all up according to GP and he said his neck hurts (like under his jaw).

Hmmm I’d give it another day or so on the abx as they can take a little while to kick in but glandular fever would be the other possibility. Maybe check in with the GP tomorrow if you think he doesn’t need to be in A&E

I've got the sore throat and sore neck..I don't have glandular fever

Also he's only just started antibiotics so need to give it more days, ibuprofen and paracetamol

No definitely doesn’t need A&E, although I must admit the thought crossed my mind early hours of the morning as he looked so ill. He is honestly the most stoical child, cannot remember the last he cried and he was just sobbing “I can’t swallow”.
Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon. Do I need to do anything about the possibility it might be glandular fever? Or just keep on with pain killers and antibiotics?

I think you should probably touch base with the GP if he’s not heading in the right direction. GF would probably be better if he came off the abx. I’d at least expect the fever to break once you get to 48h of abx

Have you had a look at throat

My son had similar last winter. He got ABs from the out of hours GP but after 48 hours he was worse not better. Bed was soaked through, couldn't speak, could barely swallow. Our gp sent him to A&E where glandular fever was diagnosed via blood test. There he had some sort of steroid infusion (I think) and some iv antibiotics and then some other antibiotics to bring home. He improved quickly after all that. His neck was very visibly swollen, and he had terrible fevers that were soaking the bed. I was very glad I was proactive in making him seek help and then again when he was no better (he is older than your son and living away but happened to have come home for an event).

I had strep about 5 years ago. Sudden high fever which scared the life out of me - then freezing cold I was shivering so badly even though I was sat in a patch of July sun in the pharmacy waiting for my prescription. It was incredibly painful for about 5 days. Sorry if TMI but I couldnt even swallow my own saliva, I had to spit it into a cup instead. The only thing I could manage was tiny sips of iced water through a straw.

A salt gargle helped loads.

I just slept the rest of the time. The equivalent pain I've had since was an untreated toothache over the 4 day bank Easter weekend. That was a similar strength of agony.

Poor lad. Hope he gets better soon. I agree with the tandem ibuprofen and paracetamol. Plus the salt water gargle and iced water.

DD had glandular fever and her throat was badly infected - GP thought it was quinsy and sent her to A&E where she was diagnosed w glandular fever (bloods).
She wasn’t as ill as your DS though.

The poor thing. My son had glandular fever. The symptoms do sound similar alright. My son found it very sore to swallow too and had a very high temp that was hard to keep down. The doctor prescribed him an antibiotic and a short dose of another medication too. I think it was a strong anti inflammatory. Don't forget that ibuprofen is an anti inflammatory too. Its not as strong but itll help. Poor thing

Its good he's sleeping a bit with it. That'll help things too

So just to update if anyone is interested…I called GP yesterday morning and they saw him immediately. Couldn’t understand why he’d only been prescribed 250mg Pen V so doubled it to 500mg. By the time I got him from work (I had to go in as we are so short staffed) he was really struggling to swallow his saliva so I decided enough was enough and took him to A&E. Took some stuff with us as I thought they might need to keep him in. Anyway turns out they have a kind of GP service there so we got seen very quickly. She showed me the back of his throat, literally covered in white pus. She was shocked they hadn’t done a throat swab but said it was pointless after 3 days of AB’s.

She has extended his AB’s to 10 days and prescribed him a high dose of co-codamol and said to come back if he isn’t improving at all in 24 hours.
So he’s now had nearly 48 hours of double dose AB’s and stronger painkillers and he is finally at the point at which he can swallow slightly easier. He’s had some soup/bread today which is the first thing he has eaten since Monday. Still a long way to go, the smell from his mouth suggests the infection is still very much there. They are also doing a blood test to rule out Glandular Fever as well.
Honestly, I was really frightened for him last night, never seen him so ill.