Reply to Why do some people consistently get strep while others never get it?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Never had it in 42 years. Husband has had it probably 30 times in 45 years. Some people definitely susceptible. Have you ever heard of anyone getting just once? I haven't[/quote]

I've only had it once, a few years ago. I didn't even know what it was at first--I had caught a cold at the same time, so I attributed all the symptoms to that and didn't realize what was going on until about 5 days into it when I started to wonder why my throat was so horribly painful with just a cold and what those white spots on my tonsils were. Dr. Google informed me that it was probably strep, which finally pushed me into going to a real doctor for a throat swab. The rapid test came back positive, I went on antibiotics, the strep went away, and I haven't had a problem since, knock on wood.

My grandmother got strep in the days before antibiotics and ended up with rheumatic fever. She had heart problems her entire life as a result, which eventually caused a bunch of small strokes and thus vascular dementia that led to a gradual cognitive decline the last quarter of her life. According to my mother, she was already starting to slip when I was a toddler and I never really knew her as she had been. Needless to say, strep throat is taken extremely seriously in our family. None of this "it'll clear up on its own" stuff, we always do antibiotics. [/quote]

The tendency to get rheumatic fever is hereditary.  Good thing your family takes it seriously.  Between PANDAS and strong family history of rheumatic fever, strep is a medical emergency in our house.[/quote]

We take it seriously in our family too.  One time when I was younger, it went into scarlet fever.  I am one of the posters who said we come from a family with large tonsils and I get it about 3-4 times a winter.  I think, in the '1970s and 80s, pediatricians were not taking tonsils out as much as they used to (when my mom had hers removed in the 50s), so none of my sisters or I got our tonsils out.  Now that we are older (in our 30s and 40s), I am told it is much much more painful and a longer recovery, so I just deal with the strep as it comes.  I can feel it (I've had it often enough I know exactly how my body feels) so I go in and get a prescription for antibiotics.  Even if I am wrong, I tell the doc, I don't care.  Just give me the culture and if I am wrong, so what, at least we have ruled it out.  And then they send it out and sometimes it will develop into strep after 24 hours. I'd just rather get on the antibiotics and feel better after being on them 24 hours (and of course I finish up the prescription!) than suffer though long prolonged agony.   1)  Who has time for that?  I work and have 2 kids and have limited vacation/sick time [it's all in one bucket at my company] and b) like I said, one time when I was younger, it progressed to scarlet fever.  Ever since then, my mother put the fear of God in us to get it checked out at once.[/quote]

I just re-read my post and thought it sounded like I was saying, "Even if I am wrong, give me antibiotics."  No, that is not what I do.   Sorry if unclear.  I say, "Please give me the culture.  If I am wrong, I am wrong and I will go on my merry way and it's just a virus and it will run its course and I will be patient while it does so.  But if I am right, I'd rather start getting better sooner rather than later, on the prescription antibiotics."[/quote]

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