I'm sorry to hear she has pneumonia, but I'm glad you followed up and got her treated! I hope she is well on the way to recovery.

OP here, updating in case anyone else in a similar situation finds this thread.

Took her back to the doctor this morning. Several hours later after x rays and blood tests and it turns out she has pneumonia. After a few hours of intravenous antibiotics she is doing much better.

Check back in with your ped. There are resistant strains of strep that don't respond to the initial antibiotic. Keep on giving it until you talk to your doctor and get instructions, but it's entirely likely she may need to switch antibiotics. We've had that happen several times.

Strep does not always respond to the antibiotic prescribed. She may need another type. My kids always felt practically normal within hours of the first antibiotic dose when they had strep.

I took my 7 yr old dc to doc on Friday which was day 2 of a sore throat and fever. Test was positive for strep. Doc said he should be feeling significantly better by Sunday (2 days). He actually felt better the following day. Sounds like your child has a more serious case, I would definitely call the doctor if her symptoms are getting worse, and it sounds like they are.

Flu

OP here. Well she started to seem very sick, fever shot up even more (103+ axillary - she won't tolerate oral and when I took my own temp to check the thermometer it was 3 degrees lower for axillary than oral - yikes), complaints about a sore neck and hot eyes, which immediately had me panicking about meningitis. But temp down to 100 now with ibuprofen and fast asleep, and head ache and neck pain complaints were very short-lived. Also, even in that sudden worsening, she still wanted to eat so clearly not super sick.

I guess she'll definitely be off school again and I'll be calling the doctor tomorrow.

It sounds like it could be more than strep. I got strep last winter and then a got a virus on top of it. The antibiotics won't do anything for the virus, so you just have to wait it out.

I'd call your ped in the morning if she still has a fever.

Call your doctor in the am, but in general...

Always finish the course of antibiotics, unless the doctor tells you otherwise.

She is not contagious when she's been 24 hours on the antibiotics or in this case 24 hours fever free without fever reducer, e.g., tylenol.

I would check in with the Dr over the fever increasing after more than 24 hours on antibiotics...

My 7 year old has had a fever on and off for almost a week, but otherwise not sick. I took her to the doctor yesterday and she tested positive for strep. We started antibiotics yesterday morning. This evening her fever is still getting higher (103.5). I thought by now the antibiotics would have started to work? She still doesn't seem particularly sick and isn't complaining of a sore throat. I can take her back to the doctor tomorrow, but should I just wait longer for the antibiotics to work? We've never had strep before. Also, as she's acting normally I'm eager to get her back to school. (But obviously won't send her back while still contagious or feverish).

Anyone know the normal course of strep and how long it takes to get well after starting antibiotics?