Strep Throat Rears its Ugly Head – Again

Son #1 had strep throat (i.e., Streptococcal pharyngitis) back in January, and guess what? We just found out that he has it again. We actually found out on Thursday, so he’s on the mend, but still feeling rundown. The silver lining here is that Son #3 wasn’t feeling well about a week ago, but then bounced back, so we thought nothing of it. Actually, I thought nothing of it, but my lovely and talented wife could suspected that it might be more than a run-of-the-mill illness. But when he seemingly recovered, we put it out of our minds.

When we got the positive strep test result on Son #1, my wife dashed home to pick up Son #3 so he could be tested, too. Turns out he’s also positive. So why the silver lining talk? Well, kids can get strep without necessarily showing the classic symptons (as was the case with Son #3), and they can also spontaneously ‘recover’ from strep infections while still harboring the nasty little bug. The problem here is that untreated strep infections can have serious consequences. Serious as in rheumatic fever, acute glomerulonephritis (basically auto-immune kidney disease), etc.

If Son #1 hadn’t come down with strep throat, complete with the sever sore throat, there’s no telling how long Son #3 would’ve gone undiagnosed. They’re now both on antibiotics (amoxicillin) and that nasty Streptococcus pyogenes is on the run.

Sometimes you just have to look at the bright side.