Another one for armchair physicians:

[qb]

Kind of a long rant, so continue only if you’re interested in this sort of thing.

I'm male and 39. I wrote a while back about a recurrent sore throat. I had a positive rapid strep test last March, and took penicillin for 10 days, but my sore throat never went away. I went in on day 6 of the penicillin (the nurse told me to come back if my sore throat didn’t go away after 5 or 6 days). The doctor looked at my throat and said he didn’t see any sign of infection & my throat was probably irritated by dry air.

Ever since then, I’ve had a recurrent sore throat. It’s never too severe, but it keeps coming back. I saw a sore on my tonsil, and also one on the side of my tongue, so I went to a different doctor about a month ago, and he suggested I was eating too much spicy food. I’d eat something really spicy maybe every couple of weeks, but I have since cut it out altogether. They did another rapid strep, which turned up negative. I also had blood & urine work done, which were apparently normal, since they never called about them.

The last few weeks I’ve had mild pain in my lower abdomen, kind of like cramps. Sometimes it’s on the left side only, sometimes both sides. It is often accompanied by mild pain or burning in my lower back. It’s getting progressively worse, but not too bad yet. I also have more sores on my tonsils like little holes, and some white patches.

Here’s my question: am I a hypochondriac? I haven’t had anything worse than the flu or strep throat until now. I feel like something’s wrong, but I don’t want to fork over another $20 copay so an HMO doc can tell me I have indigestion and a cold.

[Don_G]

1. I Would See Another Doc

The first one probably missed something and now the symptoms are progressing where whatever it is can be identified better. See the Doc by all means.

[trof]

2. Check out oral herpes:

http://www.vh.org/pediatric/patient/pediatrics/cqqa/oralherpes.html

Our daughter had it when she was 10. Similar symptoms.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Did you take erythromycin?

It's murder on the stomach and instestines, and it doesn't work well on many types of infections.

And, yep -- see your doctor.

--bkl

[stellanoir]

4. simplist cures. . .gargle regularly with warm salt water. . .

or drink lemon & honey after mixing with boiling water, allow to cool till palatable.

or gargle with echinachea mouth wash (the Natural Dentist) several times a day.

More obscure cure. . .get thee to your nearest China Town.
Go to an Oriental Market. Buy a bottle or two of Bi Yan Pian.
(It'll cost you under 2 bucks a bottle). Take 5 pills three times a day until conditions abate. They're botanicals not drugs. No side effects aside from perhaps needing an inordinant amount of kleenex (only if the infection has gone into your sinuses).

This stuff is amazing.

Discalimer. . .I'm not a doctor, I just slept with a rather quirky one for many years.

[Systematic Chaos]

5. Here is what I would do....

I would go to your doctor again, explain all of your symptoms, and DEMAND a referral to the appropriate specialist.

It's possible that the sores in your mouth are due to a condition called thrush, which is caused by a yeast fungus called candida. It would certainly not hurt at this time to severely restrict or completely eliminate ALL refined sugars and enriched white flour products from your diet. Eat as many vegetables (especially green vegetables) and whole grains (NOT white rice) as possible for a while and see if that helps.

Ask to have your kidney and liver function checked, if that hasn't been done already, just to make sure everything is okay there. At 39 it's also not a bad idea to have a barium enema and stool sample analysis, just to make sure you don't have any worrisome colon polyps. I wouldn't be too overly worried at this point, but I definitely WOULD do everything possible to determine exactly what your problem is. Most likely it is something that can be corrected with diet. Good luck! :)

On edit: The co-pays for the tests above shouldn't be that high, so unless money is a serious problem it shouldn't be too big a hit on your wallet, especially since the payoff will be peace of mind.

[qb]

6. Thanks, all.