Around The Time Of Thanksgiving I Went To A Doctor

Posted on Sun, 6 Jan 2019

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Sun, 6 Jan 2019 Answered on

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Question : Around the time of thanksgiving I went to a doctor and was told I had strep throat. I was confused because I never really had a sore throat I just felt odd and had some nausea. I was given amoxicillin and that really hit my stomach hard so I made the dumb decision of stopping it after a couple doses. I felt perfectly fine by my head felt odd and I still had the nausea and just a few days ago I went to my doctor and was told I have strep ( I’m assuming the initial infection never went away). I have been on a z pack now for a a couple days and it really does not feel nearly as bad. My question is do I need to really worry about something like RF which I know can come with untreated strep. I am 19 y/o male and I have typically been is pretty good health. Thank you.

Answered by Dr. Aaron Branch (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
See below

Detailed Answer:
Hello, I'm Dr. Branch, thanks for using Ask a Doctor. If you did in fact have strep throat, the risk of rheumatic fever in general is low, fewer than 0.3%, and it mostly occurs in teenagers. I would look for any symptoms of rheumatic fever, and if you have any of them, get evaluated, otherwise there wouldn't be any need to worry. These include joint pain, chest pain or shortness of breath, neurological disorder causing unintentional muscle movements, a rash, nodules under your skin, especially around the elbows, or fever. If you have any of these, I would recommend you see your doctor to get an EKG and may a heart ultrasound to make sure there were no signs of rheumatic fever affecting your heart, which would be the most concerning complication of rheumatic fever but again would be very rare in your case.

I hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions and I'd be glad to discuss it further with you.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T