Running into a sub carrier for strep

[MN Tom 251]

Wasn't sure exactly where to post this, but it's really an odd thing.

 

We met this couple a month or two ago, and did the typical kissing and grinding on the dance floor with them that night.

 

Within 2 days, my wife comes down with strep. Very odd for her, she never gets sick.

 

He was the only guy she kissed that night, but still, we didn't really blame it on him, she could have caught it from anywhere, who knows.

 

Fast forward to last weekend, we run into them again at a party, and spent a bit of time with them, more kissing, grinding, touching. Would have gone further but they needed to wake far too early to work.

Anyway, within 2 days the wife again comes down with strep.

 

Big red flags go up. Again he was the only guy she kissed that night (that is counting me, we never kissed either), and this time it was a bit harder to think of this as just a coincidence.

 

So now here we are. We have this couple who we are friendly with, and would have played with had the situation worked out, who we pretty much cant do anything with again. He's not sick, no symptoms, test came back clean.

 

Odd.

 

All we can say is good thing we arent stuck on a deserted island with only them, otherwise it would get really old.

[Swing*8701 887]

Susan here-- I'm not a doctor, but a couple of things. If his Strep test came back negative, did they just run the 'quick' test and not the swab test that goes to a lab ? Some 'quick' tests come back negative. Also, as the husband, you did not contract it, only her. You kissed her too. Strep is very contagious and it's unlikely you would have avoided it or his wife. Yet, it appears you have.

 

Now, it is possible that both times your wife caught it from different sources. After all, coincidence is not causal. Yet, I'm thinking he may not have been tested correctly. My suggestion is that he get swabbed again, perhaps using a prompt care clinic. Again, the 'quick' test can be incorrect.

 

Lastly, and this is very unlikely, your wife was misdiagnosed twice.

 

Since you went one to two months without seeing them, it's unlikely he suffered with a strep infection for two months. Though it is possible. As the saying goes,"If it doesn't make sense, you're missing a key piece of information."

 

Ultimately, take a flashlight to his throat and look for inflammation in the tissues.

[slevin 1,374]

Is it possible that your wife didn't fully get the strep virus out of her body. Then a late night of partying runs her down a bit and the virus makes another appearance? I know that my wife has a problem with sinus infections and after a round of antibiotics she seems better, only to have it flare up again after a late night.

 

I'm not a doctor either, just an observation from our experience.

[Swing*8701 887]

Please note , Strep is a bacterial infection. Also, antibiotics do not work on a virus. Ever.

[MN Tom 251]

She and he were both diagnosed with rapid test the first time. They both took their antibiotics for the 10 days. This was about 1.5 months ago. I never saw his throat, but hers had the white stuff on the tonsils and was very sore.

 

Second time around (this past weekend), same deal. She started getting a sore throat, white spots, went in to get rapid test, positive, started on antibiotics. Again we never saw his throat (they live on the other side of the metro) but this time he said he has no symptoms. He went into doctor for rapid test, negative.

 

Neither his wife nor myself have caught it either time, I had the rapid plus a culture both negative (the first time), although I never had any symptoms either.

 

The doctors we have spoken with (we both work in medical fields) have guessed that he has a sub clinical grade of strep that she is susceptible to but the rest of us arent. They arent sure if or why it didn't seem to get cleaned up the first time around, but since we arent him, we cant really get him to take antibiotics (or even get a script for that matter) when he has no symptoms nor a positive test this time around.

 

So yeah, anything is possible. Maybe she had it for the month + (even though she ran a full course the first time) and it just flared back up, who knows. She will run a full course this time again and will also not kiss the guy anymore, nor do much of anything else for that matter.

 

Basically in the end it's just an odd situation. At least we were able to talk with him about it so we didnt have to make up some excuse as to why we wouldnt do anything contact wise with them anymore.

First time we were willing to see it being a coincidence, but twice was too much. Kinda sucks to be honest, they were fun to play around with.

[funcoupledayton 2,708]

Someone can be an asymptomatic carrier for Strep. Like Susan said he should have a culture with antibiotic sensitivities rather than the rapid test. Usually when they do a rapid test if it's negative they automatically do a culture. He should take antibiotics again and then be re-cultured. Once he is clear if you all wanted to you could play again. If his Strep culture is negative he did not re-infect her.

 

The other important thing is that your wife get a new toothbrush after taking the antibiotic for two days. Strep can easily stay on a toothbrush and re-infect someone. So, if she didn't change her toothbrush that is more likely the cause than him giving her Strep again.

[MN Tom 251]

We will ask him to go in to get a culture done.

 

We did change our toothbrushes in the past month, who knows if he did, we might ask him that.

 

And yes, it's entirely possible that he didnt give her strep again. Just a very lovely coincidence that she happened to get it both times she kissed him.

 

Still not sure she would want to test out a third try. Guess that will depend if he gets a culture or not.

[JustAskJulie 2,595]

Someone can be an asymptomatic carrier for Strep. Like Susan said he should have a culture with antibiotic sensitivities rather than the rapid test. Usually when they do a rapid test if it's negative they automatically do a culture. He should take antibiotics again and then be re-cultured. Once he is clear if you all wanted to you could play again. If his Strep culture is negative he did not re-infect her.

 

 

This is true. I went through this several years ago. I kept getting strep about every 3-4 weeks (over the course of about 6 months). At one point my Dr suggested my (at the time) boyfriend (now husband) might be an asymptomatic carrier. We had him checked and he came back clean. We never did find the cause of my recurrent infection and only getting my tonsils removed (finally) stopped it.

 

This sucks for her, I know. Keep in mind that there are more ways to transfer this infection than just kissing. It may have something to do with wear you played? Perhaps the virus was hanging out where you played? I know when I worked in retail I got it often and it can be transferred on pretty much anything (money is the worst).

 

FWIW, I thought about moving this thread but couldn't figure out where to move it to. This is a bad experience, no doubt.

[MN Tom 251]

Next update, his culture ended up showing he had strep again also, so he went on a different antibiotic this time around (so did she).

 

Hopefully that's the end of it.

 

Play locations varied. One time was at a hotel, another time was at a bar takeover.

 

And this time around he was asymptomatic. He didnt have a sore throat, didnt even have the white spots, but he tested positive. She was symptomatic though, her throat was sore pretty quickly and had the white spots on the tonsils.

 

Really odd side fact is still that neither of us spouses caught it, and both of us were also tested.

 

Oh well, just chalking it up to bad luck.

[Fundamental Law 2,908]

From a physician...

 

Good ending to an important story. Tests have a failure rate, and persistent findings warrant doing the test again.

 

When I was a medical student a thousand years ago (in the days that men were made of iron, ships were made of wood, giants walked the earth and sheep ran scared) one of the tasks in our medical microbiology lab was to culture our lab partner for strep. My lab partner cultured me and I cultured him. He was totally asymptomatic and came back strongly positive.

 

The teaching assistant in the lab noted that there was always one in a crowd (here one in a hundred) who was an asymptomatic carrier and likely made a mental note not to kiss him.

 

(A coda. The teaching assistant and I waited until the course was over before going out on a date. We're still together, more than 1/3 of a century later...and she still tells this story about my lab partner...)

[wisconsin 58]

That's one of the reason we are very cautious about house parties even though we like them. I usually play with only partner,maybe 2 and hubby plays with couple partners. Almost 99% we end up with some sort of illness.

Last week it was a strep throat for both of us, hubbies case was more mild, I could't eat,drink, or talk and even asked my Doc. for Vicodin because my throat was so read and swollen and painfull I couldn't function.About 6 months ago my hubby came down with intestinal virus/bacteria we don't know. Cultures came back negative but we were thinking even hospitalizing him because he was getting dehydrated and weak. We are both in medical field but even for us it was scary, he missed a week of work.

Now anytime we want go on house party ,especially in a winter or introduce new partners we sit and wait couple days after what else we are going to get this time.

[exploringRM 305]

That's one of the reason we are very cautious about house parties even though we like them. I usually play with only partner,maybe 2 and hubby plays with couple partners. Almost 99% we end up with some sort of illness.

Last week it was a strep throat for both of us, hubbies case was more mild, I could't eat,drink, or talk and even asked my Doc. for Vicodin because my throat was so read and swollen and painfull I couldn't function.About 6 months ago my hubby came down with intestinal virus/bacteria we don't know. Cultures came back negative but we were thinking even hospitalizing him because he was getting dehydrated and weak. We are both in medical field but even for us it was scary, he missed a week of work.

Now anytime we want go on house party ,especially in a winter or introduce new partners we sit and wait couple days after what else we are going to get this time.

 

I don't think it matters, familiar partners or new partners. Most people are contagious with whatever, before symptoms occur. And you can never really tell who you cought that cold or flu from. It could have been the swing partner last saturday, or via your co-worker the day before.

[wisconsin 58]

As I said we both work in medical field and we are around sick people all the time.We have developed some immunity. Usually symptoms show up 24-48 hours,maximum 3 days after the party . So just tell me it's just a coincidence.

[here4thefun69 16]

It takes more than a few days to completely get over strep. And you have to finish all antibiotics perscribed to you. Have known those who have had to go get more antibiotics to completely get over it.

[Alex855 16]

ok heres a question to those who know about medical stuff:

 

Now if his wife got strep from that guy and got over it should'nt she still have antibodies in her system that would keep her from getting re-infected?

[here4thefun69 16]

ok heres a question to those who know about medical stuff:

 

Now if his wife got strep from that guy and got over it should'nt she still have antibodies in her system that would keep her from getting re-infected?

 

If she had fully recovered from it I believe so. But in the time span she explained she could have still had it in her system. After the antibodies have killed a viral or bacterial infections your natural immune system starts to build up a resistance for set time against them. But something like strep is or can be much more serious than what most refer to as a common virus. Even though the virus seems to take a larger toll on your system for a short amount of time. Strep takes lots more to get rid of completely. Same goes for a staph infection. Again I am not a doc, nurse or any type of medical. Just a father who has had to deal with sick kids and likes to know what Im dealing with. lol

[Alex855 16]

thanks for your input

[MN Tom 251]

Last follow up (hopefully).

 

What the doctors figured was that she (and possibly he) didnt get fully healed from the first time around, so the second time they both received stronger antibiotics. And after the full course of those, my wife got sick again and ended up taking another course of an even stronger one. This time it finally seemed to have worked, since she didnt have any symptoms after finishing that final course.

 

So, at this point we would hope she has built up an immunity to whatever strain she caught. Might have had a few different ones even, hard to say.

 

Not sure if she would avoid kissing that guy again at this point, but it's probably a moot issue anyway since they are moving out of state with his job.