Antibiotic use?

Question

I went to the doctor today because my throat and ear had been hurting...not very badly, but it's been going on for a week, so I thought I should check it out. He looked at my throat, nose, and ears and said they all looked fine and said my breathing sounded fine as well. He said he thought the pain was from a swollen lymph node in my neck (which I didn't even know I had a swollen one). He gave me an antibiotic, but in all honesty, I don't feel sick. The highest my temperature has been in this whole time with the sore throat/ear was 99.0-99.3. When they took my temperature at the doctor's office it was 98.0. I don't believe in taking antibiotics unless they're really necessary (actually feeling sick, fever, etc). Would anyone else take an antibiotic just for a swollen lymph node? I'm just curious...no rude answers please! :)

Answer 1

I would not take an antibiotic unless I had a serious infection of some sort, like an abscessed tooth. I think they do more harm than good sometimes. It is better to let your body fight off whatever is going on. Hope you feel better soon.

Answer 2

It's possible for lymph nodes to get swollen several times during the year. . It usually happens when it's accompanied by sore throat or a cold. Your throat might turn red and tonsils enlarged. I also had this problem when I was a kid, but when I grew up I never had it again.


There are several causes of swollen lymph node, and some of them are more serious than the others. Swollen lymph nodes can also be caused by injury, tumor and infection.

The purpose of nodes is to enlarge to take care of any infection or inflammation in their area.

Swollen lymph nodes are most commonly caused by infection, as you are presuming. Normally they should subside in 1-2 weeks after a course of antibiotics (if bacterial) or when the virus subsides.



If they persist past several weeks in the abscence of infection, you can consider a blood count as well as a possible biopsy to exclude the possibility of cancer


But don’t worry about that, it’s probably nothing serious. It would be the best to see the doctor to be examined and diagnosed properly. Treatment will depend on the underlying cause. Again if it's due to bacterial infection ;the first line of defense is antibiotics. And if it's a viral infection, you won’t need any medicines

Answer 3

I would go ahead and take it because usually a swollen lymph node means infection. It won't hurt to - plus it will probably keep you from getting worse. Just remember to take all of them until they are gone. Alot of people think you can take them just til you feel better but the truth is that it's just starting to kill off the bacteria and when you stop taking them after a few days, the infection will come back worse and you'll need a bigger and better antibiotic. If you had no fever at all I would say you could try and skip it, but since you've had some fever and swollen lymph node I would go ahead and do it - Get better soon!

Answer 4

Personally I'm tempted to suggest not bothering with the antibiotics, because over-prescription of antibiotics is one of the reasons why we have things like Multi-Resistant TB and the old favourite MRSA (Methycillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus...which I actually remembered and didn't have to look up, go me!).

But another of the most common causes of antibiotic resistance is people not taking the full course of treatment, and leaving some bacteria weakened but not killed, who live on to produce new resistant strains of things. As I don't have a medical degree, I'd go with your doctor and take the full course of antibiotics, that'll be a few million less bacteria in the world and you'll get better quicker than you will without them.

Hope you're feeling better soon :-)