Finally...

Finally a doctor who seems to REALLY care and can help me.

I saw Dr P (the infectious disease dr) Friday morning. He was kind, patient, caring (he even talked to Ryan and made him a glove balloon)...he said three things that made me feel hope for a strep-free future.

1) He has seen cases like mine (recurrent strep, desperate moms tired of being sick, etc.)
2) He is taking several approaches, all very different, but not waiting to see if I get it again but being really proactive and following every hunch
3) He literally said the words, "don't worry, we will get you better"

The approaches he is taking:
1) treating my current step with a different antibiotic - I was feeling really bad when I saw him and now, one day on the meds, I feel so much better (I always do feel better on the meds)
2) He took blood to do some tests on my immune system
3) He took a culture to see if the strep is a resistant strain (he sees a fair amount of it and said that this region of the US has more of it going around). This would require an IV antibiotic to be treated effectively.
4) He has me going for a barium x-ray test on Tuesday to see if there are any clues or damage to the throat and esophagus - he said that if those tissues are damaged, inflamed, etc then you can be more prone to infections (he sees it alot with throat issues and even adult-onset asthma)
5) We are not testing for this at this time, but apparently alot of people are having lots of different issues in the past year or two due to the hurricanes and the excessive mold growth resulting in areas like New Orleans - there are high levels of mold in our air (that is something you never hear on the news, but apparently you can check the air mold count and it is off the charts lately)

I see him again on Tuesday the 19th by which all the test results will be in and we can decide where to go from there...in the meantime, I should feel pretty ok since I am on meds.

All is good with the world again for now!