Comment recommendations (Score 1) 675
I'm not a doctor, but I am a pharmacy student taking an antibiotics/infectious disease class right now. My advice is to find an infectious disease specialist somewhere like a university hospital start getting treatment. Most patients that present with a serious infectious disease are placed on empiric therapy (a combination of big drugs like Zosyn, Gentamycin, and Vancomycin) until cultures are grown. They will take sputum cultures and when results come back the antibiotic therapy will be adjusted appropriately.
Looking through my infectious disease handbook, actinomyces does seem to have all the symptoms you describe. It grows optimally under anaerobic conditions, so the lab should be notified if actinomyces is suspected. Growth is slow and possibly nonexistant if antibiotics have been used already. If this bug is correctly identified, the drug of choice is intravenous Penicillin G (10-20 million units per day) for about 3 weeks, followed by high dose oral penicillin.
Bottom line: Talk to an ID specialist and tell him or her your story. State that you are suspecting actinomyces, then get some cultures grown and start antibiotic therapy.
Hope you get better Patrick!
Looking through my infectious disease handbook, actinomyces does seem to have all the symptoms you describe. It grows optimally under anaerobic conditions, so the lab should be notified if actinomyces is suspected. Growth is slow and possibly nonexistant if antibiotics have been used already. If this bug is correctly identified, the drug of choice is intravenous Penicillin G (10-20 million units per day) for about 3 weeks, followed by high dose oral penicillin.
Bottom line: Talk to an ID specialist and tell him or her your story. State that you are suspecting actinomyces, then get some cultures grown and start antibiotic therapy.
Hope you get better Patrick!
