The doctor's office just told me that they were not allowed to call in

[Ms. Toad]

258. I suspect doing the test once or twice

would convince you that it really isn't bacterial. The vast majority aren't, and will clear up on their own.

Until I discovered zinc, all of my colds went in that direction. I had multiple diagnoses with bronchitis (as well as many times I didn't bother going to the doctor, because I knew the diagnosis would be bronchitis). When the doctor (routinely) prescribed antibiotics, I asked how likely it was that it had a bacterial cause - and his answer was always not likely. He was prescribing antibiotics for two reasons (1) the very small chance that it was bacterial and (2) he was tired of arguing with patients who insisted that they needed something for their condition (or that all the other doctors prescribed antibiotics, etc.) Way back when (when the patterns were established - and the myths/misunderstandings created) we were really dumb about antibiotic resistance. Now we know better - but the patterns still hang on because of the all of the people who were prescribed antibiotics - not because the infection was caused by bacteria, but for the reasons above.

Patterns are very hard to break - but this is a very dangerous one, so I work on breaking it wherever I see it. And no, I'm actually not suggesting that you pay that much money every time you get that chesty condition. What I am suggesting is that you sit down with your doctor at least once and have a heart to heart about how likely it is that your chesty condition is really bacterial in nature, so aren't taking antibiotics for these conditions unless there is a very specific reason your doctor believes your chesty conditions, unlike the vast majority, are bacterial in nature (Rather than just continuing to demand antibiotics because that is what you have always received in the past.)

Because continuing to use antibiotics when they are not necessary puts my daughter's life at risk. She really is likely to have recurring bacterial infections in her liver and bile ducts - and if the infection is caused by a bacteria that learned resistance because of the misuse of antibiotics, I'm going to be really pissed (and I am, perhaps, more sensitive to this particular issue because a friend with my daughter's condition died recently, and part of the cause was a liver/bile duct infection by VRE - vancomycin resistant enterococci.).