In september of 2003 my throat had been swollen and I had white patches on it. It was the long labor day weekend so I went to the emergency room and they tested me for strep throat. The test came back negative and they put me on amoxicillin.

A few days later I wasn’t getting any better so I made an appointment with my primary doctor. She sent me for a mono test, which came back positive. I was then told to stop my amoxicillin since it might cause a rash. I had started taking it on saturday, I was now being told this on wednesday and that next saturday I broke out in an itchy rash that covered my whole body and lasted weeks.

This june I went to back to my primary doctor with ear and eye problems. She diagnosed me with a sinus infection and gave me amoxicillin. I told her what happened before when I had mono and took it. She said the rash happened then because I had mono at the time.

For the sinus infection I had to take two pills three times a day (six total.) it was later in the day so I only took four when I got home from the doctors. The next morning I woke up and my hands and feet felt sunburned. They wore sore and red, as it got later in the day they began to itch. In the following days my whole body broke out in a rash. My feet and ankles swelled and turned purple. The weather was really hot, and it made me even more uncomfortable. I was so itchy; the rash was everywhere, bottoms of my feet, on my ears, in my scalp. And again it lasted weeks. I only took four pills.

I never had a reaction to amoxicillin before I was given it during mono. Could the mono somehow have changed my body, making it allergic to amoxicillin?