B. Endocarditis? Or is it?

Posted By Lance on April 18, 1998 at 13:37:00:







   I am a 36 yr. old white male (married with young children).
I was diagnosed with MVP 5 years ago but experienced no problems. In the last year, I noticed increased palpatations. My cardiologist started me on Atenolol, 25mg a day.  Again, I experienced no problems.
   About 8 weeks ago (2 weeks after starting Atenolol), I developed
what was diagnosed as a Flu.  I took an antibiotic and flumadine
and felt fine in about 4-5 days.  I then developed a bad cough for
a few days and my fever returned.  My doctors gave me another antibiotic
and my cough and fever went away.  After the antibiotic, my fever returned.  They again gave me an antibiotic and ran blood tests (CBC,
Chemistry), HIV test, Urinalysis, and Chest XRays.  All of the test
came back negative except that I had a slightly low hemoglobin count.
I also began developing other symptoms: Flush feeling (mostly in the
face, I feel like I have a fever when I don't), Chills, Night Sweats
(mild, typically only when I first fall asleep, not all night), and
soreness in my Lymph nodes (underarms mostly, though some in neck).
For several more weeks I continued to run low-grade fevers while
off antibiotics, but no fevers while on them (bactrim, cipro, etc.).
3 weeks ago, I went to see a new Doctor who immediately suspected I
had Bacterial Endocarditis (BE).  I was admitted to a hospital and
an infectious disease doctor and a new cardiologist were brought in.
They both felt I had BE even though my cultures were negative.  They
began IV antibiotics (5 day treatment of gentamycin and a 6 week
treatment of vancomycin:1000mg a day/twice a day). They also did
a echo and TEE, which did not identify any vegetations on my heart
valves.  They gave me a mild dosage of adavant (1mg) to take each
hight at bedtime to calm my nerves, which were a little bit frazzled.
For the first 2 weeks of treatment, I made steady improvements
(no fevers, though the flush/hot feeling remained mostly in the
afternoon hours and my lymph nodes remained sore/swollen).
Then I began to have intermittment night sweats, followed by
chills, and an increased flush feeling.  Finally, I began to
run a low-grade (99.5) fever again.
I revisited my infectous disease doctor, who though most of my symptons were attributable to anxiety, and switched me from adavant to xanax (25 mg/twice a day). He even speculated that I may have something wrong with my adrenaline system, but didn't want to persue that yet.
I have been on the Xanax 3 days and most of my symptons have
worsened.  I now either feel flushes or chills almost all day and
I awaken frequently during sleep.
I feel that maybe the initial diagnosis of BE may have been wrong
and that I may actually be fighting some other type of infection
or disease.
Or could I be fighting multiple problems simultaneously?