Noro or other virus

This is my fourth day of worse gastrointestinal symptoms. On the first and second day and partly the third day I had watery diarrhea. I had also fever. I am still ill, with shortage of breath, shaking, sweeting and atrial fibrillation. Yesterday I already began to eat some food.

In mid December I had bloating of upper abdomen and tightness of diaphragma. I had to yawn often and it was slightly difficult. Even before those symptoms I got uncomfort behind my eyes. These symptoms have lasted to January 2013 and appeared every now and then. At the beginning of January I had a slightly running nose. On January 6, I got atrial fibrillation. It is my third long-lasting AF. It will not go away without electric cardioversion. After I came out from the emergency unit on 6 January I got the first diarrhea attack, and then I got a few diarrhea attacks until on January 13 the worse diarrhea began.

Have there been more than one virus during December-January? Could a virus cause my AF? Are the worse symptoms due to noro or rota virus? I am a 65-year-old female. I have low IgG3 and lectin pathway of complement and chronic sinusitis, hypothyroidism, hyperparathyroidism etc.

[mkh9]

Hi, and sorry you are ill. Well, norovirus usually goes away on its own within about a few days. So, it may be bacterial or even a parasite. If you haven't had a culture done you should have one done. Have you eaten out a lot or at a friends house or family over the holidays? Did anyone else get sick? Your potassium would have to be extremely low (below about 2.7) for it to cause Afib but it is possible. You need to get in to a doctor since you are still sick and get your electrolytes checked and if you are low get an iV. The organism that you acquired isn't causing the AFIb it would be the low potassuim or possibly someother root cause that the diarrhea is just making worse.

[helyanna]

Maybe I had norovirus. The illness has gone away, and I feel good, even better than in the whole December. My husband had mild fever and some discomfort in his stomach but no diarrhea.

On 17 January I ordeded measurements of  Na+, CRP, leukocyte count, ALAT and amylase. I have not yet got the results (they will be posted to me).

[mkh9]

Yes Norovirus is self limiting it by your symptoms and duration of illness. It can also have variable symptoms as seen by your husbands symptoms. I'm glad you are over it.  Your results will probably be normal except your potassium , maybe your sodium . I doubt your amylase will be off as that is more typical of pancreatitis.
take care,
mkh9

[helyanna]

Thanks. I wanted to have amylase measured, because I had upper abdominal pain on several days in December. Because I have hyperparathyroidism, pancreatitis could be possible. I have some cysts in my pancreas and liver. I had occasional diarrhea attacks from January 6 before the more severe diarrhea on 13-15(16) January. Such slow onset is not typical of norovirus. I have often high sodium (in Emergency unit on 6 January 146 when upper normal limit 144) but always normal potassium.

[mkh9]

Hi, well it is good you are getting the amylase checked. You might want to get the lipase checked too. But do you know why you have the cysts? Have they tested the stool for parasites? Just  wondering if there is a link between the abdominal pain, cysts and diarrhea? you are totally correct, norovirus doesn't have a slow onset.
mkh9

[helyanna]

There may have been other causes before the onset of the norovirus diarrhea.

In an MRI for parathyroids, a year ago, there was seen an infiltration in the upper part of my left lung. Then I had also an MRI of upper abdomen, where a few small liver and pancreatic cysts were seen. The lung infiltration (8-9 mm) has been followed, and the last TT will be in April of this year. It has not grown. There are also a couple of 2 mm infiltrations. The infiltrations do not cause symptoms.

I have read that small cysts in the liver and pancreas are very common and insignificant. I had endoscopic cholecystectomia in late 2010. Just previously, ALAT was slightly elevated. Now it is possible that some adhesions have grown in the area.

A few years ago I had a stool test (negative).

The chronic left side sinusitis bothers me. It becomes active several times a year. Discharge from the left sinuses is minimal, but I have slight pain in my left cheek, temporal or forehead area. I do have tough post-nasal drip in the mornings throughout the year. In my neck, on the left side, there is a lymph node, which can be seen when I bend my neck to the right. I don't know what is the cause of my sinusitis. Previously, when I was at work, I handled wild fishes and clams. I have a faint idea, whether I could have an actinomycete or aspergillus (aspergillosis) in my sinus. A FESS operation was sometimes planned but then decieded not to do it, because my symptoms are so slight (not plenty of snot).

The post-nasal discharge sometimes makes my pharynx sore when I try to swallow it. Could it infect my stomach or intestines?

[helyanna]

I have an enlarged cervical lymph node at the jugular area. It was 17 mm in length in 2010. Now it may have grown, because bending ny neck to the left is slightly difficult. And I have some dysphagia and white mucus (post nasal drip?) down in my pharynx (left side). I have chronic sinusitis. No runing nose.

Has the node grown now due to norovirus or chronic sinusitis? Yesterday a doctor said that I may have haemoglobinopathy (small and pale red cells, high red cell count). My leukocyte count has not increased.

[mkh9]

That is a large lymph node. I still wonder about a parasite especially since you handled fish.Raw fish can have several parasites, but usually tapeworms. It depends on where you were working and where the fish came from or migrated to and from.If the diarrhea was caused by a bacteria then it is possible it made your lymph nodes in your neck area swell more. Sinusitis is often caused by Staphlycoccus aureus, but can be caused by Aspergillus (aspergillosis) sp. Hopefully, it is just a Staph. I have had a sinusitis too and it is usually dry and crusty. I used steam (head over a hot bowl of steam) and antibiotics to get rid of it. Do they know why your cervical lymph node is large? A hemaglobinopathy is a general term. It is not saying what the actual problem/cause is. Maybe he is still trying to figure it out. It could be due to an anemia..Keep me posted ok?
mkh9

[helyanna]

The diarrhea which I had was a typical norovirus diarrhea, but there was something else before it, maybe due to stress caused by atrial fibrillation. Many people have had norovirus here.

I had today an ultrasound study on my neck. There were two lymph nodes near each other on the left side. They looked normal. There was nothing pathologic in my neck. Because I have had dysphagia during a couple of days, the cause may be in my pharynx, some oedema or extra mucus. There is really white mucus often in the left side of my pharynx. It may come from the left tonsilla or from the left sinuses. The cause of my sinusitis is not known, It has  lasted from from the end of 2009. Antibiotics do not work for it. I use nasal cortisone to shrink the swollen epithelium of the ostia.

The fish with which I worked years ago were local fish from Finland, and they had their typical parasites, including microscopic species. I have not eaten raw fish and can't have tapeworms.

I had lab tests today: Mycoplasma and hemoglobin variants. Someone here had Mycoplasma sinusitis. The doctor a couple of days ago said that I may have a slight mutation of a haemoglobin gene. It is not thalassemia. I have good total hemoglobin, erythrocyte count and soluble transferrin receptor. But my red cells are slightly smaller and paler than normal. I think that my chronic sinusitis might also cause small and pale red cells.

[mkh9]

Ok, I thought you were looking for an answer to what type of diarrhea you had. It does sound like norovirus. The states are getting a lot of it this year too.You could have had Shigella too but usually you don't get both. Glad your lymph nodes were normal. I didn't know you could get sinusitis caused by Mycoplasma. Usually, you get "walking pneumonia". It sounds like they are making progress in finding out what is causing your red cells to be microcytic. I hope that you can feel better soon.
mkh9

[helyanna]

Now I am on an antibiotic (Doximycin) due to sinus infection. Mycoplasma antibodies were not very high, IgG 194 and IgM negative. Thus it may not be Mycoplasma. I have fever.

[helyanna]

Now I may have laryngitis. This flu has lasted about two weeks. I have lost my voice and have difficulties in respiration. I have successive infections almost all the year round.

[mkh9]

You may mean Doxycycline or maybe they have a different name for it. You may have a different organism cause the sinusitits and the respiratory organism may be the mycoplasma along with a virus. The mycoplasma usually comes out when people have a long term viral infection and get run down. It seems this year people are getting multiple viruses in a row one after another. Usually, you have one virus and you may relapse and get the same one back. Then your immune system kicks in and you don't get another virus but may get a secondary bacterial like mycoplasma. This year I think the viruses are more virulent and they are causing something to happen to people immunity or there are just a lot of very virulent virses out there. My sister in law had a bad virus then she got the norovirus (stomach bug) then she got a flu like bug with a high fever. She had been sick since Christmas. I hope you feel better soon. Regarding the Mycoplasma antibiodies if your IgM is negative then it isn't a recent infection, the igG is showing that you were exposed to it but it was more than a month ago and perhaps was a long time ago. If you have a fever take it easy and try to drink fluids while you can.
take care,
mkh9