Fever, severe headache, chills and night sweats

[Karen B.]

My husband has had fever of around 102 degrees, severe headache, chills and night sweats.  This has been going on for a week.  He has had blood tests, urine tested, head and chest x-rays, cat scan and spinal tap.  Nothing can be found.  The doctors say it is a severe viral syndrome that could last 10 to 14 days.  He has lost 10 pounds and is very weak and unable to stay up for very long.  He has not been able to go to work for the last 4 days.  Is there any other diagnosis for this?  He is generally a very, very healthy man.  Are there any other test to be ran?

[Karen B.]

My husband went back to work yesterday after being off almost a month.  He was in the hospital for 5 days.  He had all kinds of tests and he had numerous antibiotics pumped into his veins.  So much that it blew out his veins.  All tests have come back negative.  From what I have read on the internet, it sounded and looked like West Nile virus.  The infectious disease specialist that worked on him, said the symptoms were similar to West Nile but that the weather has not been warm enough for West Nile to have infected any mosquitoes.  Whatever this was was extremely strong to have gotten my husband in such a weakened state.  I guess we will never know what it was but I think God that he is slowly regaining his strength.

[PAIGE P]

My 4 year old girl has had a fever of up to 103.5 for 4 to 5 days now. Sore throat and mild stomach ache also. We have been assured it's not strep and that it's just a virus. She cries a lot with the sore throat which tends to make it worse. Is there anything else, other than Tylenol and Motrin alternating every 3 hours, that we can do?

[Carol in PA]

Karen B:
Well, you're not going to notice a tick bite, unless you develop a rash, or fever and chills, etc.

Articles about tick borne infections.
http://www.lymeinfo.net/coinfections.html

Carol

[Karen B.]

Thanks Carol.  He now has a rash on his body which is probably a heat rash from fever and sweating.  He also has a dry cough.  His fever is lower during the day but shoots up at night.  As far as I can tell he has no tick bites.

[Carol in PA]

Karen B.:
It is possible that these symptoms may be due to tick borne infection.

Babesia is an infection that causes night sweats, similar to Malaria, in that the red blood cells are infected.

Here is a url for articles with info that may be relevant.

LYME DISEASE COINFECTIONS
The following is information on diseases known to be transmitted by ticks.
Multiple infections may be transmitted at one time by a single tick.
http://www.lymeinfo.net/coinfections.html

I hope the docs will follow up on this suggestion.  They feel threatened sometimes if they they think the patient is self-diagnosing.

You can tell them the idea came from a retired R.N. who has Lyme Disease.

Wishing you the best,
Carol