Fever, worried...looking for advice.

[tammy77]

So my DH has had a fever now since Sat night, and I'm really starting to worry. On Saturday evening he went to urgent care with a fever of about 100, they gave him amox tr-k clv 875-125, which as best as I can tell is 875mg of amoxicillin and 125 mg of augmentin (forgive me if that's misspelled) three times a day. That night his fever spiked up to 103.6, but eventually came down with the motrin to about 100.

He's been taking the antibiotics religiously, and has been keeping an eye on his temp since then, when it creeps up over 100-101, he takes 600mg motrin (he's a big guy) and it comes down...but it takes about an hour and a half to two hours for it to come down. They suspected that he had an abscessed tooth from dental work he'd had done because his jaw was sore, so that's the reason for the antibiotics.

Overall he's been a trooper - eating and drinking fairly well, trying to keep in good spirits, but his energy level is pretty low and he's just "off". Today he went to another dentist, they said he doesn't appear to have an infection/abscess. So he trekked off to the urgent care again (hate our impossible to get in to see MD). They said it sounds viral, and sent him home to continue to finish the antibiotics after drawing blood and doing a urine sample. Urine came back fine. They won't have the bloodwork results until tomorrow morning.

So tonight we tried to see how he'd do without motrin and it was a bad idea. His fever shot back up to 103. He took the motrin, and after almost 2 hours it's still at about 102.5. He has virtually no other symptoms at all. Tiredness, bloodshot eyes and a moderate headache in the front of his head in the forehead/behind the eyes.

I'm just at a loss. I know it's not been the full 72 hrs, but shouldn't he be seeing some improvement in the fever by now? I'm just beside myself with worry.

So I'm not really sure what to do now, other than race him off to the ER if it goes up beyond the 102.5-103 range. It just seems so strange.

I'm really hoping that someone out there has seen something like this and can tell me what their experience was. I've googled my eyes out and that just left me more confused and worried than I already was, ugh.

Thanks for reading. I'd also like to make my very first PS dust request. I know it's powerful stuff.

 

[megumic]

In situations like this, I'd head back to the Dr. Usually it's a case where steroids are needed to respond to the antibiotics. Definitely check in with the doctor ASAP. Hope he's feeling better soon!!!

 

[Puppmom]

Sorry your DH isn't well. I definitely think you should revisit the doc. In the meantime, to keep his fever down you may want to consider alternating between acetaminophin and ibuprofren every 2 hours. I had mastistis about a year ago and motrin alone would not break my fever.

Sending healing dust our into the universe!

 

[Miss Sparkly]

As my FIL, who is a pediatrician, would say, "call the damn doctor." He personally would rather be bothered at 2am then have a child in danger.

 

[tammy77]

Thanks, ladies. I gave him tylenol at about 12:30 am, he was already down to about 101 by then but I just didn't want to take a chance. His fever did break and he slept through the night. He went to the dr last night around 6pm (before I'd posted) and we're currently still waiting for the blood work results.

He *thinks* he's feeling a little better today. The last medication he had was about 11 hours ago and he's up to 99.9 but hasn't broken 100 yet. Yesterday he was running 101 by now and still had some medicine in his system. So it does sound like he's improving, but I'm still worried about tonight. I just hope the blood tests give us some useful info re: bacterial vs viral.

Thanks again!

 

[Pandora II]

My father's recommendation for fever is paracetamol every 3 hours and lots of fluids.

You need to take the paracetamol on schedule for a day or so rather than waiting till the fever goes up and then taking it.

 

[tammy77]

Quick update: The blood work came back fine, MD said that it was viral. DH is still holding steady at just under 101 (100.7) w/no medication vs. 101 yesterday medicated at this time, so he's improving. Just need to get through tonight w/o another 103 craziness and manage to stay healthy for myself and the girls. Luckily the girls went to their dad's house on Sat before his fever spiked for the first time so hopefully they're safe. Bleh.

So that's it, sorry for the frantic posts!

 

[Pandora II]

Is there a reason that he's not taking paracetamol or ibuprofen or something to keep the fever down?

 

[tammy77]

Is there a reason that he's not taking paracetamol or ibuprofen or something to keep the fever down?

He has been taking ibuprofen and tylenol (probably the same as paracetamol?), but at this point in the illness we needed to know if the fever is improving vs. just keeping him full of medication for three straight days. The first night and the second we were careful to make sure that he never had it out of his system.

He just took tylenol today once he hit 101.0 (our agreed threshold) and it had been about 12 hrs since his last dose. He said his headache is almost gone and he's feeling almost back to normal. So we're just going to keep him on a low dose until tomorrow morning and hope that's the end of it.

Thanks

 

[Skippy123]

oh gosh, how scary. I hope he feels 100% soon.

 

[qtiekiki]

I would actually stop taking the medication to lower the temperature. Fever is one of our body defense against bacteria and virus. When fever gets up to 104, that's when you need treatment and head to the doctor. With a temperature of 101, I would let his body do the job.

Hope he feels better soon.

 

[partgypsy]

First big preface I am not a doctor so take all this as one person's opinion.
I am assuming this in an adult, correct (dh= dear husband). Definitely keep your doctor in the loop, but a 100-102 or so degree fever in a healthy adult is not a danger zone but a way for the body to fight infection. Three days of fever is not unusual. My Dad had an infection and he needed to be on (intraveneous) antibiotics for 4 days, and then oral antibiotics for another 7 days to get back to normal.
If a week goes by and the person still has a fever I would go back to get an in-depth check up to locate the source/cause of the fever.

 

[tammy77]

Thanks ladies for the continued advice! It is my DH and last night went much better. I am really hoping he doesn't need anymore medication. Yesterday he managed to make it through with just one dose at around 12:30pm and another at 8:30pm. I highly suspect that he would have been okay to skip the 8:30 but after the 103 scares it just wasn't worth it to us to push our luck.

His fever went down and stayed down, continuing to drop even after the medication was gone. Now I'm just SO ready to resume our normal lives. I know it's taken more out of him than it has out of me, but I'm exhausted!