Dad's in the hospital with a fever

[Carrie]

He’s been struggling with a higher than normal temp for a while. On Saturday night, his fever went to over 101. Mom took him to the hospital where his temp was over 102. They admitted him and are starting him an a full course of antibiotics.

Last week he had a fever but they couldn’t determine the origin through cultures. Yesterday they told my mom that it could be neutropenic fever. We hadn’t heard of it before. Anyone heard of it?

They also said that he could have an internal infection that they’ll never find but hopefully they’re using the right antibiotics.

I hate being on pin and needles with these fevers. They’re really scary to all of us.

Carrie

[eve]

carrie

my dad went throught the same episode right after thanksgiving

they never found anything in his blood cultures, but fortunately the antibiotics did the trick

i would think that a neutropenic fever happens when the neutrofils (the fighters in the wbc) are very low and can’t fight the infection or virus

good luck to your dad

eve

[Carrie]

Thanks, eve!

[April]

Carrie ~ Mom went thru the same thing. She would get a fever, we would take her to the hosp, she would be in there for about 3-5 days, sent home and it would start all over again. The last time she was in the hosp they said she had Cellulitis. They had tested her for every thing possible but didn’t find this out until they did an MRI and CAT Scan her her lower back. I hated when she would get the fever. You never knew what was really going on…and it would drive us crazy!

I hope he gets to feeling better soon!

[Carrie]

Just to let you know, he’s still in the hospital and his fever keeps spiking. Not as high as when he first got there.

They started him on one antibiotic but he got red man’s face so they put him on vancomycin (sp?). I guess they’re giving him both now with some Benadryl.

He’s doing okay otherwise.

Carrie

[sarah]

Carrie, hope your Dad continues to improve and gets to go home soon.
Sarah

[Andrea]

Carrie

Same thing happened to my mom last week. It coincided with her dose of Vidaza. She was 101.4 She has been in the hospital for a week and just got out tonight. Her temps spiked on and off all week. They never figured out where the infecton was, but they were sure there was infection because her Hgb went down and she had to have a transfusion. Now she is home, afebrile, but she has layrngitis and I an uncomfortable with that. Hope it isn’t another infection.

Hope your Dad has smoother sailing from here!!

Andrea

[Carrie]

Hey all,

Thanks for your information and support.

They found an infection in my dad but I don’t know if that’s the main reason for the fever. He’s still spiking.

The infection is a urinary tract infection that is caused by a common bacteria. The infection is vanco-resistent (vancomycin?) (VRE) but they still have him on the vanco for now.

It’s a weird bacteria that is airborne. Immune-suppressed people are susceptible to it even if they use all precautions. Apparently he’ll be positive for it for the rest of his life and, from now on, the nurses and doctors have to wear gloves and gowns around him so they don’t spread it.

They’re doing another urine culture to make sure that the one that was positive wasn’t just contaminated.

Anyone else heard of this infection?

His doctor is meeting with him this morning or early afternoon and we’ll know more soon.

He’s doing okay and he’s very positive .

Thanks again,
Carrie

[Marsha]

Carrie,

I’m glad they found the source now maybe they can get him well enough to come home. I pray so. I haven’t heard of that infection before but I’m sure that precautions are well worth it. The things we used to beable to fight off and not give any thought too are now our enemies when you are immune suppressed. My thoughts are with you

[sarah]

Carrie, glad to hear he is feeling better. Hope he continues to improve. I haven’t heard of that infection either. Thoughts are with you.
Sarah

[Terri]

so glad to hear he is doing better. thinking of you and continued prayers for all

[PAG2005]

Hi Carrie,

My mom had VRE. She started getting high feverss during the end of her induction treatment and they had to remove her triple lumen because of the infection. Once they identified VRE as the culprit, they treated her with synercid for 11 days. She was getting very high fevers and chills. This was during her low count time of chemotherapy. It was very scary until they started to treat her with synercid. I didn’t know she would remain positive for VRE. I wonder if the VRE can be re-activated if her wbc counts get very low again. I wasn’t told much about VRE except for what I read on the web. I hope this information helps. I hope your dad is feeling better soon. Pat

[Carrie]

Thanks, Pat. I really don’t know much about if it’ll flare back up again if her counts go down. I did a search on VRE on this board and it looks like they got Dorry’s under control and it came back.

Dad’s feeling okay except that he keeps getting the fevers. They haven’t completely figured it out yet and they don’t have the second urine culture results yet.

I’ve read about VRE online today and I don’t like what I’m reading. But he’s in good hands so I guess we’ll just wait and see. I hope he doesn’t have it, though. It’s apparently treatable but very difficult to treat and he’s allergic to penicillin.

I just talked to him and he had to have a unit of red blood cells and they’re bringing up platelets soon. His platelets are at 11. He can’t make any of his own platelets right now .

Otherwise, he’s still doing fine.
Thanks for the support,
Carrie

[Jimbob]

Carrie,
I have VRE. Probably got it at the hospital! Did not have it when tested prior to admission but did when tested at clinic a few days after being discharged, They test every 3 months to see if I still have it or if it has “gone away”. If it goes , they will still continue to test every 3 months until negative 3 consecutive times. No treatment aas I am alleergic to any form of Sulfa.
Good part about it is that I don’t wait at clinic and always get a private room.
Today, for other reason, I ;have to have a spinal tap.

[Carrie]

Jimbob,

Good luck with your spinal tap. Yuck. I’d hate to have one. How did they determine that you have VRE? Did you have symptoms? How long did it take for it to go dormant?

All,
They still haven’t determined what’s going on and he had a fever of over 103 last night. They put him on another antibiotic but I didn’t write it down. First word starts with “it” and the second one start with a “cy”. The words are separated by a slash. I’m horrible. I didn’t pay attention when he spelled it .
He sounds pretty tired today. I know he hasn’t been getting a lot of sleep in the hospital.

Thank you all for continuing to follow this post.
Love,
Carrie

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