DS1 (6) still ill after 3 and a half weeks Is this normal?

[isleangel]

Hi
My DS1 took the flu 3 and a half weeks ago, which then developed into nasty chest infection, in which his temp went up to 40 nearly daily, and he was coughing up pure yellow gunk from his lungs. He was eventually put on really strong antibiotics for a week, which finished last monday. His cough cleared up, temps went down, but all through this he has his temp drop to 34.5 at night and he lay as cold as a stone with 3 blankets, a 13.5 tog duvet and a hot water bottle. the doctor said she had never heard of this before, but if it wasn't waking him at night it was fine. He wasn't sent for a chest xray as doctor thought he was improving and said unless he was unable to get out of bed, hospital wouldn't want to see him
Now he has been off antibiotics for a week, he is still really cold but now 35.5 at night and sometimes through the day, he is deathly pale and has been since this started, and he is so tired, that he can't do hardly anything and he cries, even though he's normally so happy. he's still off school, and I now have everyone telling me that he should have bounced back by now and I should see the doctor.

Am I right to be worried? I can't take him back to the doctor, as they are closed today for public holiday, and when I phoned last week they said they had no appoinments until the following week, and if I wanted I could phone the doctor at lunchtime on tuesday. Any help greatly received

Phone the doctor at lunchtime tomorrow.

A temp of 35.5 at night wouldnt worry me personally. During the day i think id wonder about it. Why do you take his temp? Is he complaining of being cold? Hot?

My son had pneumonia only noticed on a chest x ray but his temp was 40+ with meds, he was delirious, not eating, passing out and his cough was horrendous.

Your son mainly sounds like hes very run down tbh, after my son was ill as describved above he was like that for a while, very weak and upset by the smallest thing.

If i were you i wouldnt be too worried, however, go with your instinct and call the doc tomorrow.

thanks for that - I had thought he might have had pneumonia, and he was on the antibiotics for pneumonia, but we didn't get the chest xray. The doctor had told me to take his temp at night, as he was also having night sweats, and at the start we thought that he was getting a high temp, sweating, and then going cold, so the doctor wanted to know what temp he was. Then I realized that he was having cold night sweats and his temp was really low.
He is this cold throughout the day, but it seems to get worse around 5pm and stay down, while during the day it goes up and down.

I will phone the doctor at lunchtime and see. What age was your son, was he at school? It's horrible seeing them ill for so long

My son had just turned 4, 2 days before diagnosed! He was at nursery and it was over Christmas (he had impeccable timing) so he was off for 2 weeks holidays and then an extra week then back but he was only in 2.5hrs x 3 a week. If he had been at school I imagine he mightve had to go back part time.

Ds2 (14) had flu the Christmas before last. He was off school for more than 4 weeks and could probably have done with longer. He was a previously perfectly healthy teenager who was never unwell. He has been left with a bit of a phobia of becoming Ill and gets worried if anyone complains of feeling unwell.

I'm sure your ds will get better in his own time but I think you should phone your GP if you are worried.

Very high AND very low temperatures can be indicators of an infection. Our paed told us that if low temperatures happen for several days in a row, there is a good chance that there is still an infection which could be viral or bacterial. Only a blood test will help to find out what the matter is but most GPs refuse to do bloodtests on under 5s, so you will have to go to hospital to have it done (if so, insist on Emla cream at least 1 hour before hand, to numb the area).

Yes, the cream really works. Dd (17m) had a blood test recently and didnt even notice!

Thanks for this everyone. I phoned the doctor yesterday, and she said that whatever bug was doing the rounds was a really bad one and she now knew people who had had it for 8 weeks! She said just to keep hime rested, and gradually increase what he was doing, and if I felt he wasn't improving to bring him back next week

He had a blood test done, but it only showed that he was slightly anaemic, which I suppose was good in a way, that there wasn't anything more serious.

Yesterday was the first day that he didn't get cold, so hopefully he's starting to improve.

His school has been great though, and they have offered to take he back part time next week to see how he gets on, and then he's off for Easter, so fingers crossed he will have improved a lot.

Thanks for the advice!