On and off high fevers for almost 2 months..

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hi,

I'm not sure where is to go.

I have a son who is 22 months old and has been having an on and off fevers for almost 2 months now. In the beginning we thought it was teeth and nothing to worry about.

Over 3 weeks ago now his fever reached 39.7 degrees and we took him to the doctor who instantly prescribed amoxicillan as my son has a bad cough. One week later and there was no improvement and we had another bout of 39 degree fevers. We went to emergency at the hospital but they refused to do a blood test(i dont know why). The doctor asked me what I wanted to test for!? We did an x ray and the doctor said he has bronchitis + croup. They gave him steroids for the croup and nothing for bronchitis.

It has been 3 weeks and there has been no improvement. The 6th doctor/pediatrician we saw was actually the first one to bother checking his throat and feel his glands. It was quite a relief that this doctor seemed so certain that it was tonsillitis. We've been given penicillan v and after 3 days.. he still has a fever despite being on both ibuprofen and calpal..

We don't know what else to do..

n

Go back and back until they do tests to see what it is! Being fobbed off is not helping you or your DS. Try a different hospital if you have to - where are you based? Do you have a choice?

A blood test would be a good idea to see the white blood cells count - see whether it is raised or reduced. Tell the ignorant pillock that next time.

Keep a daily record of his temperature as well so that they can see how long it's been going on for and what temps he is reaching.

Hope your DS gets better soon!

(NOt that I want to worry you but there is a lady on another thread whose DC had scarlet fever and it took ages to get a diagnosis for that because docs don't easily recognise it any more - could be worth a thought? Apparently it's much milder than it used to be but on the rise again)

I think the white blood cell count was at 15 and he doesn't have any rashes. We are in Dulwich/London - Kings.. who appear to have a good reputation. To be fair to the 6th paediatrician seemed very good.

We will be going back there tomorrow if there is no improvement. I was just wondering whether any other parents had similar experiences with tonsillitus.. and recovery time.

Might be a silly idea but have you been abroad recently? Could it be malaria?

Well, you could try going to UCH walk in Paediatric A&E if you haven't tried them before - my sis took her DD there when the local hospital was fobbing her off with tonsillitis as a diagnosis (completely different scenario to your DS though) and they sorted DN out quicksmart. Not relevant to your situation because different symptoms - but they got it right (after 3m of back and forth to local hospital/GP going nowhere)

We spent a month in Thailand, but its not malaria. Results came back negative, though it was a very long 24 hour wait for the results!

His fever is down to 37.5ish at the moment, but we are alternating between ibuprofen and calpal.

I'm just concerned that it has lasted so long and am exhausted from worry.

could be some other foreign bug though - presumably, as he's been tested for malaria, they know that you were in Thailand - have they checked for any other form of parasite, blood or digestive tract? Does he have any other symptoms apart from the fever?

They were planning to cultivate blood and had already taken it, but told us they werent going to after they saw his tonsils..

He also has a bad cough and a runny nose.

OK, have just looked at the Hospital for Tropical Medicine website - here is information on their clinics; if you have fever (or in your case, DS) then you can attend their walk in clinic.

They are part of UCL group of hospitals, so if you went to UCH and they thought it might be something tropical, you'd end up there anyway.

Just another avenue to explore for you.

Hope you get some resolution!

Thanks thumbwitch! At least now we have another option. Fingers crossed he will show signs of improvement soon and that the doctors are right for a change.

DS still has a fever of 37.9 despite being on penicillin for 4 days... is this unusual? Back to the GP in an hour.

Those symptoms sound like a dairy intolerance to me have you tried changing his milk?

He's definitely going to need acidophilus after all those anti biotics.