Helping Those Who Care for Parkinson's Patients
| [Home] [Forum] [Help] [Search] [Register] [Login] [Donate] |
| You are not logged in |
|
| ||
|
Here's your dumb question of the day. Hopefully there's someone else out there with some insight. Is there any temperature fluctuation problems and/or temperature regulation issues associated with PD? I know that hot or cold extremes tend to exacerbate symptoms, but that's not what I'm referring to. My DH for the last six months has been having issues with his body temperature, ever since he had a bad bout of colitis due to overuse of many different antibiotics. He's alway maintained that he runs a base body temperature of lower than 98.6, usually at least by a degree, and that is his norm. (In fact, he inadvertently sent one little brand new nurse home in frustration one day at the clinic because she was so upset that she couldn't even 'take his temp right'! It kept coming up 95.5 and around there, and she couldn't believe that was true. She just KNEW she was doing something so simple WRONG! lol) Recently his temp has fluctuated between that low and a relatively mild (for everyone else) fever of 99.6. When his temp goes up into the 99's he feels cruddy, has red, scratchy eyes, and is achy and needs to sleep. In essence, the same way you or I would feel if we ran up into the 101-102 range. If you believe his low normal temp, he *would* be experiencing a fever of approximately that level, and having the appropriate symptoms. We've been to doctor after specialist and xrayed, tested, and scanned multiple body systems, all of which tested out okay. He can't point to any one location on his body that hurts enough to definitively say it's the problem. His white count does go up and down like his temp, which suggests some low-grade infection somewhere. But he's been on at least six or seven different antibiotics in that time, and it's hard to believe that whatever ails him hasn't been killed in that period, if it were bacterial. And something viral should either pass or test out. What's left is wondering if this is a new surprise from the PD, or maybe a brand new drug side effect, although he's been on his current cocktail of drugs for about 10 years and it seems unlikely, though not unheard of. Has anyone else experienced anything similar? We and the GP have racked our brains and come up with a big zero. He's so tired of being sick and tired....at least if we had something to point to it would be a start. |
| ||
| ML, It could be something going on connected to P.D. Who knows? We learn more everyday. We know Parkinson's affects the Autonomic nervous system, in so doing regulating body temp could be affected. Are the fluctuations throughout the day? (if so I would think it might be P.D. , mimicking the dips and rises of the med's and off/on problems?) The blood count does seem to indicate infection somewhere, however if it's being fought by our bodies natural defenses, interruption of the signals to fight or turn off could lead to the fluctuations as an infection would strengthen, then weaken as the immune system depending on the signals to activate or turn off are disturbed and garbled due to lack of neurotransmitters. That is my best guess. If it is of a longer duration (one day up another down then I don't have a guess other than the body keeping infection right at the boarder line of spreading or being beat.). Don't know if it's any help but don't hesitate to question! As I said We learn more every day. (So do the doctors and they need to be challenged to expand the envelope of standard medical thinking when they encounter problems relating to diseases like Parkinson's) Take care, best of luck and hang in there. |
| ||
| Haven't experienced that, and I haven't a clue what might be causing it. But, viral infections might cause the white count to go up, and antibiotics wouldn't affect that. (Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections.) |
| ||
|
mylove: I will try to search the threads of our 3000 patient PD forum (PatientsLikeMe.com)for clues but do not recall anything close to his experience. Tune in tomorrrow for any answers I may get. Bob C here is the only one I found in old posts: posted by finestitcher on Nov 26, 2007 ... ) treatment in later stages of the disorder, where it is beneficial against end-of-dose fluctuations in motor function. There is tentative evidence that rasagiline can slow the progression of ... crisis Reserpine , guanethidine , tricyclic antidepressants Excitement Increase in blood pressure and body temperature Levodopa Excitement Hypertension Anticholinergics Risk of hallucination Antihistamines , barbiturates , ethanol , opioids ... 3 |
| ||
|
My guess is that he has some virus. I believe that PDers have compromised immunities, and that when they do get some crud, it knocks them down much harder than you or I would be, and for longer. My husband gets most of the stuff our children get, before PD, he was impervious to everything. So he is much more susceptible, AND when he gets it, he really gets it. Antibiotics only work for bacteria, and it sounds like he has already have plenty of those....so I am thinking he has something viral. I've never known a doctor who would give anything for a virus, so you might be limited to natural things like echinacea, vitamin C, chicken soup, and other things that we think boost the immune system. Oh, you probably already know this, but antibiotics wreak havoc on the gut, so you might want to give him some organic yogurt to help that area. Good luck. |
| ||
| I checked the PatentsLikeME website this a.m. and received six replies including 2 or 3 that went beyond hot flashes and including 2 men who sweat a lot and have night sweats. Stay tuned ! |
| ||
| My husband would flucuate between hot and cold although I rarely took his temperature. He would become so hot that his face would be red and then in a few hours he would be freezing. I always figured it was part of the PD influence on the autonomic nervous system. |
| ||
| Mylove-Funny you should post about temp. My husband came down with a cough 2-10-09 and started with high fever about 102 on 2-14-09. He could not even sit up in bed. I took him to the ER and they started IV antibiotics thinking he had aspirated. they kept him overnight for observation and all test were negative. By the time he arrived at the ER his temp was 97.5. they told me that adults run a normal temp below 98.6. He comes home no fever and then on 2-27 he started again with 100.5. We had an appt that day with his neurologist (good timing for once) and he said he thought he had a viral infection. He said viruses will undulate where you think you're well and then you start to run fever again. The neurologist advised alternating doses of 2 tylenol(325 mg) and then 4 hrs later give 2 motrin(200mg). Wait 4 hours and start back with the tylenol. this has worked like a charm. He was in such bad shape when he ran that high fever that I never want to see that again. |
| ||
| Lynn, your neuro was right, our son was recently sick with some horrible kid crud, then we thought he was better because he was eating and holding it down, and fever was gone...the next day, fever was back and is still here but better than it was. I guess it's not done with us yet. |
| ||
| Annwood-Do you remember when in your husbands history of pd these temp changes started to occur? |
| ||
| As I recall he had them for the last 10 yrs. They became worse the last 5 yrs. Do do any comparisons - this disease effects everyone differently. |
| ||
| All: AS of noon Mar 1, there were 15 more responses all indicating hot flash and/or "sweaty" symptoms. My guess is there will be many more posts so I will stop monitoring the patient site I used. Bob C |
| ||
|
Thank you everyone for looking into this issue for us. I'm thinking that we're still fighting something that the doctors just haven't found yet. We were told by one of the doctors, a little tongue in cheek but true nonetheless, that he'll either have to get worse or get better before we know: if he gets better, we all say "Whew! Don't know what that was but thank heavens it's gone!" If he gets worse, we'll say "Aha! There's the symptom we were looking for!" In the meantime we're plugging along, and so thankful for the support. It was helpful to find that a low body temperature isn't that abnormal, and to have validation that for him, a temperature of 99 degrees is feverish. I had a tendency to blow it off somewhat when it first came up, since I'm used to kids, who aren't really SICK sick until they get up over 101 or so. This is a good reminder to me that I need to be flexible and to trust him when he says something, as it's his body that he's been living in for the past fifty odd years. We learn something new every day. BTW, Lurking... the yogurt is a great idea and one we've been using since he had the colitis that started it all off. Recently we added a multi-probiotic, and as long as he's on the yogurt/probiotic/high fiber oatmeal, his gut seems to do much better. The colonoscopy he had in the diagnostic process showed some diverticulitis, which has since healed thanks to time, MORE antibiotics and the above trio. But the temp fluctuations linger. Will let you all know if we find something definitive. |