Almost 7 weeks post surgery, spiked a 102 fever today and a real bad cough

[Rosebud54]

The z-pac I got on 9 May did not do the trick. Today the doc put me on Biaxin and said if I don't feel better by next Wed I will get a chest xray. Hopefully this will clear up the bronchitis this time. I figured by 7 weeks I'd be well on my to living my life.

Carol

 

[Bryan B]

Carol,

Please ask your doctor to do some blood cultures on you while you are at the office on Wednesday. Not to scare you but this will let them know for sure if you have a bacterial infection. Spiking a 102 fever makes me feel that it is possible that you do. If you do an echo is in order. This is finally how they determined that I had endocarditis. Unfortunately it took them close to 4 months to figure this out even though the bronchitis was cured after about 4-6 weeks. These tests could also determine that you don't have endocarditis so there is a positive side. If the blood cultures come back negative that would rule out a bacterial infection. If you do have bacterial bronchitis they need to treat it aggressively before it damages your valve. I hope that everything turns out fine for you.

 

[nngbwh]

Hope you feel better soon.

 

[Greg a]

Carol,

Please ask your doctor to do some blood cultures on you while you are at the office on Wednesday. Not to scare you but this will let them know for sure if you have a bacterial infection. Spiking a 102 fever makes me feel that it is possible that you do. If you do an echo is in order. This is finally how they determined that I had endocarditis. Unfortunately it took them close to 4 months to figure this out even though the bronchitis was cured after about 4-6 weeks. These tests could also determine that you don't have endocarditis so there is a positive side. If the blood cultures come back negative that would rule out a bacterial infection. If you do have bacterial bronchitis they need to treat it aggressively before it damages your valve. I hope that everything turns out fine for you.

That was exactly why I asked about blood work in your prior thread ...I think Bryan may be on to something and as with everything early detection and treatment may be the difference

 

[normofthenorth]

Good luck, and I hope you get back to some serious singing soon!

 

[Hockey Heart]

Man, I hope it's not Endocarditis (bacterial infection of the heart valve). I was hospitalized with this back in December and at first they thought it was a sinus infection and treated it with a Z-Pack which only helped for a couple days then the fever came back. Endocarditis is serious! It can kill you! A bacterial vegetative growth grows on your valve and then hardens and then breaks off in pieces into your blood stream and will cause a stroke if they go to your brain. Make sure they do an Echocardiogram or a TEE Echocardiogram to rule this out.

 

[PetraS]

Bryan,
I had endocarditis before I needed a valve replacement, all my blood cultures were negative! Still no idea where this infection came from, it is a rare thing but it does happen. Echo usually shows infection, although endocarditis can be sometimes difficult to diognose.
Carol, if you have previously taken any antibiotics, good chance your blood cultures will be false negative regardless an infection in your system (That was my case, started with high fever, GP gave me regular antibiotics, went home, week later ended up in hospital). Hope its just nothing and will go away soon. Taka care.Petra

 

[Bryan B]

Petra,

We must be talking about different levels of endocarditis because my blood cultures came back positive within 24 hours. My doctor took them on a Friday afternoon and he actually called me Sunday morning to tell me they had already come back positive. You are right that if you are on or have recently been on antibiotics you might get a false negative reading. I was on antibiotics for the bronchitis but that had been cured 2-3 months before I was diagnosed with endocarditis (3 rounds of antibiotics before bronchitis was cured). What they didn't realize is during the time I had bronchitis the infection had spread to my prostate AND my aortic valve. I had been telling my doctor for at least 4 weeks before they did the cultures that I thought I had endocarditis because I had all the symptoms. An echo will almost always show the vegetation on the valve if you have endocarditis. It took a positive blood culture before they would ever do the echo.

My point is/was that Carol needs to be aggressive with her doctors about this. Anyone with a valve defect or a prosthetic valve who has symptoms that may be a bacterial infection need to alert their cardiologist and get the appropriate tests to rule it out or catch it early. Otherwise plan on a valve replacement. IMO my symptoms of endocarditis were pretty obvious regardless of what the result of the blood cultures showed...I had every classic symptom. I also had a GP treating me that had never treated a patient with endocarditis and he was a dumb ass. That is why I am adamant that Carol be aggressive with her doctors. It's better to be aggressive with your doctors and be wrong than to not speak up and them be wrong.

 

[Rosebud54]

Well, now it's 9 weeks post op and I'm still coughing! I've was hospitalized two weeks ago and after every test know to man, they found nothing as to why I'm coughing only that my heart went down hill after surgery.

As far as the coughing they said I viral bronchitis. On many web sites...it states the cough is the last to leave and it could last 90 days...I'm getting so depressed over this cough..