Diabetic, Was Placed On Insulin. Has Fever, Chills And Nausea. Should I Be Concerned?

Posted on Mon, 2 Sep 2013

Question: my 80 year old husband, who recently was placed on insulin by his doctor, has a fever of 102.3, had chills and naseau. should I be concerned enough to call an ambulance?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ivan Romich (1 hour later)

Hi and welcome to XXXXXXX
I dont think this is caused by insuline unless you suspect that there was wrong insulin dosage given to him(In this case you need to go to ER).
It sounds more like uroinfection which is commonly seen in his age and gender and cause fever with chills,fatigue and pain in lumbar area. Other site of infection can be lungs and upper respiratory tract if there is cough or pain in chest.
Both conditons require antibiotic managment and you should start it as soon as you can to prevent sepsis and other serious consequances esecially considering that he is diabetic(diabetes increases the risk of serious infections).so this is not some critical fever and probably will be self limiting , but you should visit your GP for antibiotic or get it in ER because of his age and diabetes.
Wish you good health. Regards.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar