Why Is A 89 Year Old Woman Experiencing Drenching Night Sweats, Painful Lumps In The Groin Area And Worsening Fever?

Posted on Wed, 22 Aug 2018

Question: My 89 year old mother has been ill now for 7 weeks. We thought it was a cold/flu at first with coughing, and fever. She has never had body aches, congestion or sore throat though. She has had two rounds of Amoxycillin , and has had 7 days of a broader spectrum antibiotic currently. Her fever goes down for a few days with the antibiotics, but never to normal, and then it starts creeping up again. She has drenching night sweats. She had a hard, painful node in her throat, but it went away on the antibiotics. She then got painful lumps in her groin area. These are worsening and making it painful to sit, and her temperature is creeping back up. It was 100.6 this morning and is up to 101.6 now. She had a blood panel and metabolic panel a week ago, and values were reported to us as normal. Something is clearly going on, that we're missing. She was, before this, in excellent health. Please advise. Seven weeks is a long time to run a fever and she is getting worn out.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Monika Dede (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
I suggest to do a protocol of FUO.

Detailed Answer:

Hello,

I have read carefully the history and I think that this is not simple situation.

In my experience this situation is considered a FUO (fever with unknown origin). So, based on this I think that she should do a long protocol of tests like full blood count with formula, blood culture, ERS, Protein C reactive, ferritin, fibrinogen, abdominal and cardiac ultrasound, pulmonary X-ray, ALP, LDH, Mantoux, interferon gamma.

Awaiting for the recent lab tests and I need to know if she had passed any diseases before even long time ago.

I hope my answer helps you.

Take care.

Dr. Monika Dede, Infectious Diseases Specialist

Note: Get a consultation booked to know more about aging related medical issues. Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana