Home from hospital
 

I've been in the hospital for the past week with a fever (3 weeks now) of unknown origin, shingles, diverticulitis and generalized internal inflammation. After a week on two IV antibiotics, I switched to oral yesterday and went from IV narcotic pain med to oral. Very weak and in a lot of pain but temp has been down for nearly 48 hours.

Oh dear Cherie,
I hate to hear about this. How are you faring now? I've heard shingles are maddly painful, especially in those of us with MS. Were you on anything like "VALTREX" for them? I'm sorry to hear of your woes, and hope you are on the mend soon.

How bloody awful. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Rest up now, and don't try and do too much.

My best wishes to you,

Chris

Finished valtrex yesterday. Rash is clearing but nerve pain persists.

I hope you feel better soon Cherie! That sounds awful!

So Glad you are home, Cher..:)

Now rest rest rest and heal.

Cherie,

So glad your home but sorry to hear the pain still persists.

Take care, 0357

Whoa, Cherie... sorry to hear this. I hope you feel better soon. How scary to have a fever that they don't know the cause of.

Rest up and get well soon!!

Nancy T.

Wow, Cherie . . . so sorry to hear of what you've been going through. :(

Shingles are very painful from what I've heard. Feeling rough from that, combined with a fever, etc, must have been left you feeling just awful!

Rest, relax, and get better soon!

Cherie

Cherie, Sorry to hear this. That is a long time to be in the hospital, since they generally do not keep anyone long now. My deceased husband had singles and it was just very painful.

Do antibiotics cause a problem with your MS? I have to take them occassionaly and they seem to send all my symptoms into orbit. I am always afraid I am in an exacerbation. I am always wondering if this is a real exacerbation or just a temporary increase in symptoms.

I hope you feel better soon. I remember it taking him a long time to get over them. This was many years ago and I do not remember what medications they had at that time, but I doubt it was Valtrex.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Virginia

I hope you feel better soon Cherie. I posted at PT that you were ill, in case some of your friends there had not heard. I hope that was okay to do.

Its curious that your grandson has chicken pox. I'm wondering if it triggered your shingles? Or just coincidence?

What is the breathing problem from? Is there fluid in your lungs? Don't lift a finger, just focus on resting.

HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HUGS!!!!!!!!! !!!!christine

Oh Cheri, what a horrible ordeal. Shingles pain is brutal.

Best wishes for a good recovery with no sequela.

You have my heartfelt sympathy. Shingles pain is brutal -- I know, since I had them last year. In my case, they were triggered by my enthusiastic suppressing of my immune system with Cellcept, in the hope of slowing the progression of my MS. Do you think yours were triggered by your fever? The Valtrex does help with the rash, but I'm sorry to report that the associated nerve pain hung around long after the rash was gone. The acute pain (in my case, pain in the bones of my spine and ribs) does back off, though. I'm really sorry, Cherie. I hope things are better for you soon.

Chris

I almost felt human again when I woke this morning. Showered, put on a long loose T-Shirt dress (still can't wear a bra because of the nerve pain from the shingles), rested a while, had a little to eat, rested, checked email. I'm hoping against hope that this is a "turn the corner day".

Last night still had lots of trouble breathing and felt like there was a fist in the top of my left lung. Couldn't talk for more than a few sentences without becoming short of breath. They looked for a blood clot in the lung and said "no". I suspect this is just all of the lymph nodes in the chest and abdomen quieting down.

A friend is coming over Tuesday on her day off to review my hospital record with me to see what might have been missed in finding a diagnosis for all of this. She's a clinical instructor in the nursing school.

The infectious disease doc questioned whether my Rebif was playing a role in the fever and shingles. We held two doses in the hospital and I was just going downhill, gave a dose, started to feel better byt a couple hours later, the rash reactivated and temp went from 98 to 102. That is when the chest pain and shortness of breath developed. I've had two doses since without incident so we just don't know.

They did not want to do steroids or CellCept because they felt there was just too much going on and way too many unknowns.

I think I've exceeded my sitting up limit for now. Later. Thank you all for your concern and support. It means more than I can tell you.

I am glad to hear you are seeing some improvement and I too hope you are turning a corner.

Did they do a CT Scan of the Lungs? (remember that in rare cases, interferon can cause lung granulomas which may not show up on xray but would on CT Scan)

Still praying for your recovery.

Wow Cherie -- this sound scary. I am glad you are having your friend come over and check out the records. Hopefully she can shed some light on whats going on. I hope it's not your meds. I have no clue or much to offer other than my support and prayers. Good luck - Keep us posted. :) Gail

BBS,
Yes, I had a CT scan of the chest on Wednesday night after the pain began on Tuesday. It was read as "benign". Hopefully the record will be ready for my husband to pick up tomorrow and I can see what they had to say beyond that.

So far today has been overall better than any day in the past two weeks. My daughter just called to say my grandson, who was thought to have chickenpox despite being vaccinated, is draining green pus from some of the sites. My gut tells me these things are somehow connected but I have no clue how. Grandson is on antibiotic as of this afternoon.

I'm wondering about your Grandson too. Sounds like the Herpes Virus is running rampant....shingles, chicken pox. I'm glad you had some valtrex.

That helped me when I had shingles of the face. The pain was horible, but I have had no residual pain, thanks to Valtrex, I think.

You know, Howard swares by Valtrrex for his MS. He's the only one I know taking it for MS.

So happy to hear that you are having a good day. I hope you have many more to come.:)

Saying a prayer for your Grandson.

Hugs,

Hello dear Cherie,
I'm glad to hear you had somewhat of a better day today. Had they done a VQ scan in hospital? I know sometimes our Mums will have PE's that don't show up on CT, but do show up on VQ scanning. I continue to think and pray for you. Get your rest now, and keep your spirits up.

Chris

Your Mums?

Hugs!!!
 

Cheri how are you faring today??? Sorry you have gone through this nightmare. Rebif??? Was on it and had horrible side effects plus compromised immune problems. Are you off of it??? Hope you see improvement and answers.. Miss you and was wondering where you were. Praying for a recovery. Love and hugs across the US Christine

Grandson now has green pus coming out of his "chickenpox" and is on antibiotics as of yesterday. I don't like this!:confused:

Still on Rebif. Have never had bad reactions to the med (interferon beta 1a) either in the form of Avonex(2 years) or in the 3.5 years I've been on Rebif. Have had three doses since the one that was questioned as being involved in whatever is going on with no increase in temp, pain or rash. In fact, the last of the shingles were gone when I woke this morning....yay Valtrex!

Able to get up and walk around and wait on myself today. Big improvement.

My doc called while I was writing the last sentence. He said that the rest of the labs had come back and showed that I had had parvovirus, cytomegalovirus and Epstein Barr Virus in the past but the infections were not active at the moment. He also said that some of the other tests done showed massive viral and bacterial loads and as long as I continue to improve with the antibiotics, I should be OK. Finishing tomorrow morning. I'll be happy to get off the flagyl and have those awful side effects gone.

It sounds as if things are looking up for you, Cherie. I'm very glad to hear it. Are you still having troubles with your breathing? I hope your recovery continues on this course.

Chris

Trouble breathing? Not nearly as bad. I can walk a few feet or stand at the sink or talk today without severe shortness of breath. It's improving. Thanks.

So, do they know how come you had such a huge viral and bacterial load?

Hi SallyC: I take daily Valtrex for the past couple of years to keep my Herpes in suprression. Maybe thats why My MS has done so well?

Benign. Is that the same as "normal", or "clear"? Tell us when you know more. I've been worried about you.

Also, did you call the Rebif people? The pharmas continue to collect data post marketing.

I'm kind of waiting to get the records from the hospital to get a clearer picture of what they saw before contacting anyone. I don't think it's the Rebif. The PCP and neuro do not think it's the Rebif (although that is not a favorite med for this neuro). At the moment, we are still in the dark as to the causes.

OMG--that is awful. Just shingles alone is unbearable. My, my, I really hope you're feeling better.

Cherie -- I'm so sorry to read of your recent problems, but glad to hear you say you're finally feeling somewhat better. Let's pray this upward swing will continue. Also my prayers will be with your grandson. When it rains.....blah...blah....blah!!!!

Take care.

Good morning. Just took the last dose of the two antibiotics I've been on. YAY!!!!! Maybe now my gut can calm down a bit. The phone started ringing at 7:30 this morning with recorded messages to get to the polls or vote on certain issues (5 calls in the past hour and 15 minutes). So I decided to get up, showered and dressed.

It's a better day. I can tell already. The morning routine and breakfast and I'm not so wiped out that I have to go back to bed. Dave is coming home from a breakfast meeting around an hour from now and we will go and vote. Will take the wheelchair in case the lines are long and I need to rest but will hope not to need it.

Blessings to all of you on your day and I promise to take it easy and try not to slip backwards.

OH! Another milestone! I actually can wear a bra today with the shingles having cleared! Feel almost human again.

Geez Cherie!
What a mess! I am glad you're feeling better. Can the doctors do anything to keep this from happening again? Let us know when you find out the possible cause. You must be a little nervous now when you do your shot.

Are they sure your grandson had the chicken pox? That vaccine is routine now. Maybe he had something else?
Keep recovering!
Jean

Grandson had the chickenpox vaccine. The pediatrician thinks it's a different strain that is vaccinated for and is calling it "wild" chickenpox. They have not done any tests on him because they say it will not change how he is treated.

I doubt , at this point, that they will find the cause of all of this now that the inflammation is no longer rampant and I've had a couple of weeks of antibiotics and anti-virals under my belt. I kind of wonder if holding a dose of the Rebif had me responding so strongly to the dose after the missed dose (with reactivation of fever and rash). However, there was only one missed dose and the ones since then have been without any negative side effects.

((((((((((((((((((Cherie))))))))))))))))))))))

So glad you are feeling better. Sounds like a rough few weeks but now on the mend. I hope it continues that way for you and your grandson. Sorry I just saw this. Glad you were able to get out yesterday (and wear a bra ;) as much as I HATE wearing one. :p lol
HUGS
Gina Marie

Every day seems to dawn with a new level of energy of ramping down of pain. It was two weeks ago today that this all hit the fan. Seems like months ago.

I am glad to hear you are still steadily getting better. Don't be a big shot :) Be sure to continue to rest, even though you are feeling improved.

Not planning on overdoing. Thought I might feel well enough to go to a lunch meeting but decided against it. Lots of increased abdominal discomfort this evening. It's been two and a half days since finishing the antibiotics and my system is still trying to normalize. Laying pretty low for now.

My mom used to say, "Don't be such a big shot, put on a coat" on chilly days.

Now, I say to you, "Don't be such a big shot, stay home" (said with humor and compassion)

Yes ma'am!:cool: