Thakator
12-17-2010, 04:05 AM
Having read Andrew's recent accounts of his bouts with fever (as well as noting that others have mentioned fever experiences), thought I'd start a thread to see how widespread as well as varied our collective experience just might be regarding this aspect of our WG life.
Fevers of unknown origin is one of the numerous signs of potential Wegs as I'm sure most of you know. In my case, it was of paramount importance to the docs during the early stages of the diagnostic process. I'd had them every ten days to two weeks for 8-10 months before seeing about them. The only commonality discernable was that they came on at the same time, between 7-11:30 PM and lasted until 4-5:00AM. Terrible shakes and profuse sweating. Then suddenly the frequency jumped to 4-8 nights a month and then to quite literally every other night for the two months immediately preceeding my WG dx. They have stopped since I started treatment.
Before the WG diagnosis, I was told that the most likely cause of protracted fevers was a deep seated infection, that the next likely cause would be certain cancers and that, should neither of these two prove to be causal, then it would be an autoimmune system problem. After spending time with an infectious disease center sufficient to rule out anything in that arena, it was on to the cancer route. Scans and other signs gave us good reason to first rule out lymphoma, then renal cancer, then adrenal tumors and finally lung cancer. Renal, by the way, has a habit of producing the fevers in the evening hours or so I was told.
Fevers every other night, no infection, no cancer - - so autoimmune it was. My rheumie suspected Wegs right off the bat given this history and it was ultimately confirmed via an open lung biopsy with a wedge resection (needed to rule out the lung cancer) and the removal of a large nodule.
Fevers, yet another symptom of this odd disease and another thing that effects some of us but not all of us and which effects some of us in one way and some of us in another. Typical WG, I guess.
Fevers of unknown origin is one of the numerous signs of potential Wegs as I'm sure most of you know. In my case, it was of paramount importance to the docs during the early stages of the diagnostic process. I'd had them every ten days to two weeks for 8-10 months before seeing about them. The only commonality discernable was that they came on at the same time, between 7-11:30 PM and lasted until 4-5:00AM. Terrible shakes and profuse sweating. Then suddenly the frequency jumped to 4-8 nights a month and then to quite literally every other night for the two months immediately preceeding my WG dx. They have stopped since I started treatment.
Before the WG diagnosis, I was told that the most likely cause of protracted fevers was a deep seated infection, that the next likely cause would be certain cancers and that, should neither of these two prove to be causal, then it would be an autoimmune system problem. After spending time with an infectious disease center sufficient to rule out anything in that arena, it was on to the cancer route. Scans and other signs gave us good reason to first rule out lymphoma, then renal cancer, then adrenal tumors and finally lung cancer. Renal, by the way, has a habit of producing the fevers in the evening hours or so I was told.
Fevers every other night, no infection, no cancer - - so autoimmune it was. My rheumie suspected Wegs right off the bat given this history and it was ultimately confirmed via an open lung biopsy with a wedge resection (needed to rule out the lung cancer) and the removal of a large nodule.
Fevers, yet another symptom of this odd disease and another thing that effects some of us but not all of us and which effects some of us in one way and some of us in another. Typical WG, I guess.