Speculations on a mysterious illness

Factual Questions
1

Y’all have helped me out on several issues–everything from legal questions to musings about the nature of the universe–so I thought I’d see what y’all’s take is on a medical problem.

My boss has been very ill for the past 5 days or so. She has no idea what’s wrong with her, and frankly, neither do her doctors.

So far, testing has been inconclusive, but all the results aren’t in yet.

If anyone would like to speculate on the cause of her ailment, these are her symptoms:

  1. &nbsp Fever, sweating, and chills begins everyday around 3 pm. Lasts for 6 to 8 hours. Fever peaks at about 103.6&deg.

  2. &nbsp Normal White-Cell count, but a very low Red-Cell count.

  3. &nbsp Rash on various body parts.

  4. &nbsp Dehydration and exhaustion (possibly due to fever.)

  5. &nbsp Blood in urine.

  6. &nbsp Recently had an episode of loud, ragged breathing, which was followed by a strange episode…she was unsure if she was breathing.

During the episode, she couldn’t feel or hear herself breathing for what seemed to be a very long time.

Then, she almost lost consciousness, but stayed awake through sheer willpower (fearing that she was either dying or going into a coma, she held her eyes open with her fingers!)

Hopefully, her doctors have admitted her into the hospital today.

She sounded ok on the phone, earlier–no hoarseness, coughing, or extreme fatigue was evident to me.

I’m mentioning this last, because this may or may not be the cause–before all this began, she was bitten by something, possibly a mosquito. The bite mark is now a blood-red circle with a black dot in the center.

Anyone here ever run across something like this before? Your help would be appreciated!

-David
And YES–y’all’s IS a word!

2

Sheesh just from the description of the rash, my first thought was “TICK!” But I am sure her doctors thought of this. Maybe spider bite.

Did you mean to say her symptoms start at 3pm everyday? That sounds bizarre in and of itself!

Hope she gets better, it sounds like she is a good friend. You seem very concerned. Good luck.

Rather, I was in the position of a spore which, having finally accepted its destiny as a fungus, still wonders if it might produce penicillin.
–Ayi Kwei Armah

3

Yeah, no kidding! My first thought was “Malaria”, but evidently, that’s been ruled out.

I hadn’t thought of a tick-bite, though…Lyme Disease or RMSF, maybe? She lives in South Carolina, if that’s any additional help.

-David

4

I would guess a tick, because of the circular rash. I think spiders leave more of a mark. What part of the country do you live in? Are mosquitos or even scorpions a problem?

5

sorry missed that you had said South Carolina. Black Widow or Brown Recluse (sp)??

6

The ring-shaped rash does sound a lot like Lyme disease (deer tick bite), but some of those systemic things don’t usually occur till much later. Try this and see if it fits for you.

Recovery from a black widow bite usually only takes a couple of days, and a brown recluse bite would already have produced a chunk of dead flesh at the bite site. It seems like you can rule those out.

A friend of ours had a similar problem and just got better over the space of a couple of weeks. It’s still a mystery to all of us, although tick-born diseases like erlichiosis sounded likely for a while.

Is she normally anemic? The low red cell count may be unrelated.

I lead a boring life of relative unimportance. Really.

7

This is not exactly but reminds me of what happens to my friend when she is bitten by a brown recluse. She was diagnosed by a dr. for the bite but they said her symptoms were weird. Anyway, I (not being any kind of medical person) said that it sounds like she had a severe allergic reaction since they ruled out an infection. She said that one of the persons in the ER thought that too but there was no way to know for sure.

Some of what you describe sounds like an allergic reaction. Fever, sweating, chills, rash, breathing difficulties, loss of conciousness (low blood pressure)…Maybe she is allergic to whatever bit her more than the usual person like my friend is with brown recluse?

8

I was expecting for you to tell us what happened by the time I got back from my trip. So, what happened? What’d they find out?

9

I was thinking it might be some nasty kidney infection, or something kidney-related anyway.

10

Diabetes mellitus?

11

C’mon Soulfrost!! I gotta know what is going on with this…

so…bump…

Rather, I was in the position of a spore which, having finally accepted its destiny as a fungus, still wonders if it might produce penicillin.
–Ayi Kwei Armah