My girlfriend is in college. She went to bed yesterday with spots on her arms, legs and stomach. She woke up today with more spots, a low fever (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit), and a voice that sounds like a frog. She went to the crappy student health service, got blood taken, and waited two hours while they did tests, only to be told:
(1) They couldn’t find anything
(2) Because they couldn’t find anything, they think it’s some sort of virus, but they don’t know what kind.
(3) She should go home and rest, and let them know if it gets any worse.
I find this answer incredibly unsatisfying. Now, I know that if a trained medical staff (even a crappy one) couldn’t diagnose the disease after actually examining her, there’s no way you could do so over the Internet. However, it would make me feel a lot better if you could at least tell me some diseases that would have those sorts of symptoms, so that I could at least say “Well, there’s a chance it’s X.” Or if you could tell me whether there are any serious diseases that could manifest in that way, so at least I know what the worst case scenario is.
Please don’t chew me out for posting a medical question – I’m not asking for a diagnosis, I’m asking for a few possibilties. I know that any guess you make could be way, way off. But even so, having some possibilities in mind would make me feel a lot better. There are very few things that frighten me more than “We don’t know.”
(By the way, I’m not just calling the student health service crappy because of this incident – They told my girlfriend’s friend that she was pregnant, and she actually had an eye infection. I’m obviously not a doctor, but that sounds pretty incompetent to me.)
I thought of that, but she’s already had it. Unless it’s a myth about not being able to get it twice. Also, they don’t itch very much, but I’m not sure if chicken pox would in the early stages.
What do you mean by spots? Pustules? pimples? hives? goosebumps? open leprous ulcertaing wounds oozing viscous green ichor?
Spot doesn’t tell us much.
The hives type rash is very a common symptom of generic viral infection including from mononucleosis down to transient 25 hour bugs. I’ve had this type of infection myself more than once. There’s not much they can do because there are som many possible viral infections. I’m assuming the blood tests would have looked for the more obvious strains such as mono and meningococccal so now all thare is to do is wait it out.
“Spots” in this case means small raised red dots. Possibly they could be considered hives, but not very large ones. I’ve had nickel sized hives from an alergic reaction – these are much smaller than that.
By the way, if I ahem was intimate with her on Saturday (two days before she was showing symptoms), then I’ve probably already been infected, right? Meaning if she’s feeling up to it by Friday (the next time I’ll see her), I could ahem be intimate with her again without significantly increasing my risk, right?
I probably will either way, but it would be nice to know if I’m doing something really stupid.
Let’s start with something simple. Contact dermatitis. Has she changed her brand of laundry detergent/bath soap/shampoo/cologne? (Wouldn’t necessarily account for the low fever, but that could be something else.)
Then there’s a whole host of viruses - measles (in which case she’ll probably get a lot sicker); rubella; erythema or roseola (although the symptoms aren’t quite right) and a bunch of others.
As for your chances of increasing the risk of infection with continued intimacy, let’s put it this way. You’re playing Russian roulette. You pull the trigger once and nothing happens. Why not pull the trigger again? After all, your chances are still four out of five nothing will happen. Then again, because your chances are still two out of three, right?
You said they’re on her arms, legs and stomach. They’re not by any chance along the creases in the skin, like at the inner elbow and behind her knees, and where her clothes rub up against her skin (like her waist or wrist) and of a non-itchy, not growing-in-size type are they? It’s probably not relevant, but I went to the doctor with those symptoms about 5 years ago, and it turned out to be heat rash and a cold. Heat rash isn’t likely in the winter, but if you wear too many layers inside so you sweat…
Ok the spots just sound lije the generic viral rash. Assuming they’ve tested for mono and meningicocaal no real cause for concern. As I said and the health service said, these things happen.
Different diseases have different wondows whenthey are most infective. There’s no way of telling wheher this one was infectoive before or after the symptoms showed. Others like mono remain infective essentially forever. Like the man said, it’s Russian Roullette.
College students are generally required to get the MMR (measles mumps rubella) vaccine before they arrive. One hopes it would not, therefore, be the measles.
Well, laryngitis (“a voice that sounds like a frog”) is, in itself, essentially diagnostic of a viral infection. Assuming her rash is related to the laryngitis, which seems reasonable, it follows that the rash is also a manifestation of said virus (unless she took some antibiotics before the rash’s onset, in which case the rash may be due to the simultaneous use of the antibiotic and presence of virus - something that mono is notorious for).
As for what viruses cause laryngitis and rash, here’s a partial list (stolen from one many sites that seem to have stolen it from somewhere else):
parainfluenzae
influenza
respiratory syncytial virus
rhinovirus
coronavirus
echovirus
One “interesting” diagnostic possibility is that the rash is actually a sign of low blood platelets. In that case, the lack of platelets (which normally prevent bleeding) is a consequence of the recent viral infection and has led to tiny pin-point spots of bleeding in the skin (called petechiae)
Here’s a rundown of the traditional childhood rashes. With immunizations gumming up the works, it’s possible (although still unlikely) for a adult to get any of them if their immunization didn’t take, or if it’s worn off.
[ul]Fifth disease rash starts out on the face, and only then travels to the trunk and limbs, so that one’s unlikely. [/ul]
[ul]Roseola is a possibility, although that one usually has a splotchy, irregular rash, not distinct hive-looking things.[/ul]
[ul]Rubella also mostly begins on the face and then spreads downward. [/ul]
[ul]Measels begin on the forehead and work their way down the body to the feet, and the rash sort of melts together into large flat red or brown patches, so it doesn’t sound like that. [/ul]
[ul]Scarlet fever (yes, people still get that) looks like a sunburn with tiny bumps, and it tends to be itchy. It also starts on the face.[/ul]
[ul]Chicken pox *can *be suffered more than once in rare cases, usually if the patient had a very light case as a child. More often, though, instead of a second case of chicken pox, the patient will have shingles from the same virus. Shingles looks nothing like hives, so I doubt it’s that. Chicken pox begin on the trunk of the body and then spread to everywhere. They’re little red spots which look like pimples or blisters filled with fluid. This fluid builds up until the thing pops and crusts over. [/ul]
Sounds like a “viral rash - unspecified”. Seems like the clinic prob’ly got it right this time.
And, uh, leave her alone this weekend, m’kay? Even if you don’t catch it, her body doesn’t need the extra stress right now. Make her some soup and read her poetry while she’s resting. Beaucoup boyfriend points.
Given her low grade fever and pharyngitis I like measles (first choice) or scarlet fever (second choice). If her fever increased over 101 I would reverse the order.
Yes, and the people at the Health Clinics only have pretend M.D. licenses they got from California Upstairs Medical School? Yes, if your girlfriend sees a suffeciently large enough number of physicians, she may end up with a diagnosis, or even better yet, and accurate one, and it will probably still be a virus to which this new physician will advise said girlfriend to rest as much as possible for a couple of weeks and contact them if anything gets much worse.
