If my condition persists for more than 24 hours, I will seek professional, state-licensed, medical attention.
I think I caught a bug or something. Coughing, no appetite, alternating feeling cold then warm, tired, a little dizzy, headache.
I took my temperature this morning, without having had anything to drink or smoke. It registered a little above 95 deg F. This has happened before, and usually turns into a garden-variety cold (minor upper respiratory infection) that runs its course in about 10 days.
When this happened in the past, when the nurse or PA took my temperature, they didn’t believe I had a fever because of the low reading. So, what are the possible reasons for my temperature to be below the average “normal” 98.6 deg F when I got sick, and not above?
Did you ever check your temperature when you weren’t sick? In the morning before you had anything to drink or smoke? Ever try a different thermometer?
If a little above 95 isn’t your normal temperature, and your thermometer is accurate, somehow your metabolism has slowed down, or your body has become less conductive where ever you’re sticking that thermometer. That might be a reaction to an infection.
I have no ides for medical reasons but when it comes to the measurement itself:
98.6F is an average, which means that there are people who have a higher normal body temperature, and also some with a lower one. Using wikipediaas a cite, the observed range for oral temperature reading is anywhere between 92-101 F. Without knowing your particular baseline, this data point isn’t particularly meaningful: you might simply be someone whose normal temperature is low, and you are measuring that value and not a fever or anything due to medical issues. OTOH, you might indeed have a fever if the value is more than a couple of degrees above your baseline!
Alternatively, your thermometer might not be calibrated and it might have a bias towards reading lower values than actual. You’d have to compare to a calibrated thermometer to know, and just correct for the bias. I don’t know how likely this is, and you say that you’ve had low temperature readings before using another thermometer, so it seems less likely. It’s still possible, though!
Yes. Yes. [del]Yes–at the doctor’s office[/del]. ETA: oops, misunderstood that part. Should have answered “No.”
Old-school oral mercury thermometer in mouth, under tongue, for 5 minutes.
Completely possible; but the low readings also occur at the doctor’s office, where I assume (well, hope!) their electronic thermometers are calibrated correctly.
IANAD. One’s temperature is often low first thing in the morning. Try again a few hours later and it’s probably higher.
A long time ago my then very young daughter was ill, and her temperature was below what was normal for her. She used to get ear infections and strep throats rather easily back then, so we had a trip to the pediatrician. He said not to be at all concerned about the low temperature reading. It can be a part of the body’s attempt to fight off a virus or infection.
By what mechanism? I’ve always heard that fever is the body’s attempt to rid itself a virus or infection. What purpose would a revef (reverse fever) have?
The same thing. Your body isn’t thinking about what to do. These are reactions to infections that are built into our genes because people with these reactions reproduce more successfully than those with other reactions. The change in temperature may have an affect on the bacteria or virus, or may be a side effect of the body’s immune system reacting to it in other ways.
This may have nothing to with an overall body temperature though. The area under Toucanna’s tongue may be a little colder due to decreased circulation as the blood supply is concentrated somewhere else. Measured from, let’s say a different location, Toucanna might seem to be running a fever.
When I woke up this morning I felt very cold, even though I was wearing a wool sweater over a cotton sweatshirt, and wool socks. Took my temperature about 10-15 minutes after I got up: 96.6*. Realized I had mis-read my temperature from yesterday morning. It was closer to 96.6 than ~95.
Reading about 2 hours after I got up: 98.2.
Reading from right now: 98.4.
Headache has not abated. Occasionally light-headed/woozy. Although I’m wearing four layers of clothing–including a hooded rain coat–I still feel cold; as though I’m carrying a bag of ice across my shoulders.
Will see doctor but, earliest appt available is tomorrow afternoon. If things get worse before appt., will go to an after-hours clinic or ER.
Still would like to know why I have temperature inversion syndrome/disorder. Did I just make that up? ::wanders off to Google:: Nope. Not a medical term.
*All temperatures are in “degrees Farenheit”. My apologies to all the folks in those rational countries that use the metric system.
Are you a mouth-breather? I don’t mean that in a rude way, but a literal one. People who breathe through their mouths, whether it’s all the time or because their nose is stuffed up with a cold, tend to read lower.
Drinking a cold beverage will make you read lower for about 15 minutes afterward.
Immunocompromised people may never get a fever or may have reduced body temperatures during infections. But I assume you’d have mentioned if you’re HIV+, undergoing chemotherapy, taking steroids or otherwise immunocompromised.
Elderly people tend to be cooler than younger people.
It’s entirely possible the thermometer is inaccurate, too. I hate those things. Either the batteries run out, the patient can’t get it in the right spot under the tongue or I can’t find my probe covers… I threw out the one work gave me (well, not really, but it’s in my closet somewhere) and bought my own temporal one, instead. Still sometimes has errors, but not nearly so many.
ETA: 96.6 is within “norms”. 95 would have me finding another thermometer and calling the doctor if it was right and it was the first time it happened for a patient. But people have been recorded with “normal” body temperatures of 92…normal for them, that is.
As far as I know, I’m not. Maybe I developed that recently? Will bring that up with dr.
Will be 51 this year. Don’t know if that qualifies as elderly for the purposes of this discussion. I guess it’s a moot point, as my “normal” body temp is higher than average (99 deg F).
I’m using an older mercury thermometer. I’ll take it with me to the appt and see if it reads the same as the dr.'s.
I don’t know the reason, but I have had a low tempeture all my adult life, I have also had a slow heart rate. Used to also have low blood pressure until i started taking drops for my eyes and the sid eeffects were high BP. I am in my 80’s so I guess it hasn’t harmed me!
Good luck with the doctor. I complained to mine about being cold and tired all the time. He said wear more clothes. I have had numerous blood tests and everything comes up normal. I get told you can’t be sick because you don’t have a fever.
If you are a female it could be hormonal. My doctor said (since I am cold even in summer) it was hormonal and they don’t give hormones to a person over 70,because it causes more harm to them than good.
Mine is usually 96-97. For a few days last week, it was 95.2…all day, off and on a few tenths of a degree. When it went up to 98., I thought I’d die. I felt like crap the whole time.
For what it’s worth, mine is normally low also, 96 or so. So when it raises to even barely above ‘average’, for me that’s a raging fever. The doc doesn’t consider anything under 100 to be noteworthy, so I have been having various tests to figure out why I feel like crap since I obviously don’t have the flu 'cause I ‘don’t have a fever’.
Oh well, free x-rays, yay. Also had my first ekg which was normal, so that’s cool.
I have to wonder why docs bother with temperature readings at all if they’re just going to go by what’s ‘standard’. By the time you have a ‘standard’ fever, it’s obvious in so many other ways that the thermometer seems pointless.
Same, except I hit 38 and within a 6 month period I gained the first weight of my life and my bp went up. I was told I was getting old, end of story. Also was told that low bp is due to the body not regulating right, kind of like a broken car thermostat, so many people with low bp will ‘flip’ and have high bp for no other reason than something wasn’t working right in the first place.
But who knows, doctors all seem to say different things. My bp has been absolutely ‘normal’ lately, for the first time in my life. And I don’t know why. :dubious:
I swear, there’s a virus going around causing this. I’ve seen no news accounts or studies or anything, but your post just reminded me, I had 1/3 of my patients and my SO who just felt “off” a few weeks ago, and all had lower than normal temps. I thought it must be a problem with my thermometer, but fresh batteries and a back up thermometer all revealed the same thing. Lasted 3 days or so and then spontaneously resolved.
I just looked up their temps in my records: 96.3, 96.2, 96.9, 96.8, 96.2 and 97.1. None of them quite into red flag territory given the particular patients’ health histories, so I didn’t remember it until now, but all unusually low.
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