Periodic Pediatric Fever Mystery
The Washington Post published an article today about mysterious periodic fevers in pediatric patients.
Those were the hours when whatever was wrong with his baby daughter Claire seemed most terrifying, when alternating doses of Motrin and Tylenol did nothing to quell the fever that would spike as high as 106 degrees and when the surgeon and his wife, a nurse, would tersely confer about whether to pack their toddler in ice to try to stave off another seizure that would require a sprint to the emergency room.
For months, these nights occurred every three weeks or so like clockwork, preceded by 24 hours of dread, waiting for the onset of the mysterious fever that lasted four or five days.
The treatment turns out to be simple and routine. Also, the father mentioned in this article is a surgeon and ended up co-authoring a study on the subject for the February 2008 issue of Archives of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery.
Link to Washington Post article
Link to related article from Archives of Otolarygology—Head & Neck Surgery