fever of unknown origin

I have just come out of hospital after spending two weeks with drs. trying to find an infection site. I have had two cycles of vinoralbine…given day 1 and day 8 with two weeks off. After I had the second cycle I spiked a temperature of 38.1 which means a trip to my local oncol. unit and straight to my hospital…after blood test and trying to grow cultures finding nothing they continued with day 8 of my chemo. Within two hours my temp went from 37.4 to 39.9 in about ten mins. I had uncontrolable shakes and terrible pain in my joints…this was brought under control with paracetamol in twenty mins. I was then started on anti biotics…they said just incase there was an infection but it had not come to the for yet. More blood test and still nothing was found.I came out bank holiday monday and have continued to take my temperature reg. ever since. It still yoyos but has stayed under 38 for the last couple of days.
Has anyone had a similar experience.
I have now referred myself to the Marden as this is the second lot of chemo that has not worked for me (re history) and I feel that we are just going down the list of what might be worth a try.
Any input would be great.
Thanks take care Onetit

Hi Onetit,

I had a similar experience. I kept on experiencing fevers toward the end of weekly taxol. To begin with they assumed it was caused by an infection in my hickman line. Various blood tests could not find the cause. Eventually, one chemo day, my temp peaked at around 40 and they found a bed for me and took me in. I was due a routine scan that day, which showed a nodule on my lung. This was then diagnosed as Rhodococcus equi, an unusual and very serious infection. They wanted to keep me in for three weeks IV antibiotics. In the meantime, they tested the culture to find out which antibiotics might fight it. I was eventually put on two (or three - can’t remember) months worth of oral antibiotics (usually used to treat TB and similar) to take at home. I was lucky and the infection cleared. I think they wrote a medical paper about my case.

I have heard of others picking up rare forms of pneumonia (which mine was) and also that this is becoming more common in people with compromised immune systems (I.e. chemo patients). I think I may have had this for a couple of months before it was finally diagnosed and noone had any idea where I may have got it from - it had not been seen at my hospital in years and is more common in Aids patients.

Without wishing to scaremonger, I would make sure they find out what this is as some of these rare infections are extremely resistant to antibiotics and you would not want anything nasty to take a hold. Maybe suggest a scan to make sure nothing untoward in lungs (like mine) At the time I really thought this was going to see me off instead of my BC! There is still a little scar tissue in my lung which shows up on scans and always causes a bit of panic as I presume cancer has spread even further - heaven forbid. Well, I hope they soon sort you out and that it is nothing serious. Let us know how you get on.

Jenny