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Rocky mountain spotted fever recurrence
Rocky mountain spotted fever recurrence
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Specialities include: Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Urgent Care, Radiology, Pathology, Anesthesiology
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What test did they do to confirm this?
What was the antibiotic given?
I am Noah's mom. He was hospitalized at New Hanover Regional Hospital in Wilmington NC and diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever AND mono. I don't remember the antibiotic and honestly we have never thought about RMSF again. He was 16 at the time and missed the last 3 months of his sophomore year and all of the summer recovering. He is now 23. He was at the urgent care last week with the high fever again (2 times at urgent care and one time at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte where he is in college in the last couple of weeks) and somehow it came up about the RMSF. They asked him if he had been cured. I still did not think anything could be related to this rash started coming on last night and is spreading. He took Benadryl but says the rash is starting to hurt. Not itchy, hurting.
OK
So no blood work at all?
Any treatment from the ER?
Presbyterian Hospital did do blood work but Noah never heard back. They also did EKG, chest scan x-ray, Flu and strep test. When he went to the urgent care, Presbyterian would not share their test results, so flu and strep was redone. steroids and antibiotics were given.
The first one I had never heard of, second one was amoxicillin.
He is on these medicines now?
And, did the rash start after the antibiotic treatment?
He is not on any antibiotic now, completed 5 days ago.
OK.
And, was there any exposure that from where he might have re-contracted this disease?
And, what are his other symptoms now besides rash?
High fever sometimes (104'), chills, headache, severe diarrhea, his brother(roommate) says he seems almost dazed/confused at times. VERY pale skin coloration.
OK.
If he has finished the antibiotics and has a 104 fever still, then there is a problem.
Treatment should have been with Doxycycline and should have been for at least 10 days.
The Amoxicillin purpose is unclear if they really thought it was RMSF.
The rash is occurring after the antibiotics so a drug reaction is an important possibility, and if he has a 104 fever still he belongs in an emergency.
Confirmatory lab tests take a while but should show up positive eventually if this was really RMSF.
You are not giving me a repeat exposure history. The illness should not recur after successful treatment in the past. Once you are cured, you are cured.
Now, all of that said, the rash in RMSF usually occurs after 3 days of fever, does not occur on the stomach typical, and does not itch, just to give you some guidelines.
The confusion you describe at this point, regardless, means back to the hospital.
Good luck
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