Unknown illness with extremely high fever

sefgradilista said:Please, I am begging you to read this and try to help me. It’s about my father.

He was born in 1957. He’s a smoker, doesn't drink, and has psoriasis which actually cleared up about six months ago. Otherwise, he’s healthy.

For the last four weeks, he’s been hit with these massive shivering fits followed by a sudden spike in fever up to 102°F. We’ve been using Voltaren to bring it down—first tablets, then suppositories—and the fever drops after about two hours. But then, four hours later, the violent shivering starts all over again. This cycle repeats several times a day, every single day. There aren't any other symptoms besides an occasional feeling of nausea toward food. He is currently on antibiotics.
His blood work, chest X-rays, and everything else they ran at the infectious disease clinic came back completely normal.

He was hospitalized in the infectious disease ward about a week ago. It looked like he was finally turning a corner because he went 2 or 3 days without a fever, but then it came roaring back along with the chills. Then, out of nowhere—literally overnight—he developed severe inflammation in his right eye, which they are treating with drops now. A new chest X-ray suggests there might be pneumonia, though the doctors aren't sure if it's actually present. More antibiotics. His blood sugar today was extremely high at 13.5. The shivering and high fevers are still happening daily, multiple times a day. That nausea comes and goes, usually lasting a few hours.
The doctors suspected cancer or maybe tuberculosis, but they eventually ruled those out. They just can't figure out what's going on.

If anyone knows what this could be or has advice on which specialist we should see, please write back. This entire situation is a total catastrophe. 😢

Which antibiotics is he taking?
Is he in the hospital right now? If not, what are his primary diagnoses?
A glucose level of 13.5 mmol/L isn't "off the charts" high, but it's definitely elevated.
You aren't providing nearly enough useful information here.

Have you been out of the States lately?

Maybe somewhere like the Florida Keys. I saw a report saying mosquitoes have been carrying some Asian disease over there recently, but the mayor refused to fund the mosquito control efforts because he wanted to cut a check to the local pro soccer team instead.

Good evening, everyone.
To provide some context, I’m speaking about my grandfather. He’s 67—an advanced age, certainly, though I’ll get to the heart of this matter shortly. For roughly a month now, he has been hospitalized, fighting a persistent, unrelenting fever of 104 degrees. They have put him through every conceivable test imaginable: brain CT scans, lumbar punctures, bone scans—the list goes on and on.
The medical staff insists they are dealing with a bacterial infection, but one that seems deeply, stubbornly embedded within his system.
We would be inclined to believe them, truly, but there is a haunting parallel here. Back in April of this year, my uncle suffered from these exact same symptoms.
A constant 104-degree fever, yet every single test came back perfectly normal. He felt fine, despite the heat radiating from his body. After exhausting every diagnostic option here in Savannah, he was transferred to a major hospital in Chicago, but even there, they hit a dead end. Tragically, the outcome was fatal; he passed away in July at just 55 years old.

Even the doctors have admitted that my grandfather's fate lies more in God's hands than in their own. I am reaching out because I want to know if anyone here has any insight into something like this, or perhaps you have read about similar cases?

Thank you all for taking the time to read this. My apologies to the moderators if this thread belongs in a different section.

Has he traveled outside the States recently? I wonder if we might be looking at Legionnaires' disease.
A while back, an acquaintance of my father passed away from a similar bacterial infection... but since he had been traveling abroad, the consensus was that he picked up the bacteria during one of his trips overseas.

I’ve heard about a case just like that before. Pretty much identical, actually. Honestly, if it weren't for this forum, I probably wouldn't even know these things happened elsewhere. I guess they just try to keep it all under wraps, or maybe they're just hiding it.🙄

The presence of E. coli—better known as Escherichia coli—has been officially confirmed.
Yet, for some reason, they can't pin down its exact location.
It’s absurd. After scouring every single organ through every possible test, there is zero evidence of the bacteria in the tissue itself, yet the bloodwork insists it's right there in the system...

Did they mention any other symptoms besides the high fever? I was reading somewhere that in cases like this, you often see things like diarrhea, vomiting, or even anemia...

It’s usually pretty clear what we're dealing with—even if I can't quite put my finger on the specific culprit right now—but antibiotics should do the trick, provided we aren't running into the growing issue of antibiotic resistance these days.

I’m really hoping for a positive outcome here; since they're at the hospital in Chicago, I'm sure they'll pull out all the stops. Keeping everything crossed for them. 🙂

Every single type of antibiotic they’ve thrown at him—nothing works. Not a damn thing. There isn't even a hint of improvement.
His general health seems fine, I suppose, if you ignore the fact that he's looking deathly pale, though that’s likely just from pure exhaustion.
The C-SPAN levels are elevated and he's been dealing with these violent chills; the shivering finally let up, but that C-SPAN number refuses to budge.
A high fever would practically kill him, and to make matters worse, they can't even pinpoint the location of the bacteria. He’s currently stuck in an infectious disease ward at a hospital in Savannah.