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Larry
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« on: March 07, 2010, 12:11:32 pm » |
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No it's not a new soda. Although, it has a catchy name, this is an obscure disease that affects people at random and if it is not properly diagnosed in time death will be the final outcome.
FYI - I just wanted to pass along some information about a disease that my wife had just contracted which was suppose to be a rare disease, less than 300 cases in 100 years, but as I did a little more research, I have found that this disease is a lot more common than Wikipedia and other sites have led me to believe. So for this reason I decided to share this information with my collecting buddies.
The reason I want to share this is because it is a fast acting bacterial disease that spreads faster than cancer. Most doctors have never heard of it so it is passed off as mono, strep throat, or flu. The main symptoms that my wife experienced were a painful sore throat, swollen neck, on her left side, and mild fevers spiking to high fevers.
A quick story:
My wife had a low grade fever and a sore throat one night. She took some Advil and went to sleep. The next morning the fever was back and her throat hurt, but not a scratchy type of sore throat that you would normally associate with a cold, it was more of a sore throat that hurt when she swallowed and her neck hurt when she turned her head. Her fever was consistently mild (99 F. – 100 F), and would go down with Advil, but after two days of this she decided to go to the doctor.
The doctor preformed a throat culture, looking for strep throat, and decided that the achy neck was a pulled muscle. Strep throat was not found. So she went home and either the next day or the following day she had a fever of 102 F. She went back to the doctor who then sent her to the hospital for some blood work and a CAT scan. The CAT scan found a blood clot in the jugular vein. Luckily a doctor in the hospital (Lutheran General Park Ridge, IL.) mentioned that it looked like Lemierre’s disease.
Normally, besides the above symptoms of the sore throat, swollen neck, and fever, there will be a blood clot in the jugular vein leading to the lungs.
She has been on two kinds of intravenous antibiotics for the last two days and she is starting blood thinners for the clot. Luckily, there is no sign of the clot breaking off into her lungs. This bacterium quickly grows in an oxygen free atmosphere, plus it spreads quickly through the blood stream to other parts of the body. My guess is that if she stayed home and waited for this to get better, she would have eventually died. Hopefully, with the miracle of antibiotics, her body’s immune system, rest, and good care, she will beat this.
So remember, if you have a sore throat, a fever, and a swollen neck, get it checked out. Keep in mind that most doctors are not familiar with this disease. It is an old disease, pre-penicillin days, that might be making a comeback.
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