Fever And Sweating. Noticed Blood In Nasal Mucus. Taking Amoxicillin For Sinus Infection. Proper Cure?

Posted on Tue, 26 Feb 2013

Question: Hi I have a question about some symptons I am having. Last Wednesday I started having a fever that started out at 101.4. That night it broke and I sweated it out. For the past 10 days I have been fighting a low grade fever between 99 and 100.4. Associated with the fever I have been experiencing headaches in the front over each eye and also in the back around the occipital bone region as well as the mastoid process area. It also runs down into my neck and shoulders and causes tension pain as well. I am also having small amounts of yellow thick mucus streaked with traces of blood discharged from my nose from time to time. I also am having fatigue and some general body aches in my lower back and my legs. Yesterday I began to cough a little and everyone in a while there is some mucus that is expelled with my cough as well as a slight sore throat. I saw my sinus infection and wrote me a script for amoxicillin 875 mg twice a day. I have taken 7 pills and 72 hours later there is no change. However, I can take a Motrin or Advil and my fever breaks within two hours and the pain is gone. However it usually returns after 6 to 8 hours. I am not sure that this is a bacterial infection but a viral. Also, because of some of my past activities I would like to rule out ARS. I am just really tired fighting whatever this is. Can u give me some thoughts.

Answered by Dr. Dr. R.A. SINGH (53 minutes later)

Hi,
Thanks for writing your query.

After reading your post, it seems that you are having Upper Respiratory tract Infection (URTI) with inflammation in the sinuses (sinusitis).

The causative organism is usually bacteria and can be treated with an antibiotic.
Since you are already taking an antibiotic (Amoxicillin) and there is no relief, there might be a possibility that the organism is not sensitive to amoxicillin.

I would suggest that you should get following investigations done to plan your treatment in a more organized and better way :-

1. Culture/sensitivity of the nasal discharge.
2. Throat swab culture.
3. Complete Blood Count(CBC).

Fever and infection take a few days to subside completely.
You can take Ibuprofen (advil/motrin) twice a day after meals along with an antacid and with paracetamol 500 mg 3-4 times a day. This will help in reducing the pain/inflammation and fever.

Also add antihistaminic like Fenofexadine along with a decongestant like phenylepherine.

Doing steam inhalation and warm saline gargles will help in relief of your symptoms.
Give rest to yourself for speedy recovery.

I hope this is helpful to you. If you have any query, I will be happy to help.
Thanks.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Shanthi.E