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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes Chronic Headache, Cough And Chest Pain?

8 weeks ago my husband came down with flu like symptoms - sore throat, headache, cough, fatigue, extremely tired, loss of appetite and fever. He has continued to have a chronic severe cough - chest xrays 2 weeks ago showed patchy consolidation in right lower lobe. He still has a chronic headache, bad productive cough, fever/temperature, generally feels ill, fatigue/tiredness and just started having pain in left chest yesterday. We came back from a south pacific cruise 2 weeks prior to him getting sick. Any clues as our doctor is at a loss as to what is wrong with him.
Mon, 16 Mar 2015
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General & Family Physician 's  Response
Dear thanks for the question.

You should have mentioned about treatment taken too, as a course of antibiotics would have cured him. In that case a course of levofloxacin 500mg for 5 days can be tried before moving further .However if i were your treating doctor I would have followed following
1 blood work up for infections, level of haemoglobin, platlet count
2 sputum culture and sensitivity for antibiotics.
3 sputum AFB test to rule out tuberculosis as you have history of travel.
4 there is a possibility of malaria too if history of mosquito bite is there.
5 ultrasound scan of abdomen
6 nutritious diet with increased proteins and vitamins.
Your treatment can be decided based on investigations report only as you have chronic cough, fever, tiredness. Left side chest pain can be due to lung(tuberculosis), heart (infection, MI), spleen (malaria).

You can request above steps from your doctor and start treatment. Don't delay it.

I hope my reply will benefit you. Please write for follow up queries. Kindly rate this reply. I wish your husband a rapid recovery. Thanks
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What Causes Chronic Headache, Cough And Chest Pain?

Dear thanks for the question. You should have mentioned about treatment taken too, as a course of antibiotics would have cured him. In that case a course of levofloxacin 500mg for 5 days can be tried before moving further .However if i were your treating doctor I would have followed following 1 blood work up for infections, level of haemoglobin, platlet count 2 sputum culture and sensitivity for antibiotics. 3 sputum AFB test to rule out tuberculosis as you have history of travel. 4 there is a possibility of malaria too if history of mosquito bite is there. 5 ultrasound scan of abdomen 6 nutritious diet with increased proteins and vitamins. Your treatment can be decided based on investigations report only as you have chronic cough, fever, tiredness. Left side chest pain can be due to lung(tuberculosis), heart (infection, MI), spleen (malaria). You can request above steps from your doctor and start treatment. Don t delay it. I hope my reply will benefit you. Please write for follow up queries. Kindly rate this reply. I wish your husband a rapid recovery. Thanks