Post-surgical fever?

[manetta]

My father had surgery to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm last Thursday. Thank God, the surgery was successful. He stayed overnight in the hospital and was discharged early Friday afternoon. He had a mild fever when he was discharged and has had one off an on since then. He is also still extremely weak. I have been riding my mother for days to call the surgeon about the fever. I can't believe they ever discharged him from the hospital in the first place. :mad:

Fast forward to this morning. My mother calls to tell me that my father has no fever this morning, but had a temperature of 102 last night. I basically tell her to get my father's things together because I am coming over and taking him back to the hospital. She swears she is hanging up and calling the surgeon. My father has an appointment at 3 today.

I am scared to death. :( All sorts of scenarios are running through my mind. Fever is a sign of infection and I keep thinking that maybe he is rejecting the stint? I don't know. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Thanks for letting my vent. :(

[erinl]

I had a goofy fever like that after my c-section. My incision was infected, but they noticed that while still in the hospital and cleaned it up. The fever lingered for a couple of weeks. They did CT scans to look for a deeper infection and couldn't find anything. Oddly enough, the fever went away for good the day after I finished my course of antibiotics. In my case, they didn't want to let me leave the hospital with a fever. After a week, though, DH threw a fit and got me discharged. At least at home I could get some sleep.

Don't sweat it too much, but definitely get him looked at. Let us know how he's doing.

[mcgeiger]

I wouldn't panic yet, especially if he has no fever this morning. Fevers are the bodies natural reaction and 102 is not that high (104, 105 would be worse!). Unless something catastrophic happens between now and 3, IMHO I would talk to the surgeon then...

[karen w]

There are many different causes of post surgical fever, infection as you mentioned being one of them. However, I have to agree with the above posters that if infection were the issue, I doubt the fever would be gone in the morning and he would probably be getting progressively worse without treatment. Probably the most common cause of fever after an operation, especially a major abdominal procedure such as your fathers, would be an entity called "post op atelectasis." In more understandable terms, he is not taking as deep a breath as he should be and his lungs are not being completely expanded. This is usually due to pain or a big abdominal/chest incision etc... The fever from this is typically lower and comes and goes. I hope that they gave him some breathing exercises or a device(spirometer) in the hospital that he can use at home. That would help. This in itself is not a dangerous condition except that if the shallow breathing continues, it could lead to pneumonia. Having said all of that, it is always better to error on the side of caution, and it is difficult if not impossible to make a diagnosis via the internet, so I would get your dad in to see someone. If not for anything else, it would give you peace of mind. Good luck.

Karen

[mbrogier]

Usually hospitals freak over a temperature of 101. I would insist on some blood cultures to make sure there isn't any infection anywhere. Some people, like me, just run fevers after surgery. Mine aren't very high, though.

Last year after Rob hemmoraghed after hernia surgery, he ran a fever of 101 for a few days. The doctors wouldn't let him leave the hospital until he was fever free for 24 hours. The doctors did blood biopsies and other tests and didn't see any infection, but they wanted to make sure that everything was ok before he was let go.

I hope your father is ok. Did the surgeon have some idea of what was going on? I'm glad the surgery caught the aneurism. How awful. (((Manetta)))

[manetta]

Thank you all for your kind responses and reassurance.

My father did see the surgeon yesterday afternoon, but he is not really sure what is going on with him. He gave him a prescription for a strong antibiotic that my father was to take last night and instructed my father to call him this AM if he still ran a fever. I talked to my mother around 8 last night and he was running a fever of about 101 at that point. :(

The good news is that the surgeon promised some resolution by the end of the day today. My dad is going back to the hospital at 1:30 for blood tests and another CT scan.

Karen W , thank you for the information on post op atelectasis. I will definitely mention this to the doctor. I am fairly certain that my father was not visited by a respiratory therapist when he was in the hospital and I know that he has not been doing breathing exercises while at home.

I can't begin to thank you all for your support. I have been so worried. I will keep you all posted.