Thursday, July 24, 2008

Acute severe joint pain

She was a 30 year old housewife. She was literally carried in to my consulting room by her husband and her mother. She was writhing with agony at each movement of her joints.

She was perfectly all right in the morning.She walked down to the river[which was about 1/2 kilometre away] to bath, came back and made coffee.At that moment,before she could serve coffee her joint pain started with shivering and she had to be carried from kitchen to bedroom.

She had pain in small joints of fingers, wrist,elbow, shoulders,hip,knee and ankles. All those joints were warm. Her temperature was 101F. Rest of the examination was normal.

Yes, this is the classical onset of Chikungunya fever. I send her out in a wheel chair to get admitted.She was given medicines to reduce fever and inflammation of joints.The next day she was sitting happily ready to go home. Her fever has subsided and joint pains less.She will continue to suffer from joint pains for uncertain number of weeks, and thus may need to continue anti inflammatory drugs.



The fever and joint pains in chikungunya infection start so suddenly that some patients are able to tell the exact minute of onset. I still wonder why the onset is so sudden and unexpected.

5 comments:

Crystal said...

Glad you were able to help another patient with this horrible fever.

Curious, anything to do with bathing in the river?

If I recall a previous link to the fever, heck, if I could spell it I would, I know a simple copy and paste....anywho....it has to do with a certain mosquito...of which those little buggers Love standing water...

Glad the patient is feeling better. That sudden onset must be so scary, to go about your day, your routine and Wham, symptoms. Not fun. My best to all of those suffering and the most likely bunch that will visit you with these symptoms.

Good work Doc.

Unknown said...
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Arun.N.M. said...

I mentioned about bathing in the river to show how normal she was when she woke up.Aedes grow in stagnant clear water,not so much in flowing water.The symptoms start only 2 to 3 days after the viral entry through a Aedes mosquito bite.Thanks for wishes

shebi.... said...

dear doctor,
i was suffering from the joint pain due to chikun guniya for the last one and half month. i searched ur blog everywhere for ur mail id to mail u my doubts.. cudnt find any.pls tell me how can i clarify my doubts rgding my pblm. i appreciate ur works done in ur blog...

Arun.N.M. said...

Shebi, you can email me at doc6568@gmail.com with the details of your illness