Medical Question

[camlo]

I recently returned from the most wonderful first safari to South Africa I could’ve hoped for. 4/16-4/28. I started a post on it to detail my hunt and I haven’t been able to add to it yet. I have been very ill since arriving back and am at my wits end trying to figure it out. I’m hoping someone on this page can shed some light.

We hunted around Bela Bela in Limpopo and the entire trip I only had two confirmed tick bites. I had one more I suspect was a tick but I scraped it off and didn’t think anything else of it. No real issues at the site of the bite but on my return flight 4/29 I started noticing ear ache symptoms. I started on antibiotics when I arrived back in DFW. The rest of that week I experienced fevers, intense ear pain, extreme lethargy. 5/2 I went to the ER for blood work and more antibiotics. I have been tested for Lyme and other things that have come back negative. More testing is currently ongoing. 5/5 I began to show signs of Bells Palsy such as facial paralysis. More intense ear pain and dizziness. Back to the ER that night for IV antibiotics and more blood work. 5/6 I had a MRI that was pretty inconclusive other than identifying some fluid in my inner ear. After the IV antibiotics on 5/5 the pain has thankfully subsided to a tolerable level and I am no longer as tired as I was but my dizziness still persists and is preventing me from driving. I have been taking augmentin and Doxycycline plus a few others.

Has anyone experienced symptoms like this upon return from a Safari and what was the diagnosis.

Not looking to take medical advice from a forum as scripture just trying to narrow this down so I can move forward.

Thank you all.

 

[WAB]

Get to an infectious disease clinic with African experience asap. Most major cities have one. Local docs are not trained or equipped to diagnose this type of thing.

 

[WAB]

Get to an infectious disease clinic with African experience asap. Most major cities have one. Local docs are not trained or equipped to diagnose this type of thing.

And yes, I am speaking from experience!

 

[Brod]

Get to an infectious disease clinic with African experience asap. Most major cities have one. Local docs are not trained or equipped to diagnose this type of thing.

Totally agree...

 

[sgt_zim]

Get to an infectious disease clinic with African experience asap. Most major cities have one. Local docs are not trained or equipped to diagnose this type of thing.

I.D. docs in the US live for this kind of thing. Mostly they treat MRSA and VRE and other such local nasties, but they took that specialty for the exotics.

@camlo - do what @WAB says, get to a major med center. DFW has one, Houston has a better one if you're down closer to this part of the world

 

[Andrew62]

Get to an infectious disease clinic with African experience asap. Most major cities have one. Local docs are not trained or equipped to diagnose this type of thing.

Great advice. Many years ago I came home from Cameroon, had something going on in my arm, I bypassed my local hospital and went to WVU infectious disease center, spent 3 days in the hospital receiving liquid IV's, was good to go after that.

 

[camlo]

We’re not far from UTSW here in Fort Worth. I appreciate the advice gentlemen.

 

[wesheltonj]

UT Southwestern is the best medical school in the state. I would call up and get an appointment with one of their faculty.

Slightly further afield, Tulane has a whole school dedicated to Tropical Medicine.

 

[Saul]

I recently returned from the most wonderful first safari to South Africa I could’ve hoped for. 4/16-4/28. I started a post on it to detail my hunt and I haven’t been able to add to it yet. I have been very ill since arriving back and am at my wits end trying to figure it out. I’m hoping someone on this page can shed some light.

We hunted around Bela Bela in Limpopo and the entire trip I only had two confirmed tick bites. I had one more I suspect was a tick but I scraped it off and didn’t think anything else of it. No real issues at the site of the bite but on my return flight 4/29 I started noticing ear ache symptoms. I started on antibiotics when I arrived back in DFW. The rest of that week I experienced fevers, intense ear pain, extreme lethargy. 5/2 I went to the ER for blood work and more antibiotics. I have been tested for Lyme and other things that have come back negative. More testing is currently ongoing. 5/5 I began to show signs of Bells Palsy such as facial paralysis. More intense ear pain and dizziness. Back to the ER that night for IV antibiotics and more blood work. 5/6 I had a MRI that was pretty inconclusive other than identifying some fluid in my inner ear. After the IV antibiotics on 5/5 the pain has thankfully subsided to a tolerable level and I am no longer as tired as I was but my dizziness still persists and is preventing me from driving. I have been taking augmentin and Doxycycline plus a few others.

Has anyone experienced symptoms like this upon return from a Safari and what was the diagnosis.

Not looking to take medical advice from a forum as scripture just trying to narrow this down so I can move forward.

Thank you all.

My wife is an MD and I showed her this post. She said her first thought would be Lyme disease, and a false negative test result is not uncommon early on, but that you NEED to get seen by an infectious/tropical disease MD ASAP.

 

[MontanaPat]

Agree with the others, I’m a pharmacist by training and doxycycline is the only thing that works for tick fever. Sounds like you’ve had that treatment and then some. Get to an ID specialist with a background in Tropical disease. UTSW should have someone

 

[ActionBob]

If it's tick bite fever, you must take doxycycline but also at a high enough loading dose and a high enough daily for enough days. Most US doctors will NOT give you any where near a high enough dose nor for long enough.

I hope you are getting into a specialist tomorrow!!!

 

[wesheltonj]

We’re not far from UTSW here in Fort Worth. I appreciate the advice gentlemen.

UT Southwestern in Dallas by Parkland Hospital, not Fort Worth.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Infectious Disease Doc ASAP … hope you feel better so you can get on with planning your return trip

 

[sgt_zim]

 

[sgt_zim]

 

[WAB]

Let us know how you make out @camlo.

 

[jlb1036]

1 get seen by infectious disease clinician
checked out for sleeping sickness and also babeosis

 

[Bert the Turtle]

An intern in Johannesburg could probably diagnose you in about 5 minutes but as others have pointed out, you’ll need an expert specialist here. What’s common in one place is exotic somewhere else.

The way we were taught the common things are common was “when you hear hoofbeats think horses not zebras”. I wonder if they say it the other way around in South African medical schools.

Lyme disease is common here but it would be quite an oddity to pick up in South Africa.

 

[sgt_zim]

An intern in Johannesburg could probably diagnose you in about 5 minutes but as others have pointed out, you’ll need an expert specialist here. What’s common in one place is exotic somewhere else.

The way we were taught the common things are common was “when you hear hoofbeats think horses not zebras”. I wonder if they say it the other way around in South African medical schools.

Lyme disease is common here but it would be quite an oddity to pick up in South Africa.

Occam's Razor.

Mom has HX of colon cancer (around 2002 or 2003), they took about 4 or 5" of her transverse colon and she's been fine ever since, until recently.

About 18 months ago, she started losing weight, it took them almost a year to diagnose stomach cancer with signet ring cells. All the docs were looking for horses, not zebras. In Japan, where this sort of cancer is common, I imagine she'd have been quickly diagnosed. But it just isn't very common here.

She was of course upset they didn't diagnose her sooner. But all docs are trained to look first to common things rather than wasting time looking for rare things. And it takes a while to exhaust the possibilities of things within 2 SD of the mean.

 

[Bert the Turtle]

Sorry to hear about your mom. One never wants to be “an interesting case”.