Aleve good for fever?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Family.

I've been having fever chills etc for about a day and a half now. I started out taking advil, then alternating advil and tylenol. I didn't want to be taking so much so I took 2 aleve about 2 hours ago and my temp's not yet below 99.3. Is aleve not a good choice for fever?

Hey Southrnlpn

Naprosyn/aleve is "used for treatment of mild to moderate pain, inflamation and fever." http://www.medicinenet.com/naproxen/article.html

You're smart not to over-do tylenol. Very hard on the liver and the antidote is drinking mucomyst!!! Yuck.

Take naproxen with some food. Worst GI Bleed I ever saw was a poor arthritic fellow who was taking mega-doses of naproxen on an empty stomach.

See a Dr tomorrow if you're not getting helped by Over-the-Counters.

Neighborly advice

Papaw John

Specializes in Family.

I appreciate the advice Papaw! I should've went today but I felt too bad to get dressed (poor UPS guy). I may have to go back to the advil tho, cause my temp's going up now and the chills are worse.:chair: Not to mention the headache and abdominal pain. :chair:

Specializes in Family.

I just read that article, will I be ok taking ibuprofen before the aleve wears out?

Hey!!

Wow---I don't really know about that but I'd say-take it easy on mixing them up. Common sense (for what it's worth) would be that there is a certain amount of 'effect' (actually it's inhibiting the secretions of a chemical messenger that the cells of our body use to communicate with each other--'prostaglandins') and more meds won't add more effect. They'll only add side-effects.

I hurry to 'splain--I don't even play a Dr on TV and I did NOT stay in a HolidayInnExpress last night.

Two things: If you're still sick after taking good care of yourself, see a Dr! And I 'spose you're doing non-drug things: swabbing your self with water, cooling the room drinking cool fluids, stuff you'd tell your kids to do? That's the 'care' part of 'taking care of yourself'.

Hope ya feel better soon

Papaw John

Specializes in Psych, M/S, Ortho, Float..

I just had to add something here. I was on the same road that you are with the chills and the meds and the "can I take this yet?" syndrome. Finally got my butt into the DR's. A blood test and CXR later, I was Dx with Lt lung pneumonia. The whole thing. I'd been working the whole time that I was feeling crappy, taking meds to keep me from chattering through the shift, and sweating through the sheets at night. So now I'm on Abx and feeling better by the day.

I was sick for 4 weeks before I did anything about it.

So go see your Dr, especially if you feel like crap.

Jacquie

I've been having fever chills etc for about a day and a half now. I started out taking advil, then alternating advil and tylenol. I didn't want to be taking so much so I took 2 aleve about 2 hours ago and my temp's not yet below 99.3. Is aleve not a good choice for fever?

How high is the fever? Your body is trying to fight off a bug...

I think, rather than trying to medicate the fever away, you should see your PCP for a consult. You are only hiding the symptoms, not treating them.

If your fever is higher than 101 F for more than 24 hours, you should see someone... or at least call for a phone consult.

BTW, if your temp is 99.3, you don't need to worry about lowering it any more.

SJ

Specializes in Family.

I didn't take anything else last night and I went to bed about an hour after I posted last. My temp at that time was 100.7 and I was shaking like a leaf! Anyhow, I'm much better this am, temp 98.1 without taking anything. No, I wasn't taking anything for a temp of 99.3, I was taking the advil for a temp of 102. My concern was that the aleve wasn't bringing it down as well as the advil had been. Thanks everybody!!

Specializes in Family.

Well, I spoke too soon! I ended up going to Express care yesterday where they dx me with a kidney infection (didn't and don;t have any symptoms). Rx's septra. had to go to ER last night, terrible RUQ pain and temp 103.4 not responsive to meds. Also couldn't keep anything down. Turns out I do have the kidney infection but also a very distended place in my colon.

Potassium was low too.

i forgot how much but i drank two aspirin for my fever. i was groggy for 2 days. I slept most of that time from sat to sunday. When I woke up monday morning the fever is gone. a little dizzy but now i found out that aspirin is not only effective for my fever btu as well as for my insomnia. hehehe

Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

One thing you "could" do if you're wanting to try and avoid both the GI effects of nsaids and the liver effects of tylenol, is this: schedule a 4 hour flipflop. Well, that's what I call it. Like so: tylenol @12, aleve @4, tylenol @ 8, aleve @12, etc. 24 hours divided by 4 = six, but half of that is three since you're splitting it between two meds.

What you wind up with is 3 doses of tylenol and 3 doses of aleve (or motrin, your choice), in a 24 hour period. Take each dose with a little food (crackers?) and/or milk to help both your stomach and your nutritional/fluid status.

This way you can be taking 200-400mg of aleve each time if you need it, and an extra strength tylenol each time, and you're getting FAR less than what it takes to screw up your liver but constant coverage with some type of antipyretic.

I would not recommend doing this for more than ONE 24 hour period without going to see the doctor. Since you've already seen the doctor, disregard this for now and do what he said for that kidney infection.

I've been following your post but didn't post myself since others seemed to cover it. I was just wondering how you are feeling now? Is everything better now? Please update us. I hope you're feeling better. Rhonda

One thing you "could" do if you're wanting to try and avoid both the GI effects of nsaids and the liver effects of tylenol, is this: schedule a 4 hour flipflop. Well, that's what I call it. Like so: tylenol @12, aleve @4, tylenol @ 8, aleve @12, etc. 24 hours divided by 4 = six, but half of that is three since you're splitting it between two meds.

What you wind up with is 3 doses of tylenol and 3 doses of aleve (or motrin, your choice), in a 24 hour period. Take each dose with a little food (crackers?) and/or milk to help both your stomach and your nutritional/fluid status.

This way you can be taking 200-400mg of aleve each time if you need it, and an extra strength tylenol each time, and you're getting FAR less than what it takes to screw up your liver but constant coverage with some type of antipyretic.

I would not recommend doing this for more than ONE 24 hour period without going to see the doctor. Since you've already seen the doctor, disregard this for now and do what he said for that kidney infection.

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