Spinal stroke injury question

[Nellie167]

I'm a nursing student precepting on a vent/trach unit and had a patient the other day who had a rare spinal stroke between C2 and C7 with no past medical history. She has been spiking temps for a couple of weeks now but they have ruled out any type of infections thtough weekly blood cultures. Does anyone know why or how she might be spiking these temps?

[Bumashes, MSN, APRN, NP]

Just a shot in the dark here but...

My husband is a C4-C5 quadriplegic, and when something is wrong with him (infection, pressure spot, impaction, etc.) he sweats, his temp goes crazy, he gets wicked headaches, and his BP goes through the roof. When you have a spinal cord injury like his, your body loses its ability to thermoregulate like a normal person. So my guess is just that this person has lost the ability to thermoregulate and their body is overcompensating temperature-wise. My husband said right after his injury, his body would do that. He could spike a temp or drop to a low temp for no reason at all at first. Now, it only happens when something is wrong with his body. It's his body's way of telling him something is wrong. But this is just a guess b/c it just seems like it may be similar to my husband's condition.

[lovehospital]

I have a dog who is paraplegic.I noticed that he is severely sensitive to temperature,gets hot a lot or cold.

Autonomic dysrelfexia

Symptoms and Causes

• Pounding headache (caused by the elevation in blood pressure)
  
• Goose Pimples
  
• Sweating above the level of injury
  
• Nasal Congestion
  
• Slow Pulse
  
• Blotching of the Skin
  
• Restlessness
  

There can be many stimuli that cause autonomic dysreflexia. Anything that would have been painful, uncomfortable, or physically irritating before the injury may cause autonomic dysreflexia after the injury.

The most common cause seems to be overfilling of the bladder. This could be due to a blockage in the urinary drainage device, bladder infection (cystitis), inadequate bladder emptying, bladder spasms, or possibly stones in the bladder. The second most common cause is a bowel that is full of stool or gas. Any stimulus to the rectum, such as digital stimulation, can trigger a reaction, leading to autonomic dysreflexia.

Other causes include skin irritations, wounds, pressure sores, burns, broken bones, pregnancy, ingrown toenails, appendicitis, and other medical complications.

[Bumashes, MSN, APRN, NP]

Lovehospital:

Yeah, my husband gets AD real bad from just about anything. It can be VERY annoying trying to figure out exactly what is causing it. Gotta run through a whole list of stuff before we finally figure it out, and then it usually turns out to be something stupid like the foot pedals on his chair aren't angled right or whatever. AD is a pain in the patootie! It's interesting to know that dogs experience the same thing. They say in humans that AD generally occurs in people with an injury at or above T-6. I wonder what it is for dogs?