Fever after a broken rib

[Mom+Me]

Unfortunately my dear elderly McDougalling relative has had a rough week culminating with his falling in the bathroom of his cardiologist's office and ending up fracturing rib #12.

I took him to the ER--got all checked out. Thank God it was "only" the broken rib. He is in a lot of pain when he transitions, coughs, etc.. I took his temperature and noticed a slight fever, 99.7° on a thermometer where he's usually in the high 97°-low 98°.

He's the first one in our family that's had a broken bone. (Just remembered my grandmother did, but she's no longer around to ask.) So being totally inexperienced, is it normal to possibly run a low fever? He displays no other symptoms like for an infection.

By the way, he was on Norco 5-325, but instead of that just took 2 extra strength Tylenol in place of the Norco. The fall/break happened about 52 hours ago.

Thank you, in advance!!

[VeggieSue]

I've broken a number of bones over the decades and never had a fever with any of them. Perhaps whatever caused him to fall in the first place is causing the fever. He may have a viral infection - fever is one of the first signs, as are extreme fatigue and dizziness. Remember, a few years back Dr. McDougall took a bad fall and broke a few bones when he was coming down with the flu.

[Mom+Me]

VeggieSue,

Thank you so much for your reply! I am very sorry to not have responded sooner. My only means of accessing the Internet these days is my phone, a pay-as-go type, that I tried to transfer to a new phone--unsuccessfully. What should have taken no more than 24 hours and often takes less than 6, is still now a fiasco. Anyway, that is why I am first replying now....

Thank you for sharing your experiencs. I'm sorry to read that you've had so many broken bones. I hope all of them healed up nicely!

His temperature came down, went up a little, and now is hovering in the low 98°+--again, a little high for him considering he's usually lower on this thermometer. But it's not gone higher than 99.2°, he's using the spirometer, and seems fine otherwise. So, he seems to be okay.

He had been hospitalized Tuesday-Thursday of last week, fell Friday and stayed the night. It's possible he could have picked up something, but he has no other symptoms.

It appears that his fall was due to his impaired balance and being a little less his new-normal "robust" self after having been hospitalized.