Fever on Paul Nystrom

Context Matters

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

More than one patient has come to the ER with blue, purplish, or black skin. At first glance, it appears that there is a lack of blood flow and it’s obviously very disconcerting. My colleague recently had a young lady like this who was rushed from triage to a critical care area as it appeared her legs did not have any blood flow. They were blue.

Google blue or purple skin and you will be hit with all kinds of scary information that makes you think you are on the verge of death. But it turns out, context matters.

Bad Parenting

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When your kids refuse to take medications for a condition that brings them to the ER, I cannot solve that problem. And you’re potentially subjecting your kids to more risks. Iatrogenic complications are not always trivial.

A 3-year-old patient with a fever was unwilling to take any medications. Mom had to use rectal Tylenol at home for her fever. She came to the ER with some nausea and vomiting. The patient was given anti-nausea medicine and a sippy cup with some juice. She refused to take it. The plan had been to then give her ibuprofen to help with the fever as well. However, she continued to refuse the juice.

Eliminate ER Wait Times

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Eliminate ER Wait Times Wouldn’t it be great if every time you went to the ER, you got checked in right away and were given a room immediately? No more spending your entire visit on a hallway bed or behind a curtain—or worse yet, waiting in triage! Wouldn’t it be amazing if you saw a doctor very soon after arrival? I mean, after all, you went to the ER because you thought you had an emergency, and emergencies are time-sensitive.

Kids and Fever

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I see kids in the ER with fevers virtually every shift. Often, parents have done nothing to try to improve the fever. They seem to have a fear that somehow the fever will kill their child. They don’t understand that the fever is helping fight the infection.

Additionally, something that is not intuitive is that the body would not try to harm itself. So, most fevers will cap out < 105°F. That’s about the max temperature that the body will push for to try to fight the infection because temperatures higher than that can cause tissue damage, specifically denaturing of proteins. But somehow, with all the internet searching that’s done, it does not seem like parents find that information.