What's the best way to determine if I have a fever without using a thermometer?

Usually, when I have a fever, I have body chills and I sweat. I never feel hot when I’m running a fever.

I usually feel chills when I have a fever. Is there anyone there who could put a hand to your forehead? If your forehead is hot, you might have a fever.

I’m not sure of a scientific way to find out your temp without a thermometer but you can usually just tell if you’re running a fever. You’re body aches, you’re skin may be sensitive to touch, your mouth (inside) might feel really warm, etc. You should go home and get some rest.

I feel hot and clammy.

@tinyfaery Then you should probably get home.

Have a friend put the back of their hand on your forehead. Any serious fever will be obvious.

If you feel like taking your temperature (muscle and joint aches and pains and either shivering or sweaty) it usually means you are running a temp.

Whenever I think I am running a fever, I am.

My sis has spent the last 5 days running 103.5˚ at night and aching everywhere. Cold sweats, and then clamminess. Today she finally felt safe enough to take a shower and walk downstairs. Nurse said this version of flu was going around.

If you are a guy,
your balls will hang low.

Hey I’m a mother of three sons.
That was always the first indication of a fever in my baby boys.
Check in their diaper.

For gals, ya, find a friend who will feel your forehead.

I could always tell when my daughter was running a fever because her cheeks got very rosy. Take a peek in the mirror and see if you look flushed. (That’s what my grandmother used to call it)

I have to agree with @NaturalMineralWater. My mom has felt my forehead to see if I had a fever ever since I was a baby and it seems to have been accurate. I guess there’s no guarantee that everyone can tell that easily, but you could at least ask someone to try it.

Sounds like you probably are, tiny. Why not go home and get some nurturing?

I can tell when I have a fever, and by the time I do get my temp taken, I’m pretty good at guessing what the temp will be.

Lower grade temps (under 101•F) usually feel achy in my neck and shoulders, I look and feel flushed, and my skin is hot to the touch. Over 101•F, I start jetting a headache and chills. Over 102.5•F I feel like I’ve been run over by an 18-wheeler.

I can tell when my son is running a temp by the look in his eyes and his voice changes. Plus his skin is hot to the touch.

I can always tell when I have a fever. My body temp usually runs lower than normal, so a fever off over 99 makes me feel warm all over, all the way to my bones. No one can feel it from my forehead, because that’s just not how fevers work for me. I think you would just know.
I would go home if you’re getting feverish :( Sorry you feel yucky.

I can rest my hand on my stomach and tell that I have a fever if it feels warm. The feeling is different than just being hot from running, if you wait a few seconds it is like you can feel your internal heat. Also, I turn my tongue under my tongue, if that makes sense, touching where the thermometer goes, and if it is hot I have a fever. I am usually right within half a degree. If you do have a fever you can practice some of these things for the future if you are without a thermometer again.

@wilma, so that is why all those old guys at the nude beach have their balls down by their knees, they are running a fever?

@Psychedelic_Zebra I guess I never looked, and I’m certainly not going to take their temperatures.

No fever. My coworker said I had a hot flash. Yikes.

@tinyfaery OOooooooooh…sorry to hear it wasn’t a fever (time to stock up on Black Cohosh;) but glad to know you’re well!

@tinyfaery Oh well, guess you’re not going to leave work every time you have one of those.

Hey! I refuse to believe it was a hot flash.

Edit: I’m only 35!!!!!!

@tinyfaery Refuse all you want girl! I had quite a few whilst I was pregnant…_I am sooooo not looking forward to menopause

@tinyfaery: You are too young for hot flashes (and besides, they last just several minutes, if that, and there is an odd sensation in chest before the flash rolls in from nowhere. It is like the premonition before a migraine. You also don’t just get one.

I get them still occasionally due to chemotherapy and an anti-cancer drug called tamoxifin that I took for five years. My face turns the color of a cooked lobster.

I was thinking it might have been possibly anxiety related, because you’re so young…maybe you were stressed and it felt like a fever/hot flash but was an anxiety attack? Just a suggestion.

@casheroo Perhaps.

No such thing as too young for a flash really. I don’t know how old @tinyfaery is, but you can go into menopause early. I have a 42 year old girlfriend who is in full swing. Also if you become hyperthyroid/Graves Disease you can experience being very hot or flashlike symptoms.

@tinyfaery As @JLeslie said…Never too young. My sis was in perimenopause in her late thirties and through menopause by 45.

@tinyfaery I don’t have hot flashes. I have tropical moments! :P

@JLeslie I have a hypothyroid disorder called hashimoto’s disease, and it causes me to have hot flashes also. My boss calls me a polar bear because I am always turning the AC down at work because it’s too hot at my desk.

@SpatzieLover My grandmother was finished with menopausal symptoms in her thirties too.

@scamp most people who are hypothyroid are freezing all of the time, but my mom generally is hot and has hashimotos, but she did not have flashes when she went through menopause. My mom and her sister never could stand the heat even as little girls. I would be curious to know if you keep your TSH very low on your medication.

@JLeslie I don’t understand what you mean by keeping my TSH very low. My doctor gives me the amount of medication I need to keep it within normal range, but not low. It takes a very large dose to do that. I take 225 mcgs per day.

Also, I know it isn’t typical to be hot with this problem. Doctors have always asked me if I was cold, or insensitive to cole, but I run hot.. always have. It isn’t a common sypmtom, but it is realted all the same.

I do not tolerate being cold either, but it takes a very long time at very low temps for me to even feel cold. Once I do, it’s horrible because it seems like it takes forever to warm up again. My internal thermometer is just broken!! I was diagnosed at the age of 32.

@scamp Within normal range, but low. I think normal is .5–5.5 or something like that. My sister likes to stay under 1.0, but she complains about being hot all of the time and anxious, and personally I think she should stabilize herself a little higher. If I am below 2.0 I can barely sleep through the night and my blood pressure drops, my heart races, I am spacey, and my hair falls out of my head like crazy. Most endocrinologists don’t like to see people above 3.5, even though normal range goes higher. Everyone is an individual aside from whether your thyroid functions normally or not, so body tempurate is not based solely on thyroid (I know you know this, I am stating the obvious).

I happen to work at the lab that did my bloodwork on my last visit back in July, so I got a copy of my report while waiting for your reply. Normal range is 0.450–4.500, and mine was 0.056, so yes, it was very low and less than the normal range at that time. That was the first time it was below normal range in many years. We backed my medication down to 200 mcgs, and I will have more bloodwork done soon to see if the change made a difference.

I have yet to find a way to not feel hot. I am going to change doctors soon. the one I want to see is an internist who specializes in endocrinology, and people I know who have seen her speak highly of her. I need someone who can be a bit more paticular with my care.

The primary I am seeing now is one of those “write a script and send them out the door” types. I need more than just a script. I need a doctor who listens, and one who is willing to teach their patients how to take care of themselves other thatn just taking more pills.

@scamp I think it is very important for you to figure out when you feel best and see what your TSH is when YOU feel most normal. Your doctor cannot guess this. I think if you tried to stabilize more around 1.5–2 you might see a difference—maybe not? But you might just be one of those people who tend to feel hot in general anyway. I, unfortunately am very hard to stabilize. I have to take 5 days of 88 and 2 days of 100 weekly, and then sometimes I have to increase to 4 days 88 and 3 days 100. I am that sensitive, it is frustrating.

@JLeslie thanks so much for that advice! I never really paid much attention to my numbers. I just figured I would suffer because of the disease no matter where they are. In the past, my doctors looked at my numbers and adjusted my meds accordingly, but I think I will pay closer attention to them now, and get a doctor who will help me know what is the best level for me.

I have a feeling that being too hot is very closely related to this because it seems that w I began feeling hot all the time around the time I was first diagnosed with this dreaded condition. I thought I just had to deal with it all this time! I could just kiss you now for telling me that it doesn’t have to be this way. you are my new best friend!! :D

@scamp. Awww. I hope it helps. No guarantee of course. But you might have other symptoms that you can relieve also that you don’t even realize you are suffering from until you start playing around a little with your medication. Maybe your eyes are very dry? Or you have muscle pain? Trouble sleeping? Lose your temper easier than you did previously? Some people are asymptomatic althogether. Meanwhile the TSH is not the whole thing of course, the other numbers matter like T3 and T4free, but TSH is the easiest one to monitor. As you know it takes weeks to know what a new dose is really going to do, so it takes a lot of patience to figure it out. At first when I was changing doses I would feel great after changing my dose about 3 or 4 weeks in, but by the time I got out 3 months I felt like crap again because I kept moving too much in one direction. That is why I got so specific on my dose. For me to figure it out I had to get tested when I felt good, not only when I felt bad. But, I am very unusual, most people do not have my problems with stabilizing. Let me know if it helps you in the end…I hope it does.

wait for the hallucinations to begin