health

People with a fever often feel hot, tired, achy, and generally sick. They
sometimes have shaking chills as their temperature rises. Shaking helps
raise the temperature to the feverish level that has been set by the body’s
thermostat. They may sweat heavily when the fever “breaks” (starts to
go away) or if it falls temporarily as part of an up-and-down pattern.
Sweating helps lower the temperature to the new, lower point set by the
thermostat.
Although the classic way of checking for fever at home is to touch the
person’s forehead to see how warm it feels, doing so often does not work.
The only way to tell for sure if a person has a fever is by taking the temperature
with a thermometer. Three kinds of thermometers are available:
digital, mercury, or tympanic.
Digital thermometers, usually used in medical offices and hospitals
as well as at home, are electronic. They can take an oral temperature
when placed under the tongue, a rectal temperature when placed
into the rectum, or an axillary (AK-si-lar-y) temperature when placed
in the armpit. The measured rectal temperature is the closest to what
the core of the body actually feels and thus is considered to be the most
accurate.
Mercury thermometers, which used to be the only kind available, are
made out of glass and contain liquid mercury. They come in oral or rectal
versions. Either kind can be used in the armpit as well. They are cheaper
than digital thermometers, but they take longer to use.
Tympanic (tim-PAN-ik) thermometers are a special kind of digital
thermometer that is placed into the ear. While the other thermometers
take several minutes to give a reading, the tympanic thermometer takes
only a few seconds. However, tympanic thermometers are more expensive
and can be inaccurate if placed improperly in the ear.