This seems like it's going to be a long-term problem, otherwise not sure what other forum to put it in...

Does anyone else have issues with taking your temperature? Or having doctors / nurses take it, and it comes out wrong?

At home we have a forehead thermometer, which I will admit we think runs a little high, so we just use it to measure trends up and down in temperature. We need a new one.

But yesterday we went to an urgent care clinic because it's pretty likely I have strep, after having spent a week hugging homesick preschoolers and helping with other random VBS games and chores (which I love but can get germy). I was a little sick Friday but chalked it up to allergies and reflux. Saturday, though, was something else again. So ... off to the clinic. It's quite apparent that I've got a raging fever (of unknown number, but the shivering under a pile of blankets is usually a pretty good clue ... my thermometer was thinking it was 102 but probably not) and the most miserable throat this side of, well, all our treatment stuff.

They insist on using one of those under-tongue thermometers. Which, given my mangled tongue, hasn't worked well in five years. And now, with all my teeth out awaiting the dentures, works even less well. That thing insisted I was at a mere 98 degrees. They did it twice ... we had them check on the wait out, too, and it said the same thing.

Other than that they were pretty good, and we're treating the problem ... but the thermometer thing REALLY bothers me because I can tell when my body feels feverish (even if I can't tell a number) and not having a doctor or nurse take that seriously is SCARY. Is it the under-tongue thermometer that's the issue? Is it me? Has anyone else here had this happen?

I need to be able to trust medical people when I go to them, and so far I'm not doing real well in that department ... now I can't seem to trust the tools either ... help!

Kristen

Kristen, we used an ear probe kind of thermometer for my husband on a day to day basis. I was told, however, that the under-the-tongue thermometer is more accurate. I’m afraid I may be making things more confusing for you but I guess as long as you can keep your mouth shut, the thing should do it’s job, right?

I know under the tongue is supposed to be more accurate ... but I'm wondering if it's really more accurate for those of us whose mouths are no longer 'standard' configurations. If it had been measuring my kids, I wouldn't have questioned it so much, or even on my husband. I just know that it's so hard to hold the thing 'under my tongue' and that my mouth temperature never feels the same as it used to ... also dryer, things like that. I can't help but think that must affect the temperature readings, right? I was definitely feverish yesterday, at least part of the time. But it wasn't something they could measure. It was also freezing in their office, so with a stuffy nose and breathing through my mouth some, that could easily have chilled things. I don't know, I'm just nervous that this is another life change I didn't know to expect.