Actually, although 98.6 is considered "normal" temperature, people's can vary quite a bit. AND, it can vary at different times of the day - with no illness involved. My Mom's temp in early AM is below "normal". Between 3-5 PM, her temp is almost always 99.6. Then in the evening, it is below"normal". My sister has never had a 98.6 temp as "normal". As a kid, the ole country Doctor we saw thought her 99.8 temp meant she was sick.......all the time. She got sick once - with a temp of 105 and was rushed to major Hospital, and in doing tests, charting her temp etc for several weeks, her temp ran 99.8 all the time ( this of course was after her illness and medicaiton). She is now 49 years old, and her temp still is 99.8 consistently. We are all different in so many ways, and as for "normal" - that's just a settling on a clothes washer and dryer IMHO.