Finished my second course of antibiotics yesterday following Pneumonia and Pleurisy. Don't feel right, still bringing thick green gunk up during the mornings and little bits here and there during the afternoons. Had a bit of blood in it this morning, the first since last Saturday. Last evening after tea I started coughing (it had eased a bit for a few days) it suddenly got bad I brought loads of clear phlegm up even when I wasn't coughing it just appeared.
I spoke to a BLF nurse today and following our conversation I got an appointment to see a doctor. He listened to my chest and said he could hear wheezing and it sounded as though there was mucus still there. I was given a different antibiotic. The doctor said he would send me to a chest specialist but he wants the results of my CT Scan first.
I'm staying at my mums and just walking up the stairs leaves me out of breath and it takes quite a while to recover. I've never been this bad; before this I could have run up stairs and recovered quickly.
I used to exercise regularly, I walked everywhere because I don't drive, even walking to my mums once a week which is 5 miles from where I live. I used to do 2 hours more or less exercise in the flat as well as the walking. Now I'm out of breath very easily and always tired. It left me feeling very demoralised and worried.
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Wiggins
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Hi Wiggins, you are having a rough time but its important to keep on top of this, so glad to hear you went straight back to the nurse and doc to get more anti biotics.
Don't despair, the lung infection, pneumonia etc can take a while to clear completely and usually always when the lungs are infected you will find things so much more difficult, with shortness of breath and tiredness, not being able to do much at all.
While you are recovering just do what you can and rest when you need to. Once you begin to get relief from the infection and recover fully from pneumonia you can always request referral again to pulmonary rehabilitation to help you get back somewhere closer to where you were before. Although what you were achieving before is more like a non damaged lung person's activity level.
Don't be hard on yourself for not being able to achieve more. Try not to worry, I am sure with your Mum's good care and forward focus you will recover ok, sometimes when the infection is really bad it can take a long time but slowly but surely recovery does take place.
Just try to do all you can by eating healthily, doing a little walk up and down inside or in the garden when you feel up to it and just rest and recover as and when you need to.
Agree with Blakey. Sounds like your doc is being proactive, waiting for your scan results he will be able to refer you to the cons he considers best to treat you. If this lot of abs do not clear up the infection you might want to ask if gp thinks a sputum sample should be sent for culture - that way you can be sure what the bug is sensitive to. Takes a long time to get over. Hope you see an improvement soon
Wiggins it really is rotten getting over pneumonia and pleurisy, It took me months and loads of antibiotics to recover after my first bout, and to be honest it was more like a year before I was back to the energy of pre-pneumonia, as far as exercise was concerned anyway. Just be patient and don't push yourself too much because rest is just as important as moving. Now I have no idea if it helped but someone told me pineapple is very good for clearing your lungs of the gunk. I did eat loads but have no way of knowing if it really did anything. I hope the new AB's do the trick for you. You seemed quite fit before, so I reckon you will recover quicker than I did. Good Wishes Anna
Hi wiggins,
You may well benefit from a mucolytic. This can help reduction of mucus production and reduce the thickness of the stuff produced. Type carbocisteine or Mucodyne into the search facility. Lots of doctors do not know about this stuff. It does take a few weeks to get up to speed. Please talk to your gp about it?
Otherwise i agree with Anna, cofdrop and blakeyc. Good advice
You are going to get better. Do what you can and allow yourself time to recover!
I really sympathise. I've just done 2 lots as well, then steroids have made a massive difference. There were times when I didn't know if I could get another breath. I am so much better now. A 6 day course of steroids did it.
Yes I agree with the others here that say you must realise at the moment you are ill viz. you have an infection and that whilst you have and whilst you recover you must not expect to be able to do what you could pre-infection - just ease up on yourself and coddle yourself and save your energy so that your body can use it to fight the infection and heal - be gentle and kind to yourself as you probably would be to, say your Mum if she was ill. Good luck and hope you feel better soon. xx
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