Pneumonia etc. 😢

[SiameseCatLady]

Hi everyone.

A week ago yesterday, I had to go to A and E with a hugely 🤒 high fever (my innacurate thermometer measured it at 42.7 which I looked up and should have been nearly dead if it really had been that high!)

Anyway, was treated by the NHS amazingly quickly and was told I had a severe infection and that I had Sepsis. I told them I thought it was my chest as I have had asthma for years and when I became pregnant with my little boy in 2015/6, I started to have real chest issues. They were investigated (to a small extent) and I was told I just kept getting chest infections. My breathing was better when my lb was born but it seems to have got worse again and I keep getting chest infections; this one had possibly been brewing for a while and I was so fed up of going back and forth to the doctor etc. that I just let it go until one minute I felt okish and the next I was unable to stand or walk or breathe without screaming in pain.

Anyway, I was on IV antibiotics and now just finished Doxycycline oral tablets and my GP put me on some steroids too.

I have started having some nose bleeds and coughing up some red blood in my sputum.

I am starting to get concerned. I had a chest x Ray in hospital and I assume had anything dodgy shown up they would have said something. It’s just the fact that I have had the cough for so long that my anxieties are telling me it’s something worse.

Anybody had anything similar and it been a good outcome? My asthma isn’t controlled well and I have a hiatus hernia (from my pregnancy) so I don’t know if they are playing bigger roles than I thought they were.

I have 1000 Seretide (2x 250, morning and evenings) and use my Ventolin far too much. Again, I have been back and forth so much to the asthma nurse etc. it’s starting to depress me as she just says increase the Seretide, which I am not sure is really doing the job!

Arg!

Also, does anybody have anything extra asthma wise to control it better if they’re already on a steroid inhaler like Seretide?

Desperate. I need to be well for my son and husband.

😢

[Georgina_D]

The chest xray is check for TB. It could also show other serious problems like cancer. If it was one of those you would have been told. I had a chest xray a few years ago as I'd been coughing blood for 5 weeks, despite having antibiotics. I was given different antibiotics and felt better a few weeks later.

[bd123]

If you’re having to use your ventolin reliever inhaler far too much then your asthma is not being controlled. Also if seretide for prevention isn’t helping then you need something stronger. My asthma got worse during my second pregnancy (I regularly take ventolin and seretide) and i developed a chest infection. I was put on short-acting steroids for 2 weeks, which seemed to help.

Maybe go back to the GP if the nurse appointments aren’t helping? There are some other options like monteleukast but everyone’s asthma is different. It may be that your meds need changing since the pneumonia and pregnancy. It could also be something else separate from asthma.

I hope you get the right meds soon. It’s tough enough being a Mum without the illness on top. Hope you get better soon too x