No answers

[Jbburton]

Diagnosed with plursey a month ago. Given anti-inflammatory meds. Then prednisone. Chest still very tight and trouble talking deep breaths. Also have neck and back problems. Nothing is helping my breathing

[cjrsquared]

I hope your doctor explained that pleurisy especially secondary to a chest infection can take up to 12 weeks to resolve. If you,had pneumonia 3 to 6 months to fully recover especially if you have underlying asthma or copd. Sadly once you have had one infection very easy to get another. Any purulent sputum, chills fever? If so go back to gp.

[JOLLYDOLLY]

Hi jbburton,

When was the last time you went to your GP? I think you need to go back asap. Are you having trouble speaking and feel that you have a lump in your chest? The reason I ask is that it could be pneumonia After experiencing severe pneumonia myself which was due to a secondary infection, I would not want anyone to experience what I went through. My heart had enlarged to compensate for the breathing problems.

Without alarming you, I ended up in High dependency for two weeks. So please go back or call for help. If you are in the UK, any breathing problems are classed as an emergency.

Please seek help and do not suffer anymore.

Hope you are ok x

[LAHs]

I had pneumonia with a plural effusion many many years ago when I was 16. It took me three months before I could say I was completely over it and I was allowed to stay in a "recovering" facility for most of those months (Sorry, forgot the name of that type of hospital - maybe they don't have them anymore, it was run by nuns). You can develop scar tissue in the area of the lungs where the pleurisy developed, that means that when you breath deeply even years later you will feel a twinge. This was before the days of prednisone, we had picamicin (sp?) and sulphur drugs for months afterwards, not nice but it apparently worked.

Give it time and rest as much as you can, you will recover fully but time and rest are the key.

[JOLLYDOLLY in reply to LAHs]

I am guessing there will be scaring/stiffening on the lung after pneumonia or bad infection. I feel a twinge every so often. Still on oxygen at night as I also developed sleep apnoea.

I think the facility you refer to are convalescent homes where someone would recover after a serious illness.

Hope you are ok now

[LAHs in reply to JOLLYDOLLY]

Yes, that's it, convalescent home! Gee, fancy forgetting that, I must be getting old.

And yes, everything was OK I would say a year later although I get a little twinge even now, about once every 5 years reminding me of that horrible episode.

[JOLLYDOLLY in reply to LAHs]

I cringe when I talk about it. It has been 3.5 years since my episode, never to be repeated hopefully. Did you have the pneumonia jab? I did!

Take care

[LAHs in reply to JOLLYDOLLY]

When I was 16 there was no such pneumonia jab but I did get one about 7 years ago when they became popular over here. Funny though, I got a bad reaction from it. I had it the day before Thanksgiving, that is a day when we "stuff our guts" with food so it could have been a reaction to that but I suddenly felt very ill during the meal. I went home to sleep it off or so I thought but the next day I awoke dehydrated. I thought I would pass out soon so I wrote everything down on a paper and stuck it to the dashboard of my car as I drove myself to the hospital with my head swirling. I got myself to the emergency room and fortunately they didn't mess about and gave me an intravenous aqueous solution which made me normal again. So, I don't know if it was the food or the pneumonia jab, I guess we'll never know.

[JOLLYDOLLY in reply to LAHs]

Oh no! Sorry to hear that That must have been frightening? I think it is a one off jab unless you have had your spleen removed evidently, or so I was told! I do get very anxious autumn/early winter time/flu season but so far I have been ok bar a couple of mild chest infections.

Lets hope neither of us every get it again or anyone else. Horrible place to be.

Take care x