If you've had pneumonia, can you please tell me

[Tamarap]

My son had pneumonia a couple of years ago and the only symptoms were fatigue, a slight fever, and a cough that just continued to get progeressively worse. We were in the emergency room with him and they were just about to dismiss him when they asked about the cough and I said it had been getting worse every day and thats when they did an x-ray and found the pneumonia.

 

[JulyGirl]

I had a bad coughing fit for over a month. Eventually, I had a weezing in my chest whenever I took a breath. When I finally went to the doctor I was diagnosed with pneumonia. He told me if I had waited much longer, I would have been hospitalized for sure. Don't hesitate to see a doctor.

 

[luvwinnie]

Ask them to do a chest XRay.

I had pneumonia in both my lungs two weeks ago, am just starting to feel better in fact. It started with a cough that my DD gave me and got worse and worse. I couldn't talk without hacking. My throat felt "rattly" when I breathed. Seen at the doctor's (by someone other than my own doctor, who was later a bit peeved) but told I had a virus, no CXR done, no antibiotics. Meanwhile, a PET scan was read that I'd had done 6 days before I'd been seen at the doctor's, and it showed a pneumonia in my right lower lobe. I started on antibiotics then, but got worse. Felt like I was going to pass out just taking a shower, my heart was racing and I was very winded. Went back to the doctor's, on admission my heart rate was 152 and a chest XRay done then showed it had progressed from one lung to both. Took a while to recover, was placed on bedrest and told to force fluids, and not to even talk!!

The funny part was though, I didn't really feel "sick", just this annoying cough, then weak from the racing heart and I presume decreased oxygenation. I never really knew what walking pneumonia was even though my GF died of it. Now I do.

Good luck, hope you feel better soon.

Thank you. I'll see what dr. says tonight.

 

[luvwinnie]

Did anyone have that "clammy" feeling? ICK!

 

[4chitlins]

what your symptoms were? Thank you!

I have had it 3 times. The first time was when my twins were 6 weeks old. I just felt like I was tired and getting a cold. When I woke up the next morning I couldn't even stand up straight. I felt like someone hit me in the back with a baseball bat. I have never had a bad cough

when I've had it though so don't be surpised. Once I even had a Doctor tell me I didn't look sick enough to have pneumonia...but the xray showed that I did.

 

[Cruise04]

I've had it 8 times, 4 of those being hospitalizations with the last time being under an oxygen tent for 7 days because I couldn't breath (I couldn't even eat) without it. Every time I got it my back hurt so bad too - which is where the lungs get the worst feeling apparently. So when you breath in really big and you cough and then when you breath out you can't help but coughing, that could be a sign. That's how I felt every time - on top of the high fevers, the weird taste in my mouth, the mucus I was bringing up, the kidney infection, and the bladder infection - and how I knew something wasn't right. Now anytime I get that feeling in my back - I'm at the doctor. Generally mine never followed any colds or infections, it just I would get some bacteria in me and it would head straight for my lungs. I now have asthma because of the scarring in my lungs from the all the bronchitis I've had since. I now get a pneumonia shot every 5 years as well. I'm a high risker so I also get a flu shot.

Hope the doctor can help you. There is some nasty stuff going around here at work and it's just a viral infection with a horrible horrible cough, sore throat, and tight lungs. Good luck!

 

[LadyyRedd]

My mom got double pneumonia a few years ago. She started out with a sinus infection, which she got all the time. She went on a trip to Arizona to see her brother for a week. She thought she was just cold in their house with their air running and fans everywhere, so she thought she was just catching a cold from that. She spent the whole week coughing and it got worse as the week went on. Her ribs were aching her, from the coughing. She thought she bruised or cracked a rib she'd coughed so hard and so much.

She came home (to Baltimore) with a connecting flight in Atlanta. She was so sick she could barely walk. The airport personnel were going to call the EMTs, but she refused because she knew if they did, she was going to the hospital. I was waiting for her to pick her up. I waited and waited and I thought I saw some guy motioning to me down the exit terminal. Then I realized the lady in the wheelchair he was pushing was my mom!! She was so weak, she couldn't walk off the plane.

I immediately took her to the hospital. She thought she was just going to be treated for a cold and for a bruised rib. The doctor asked her if she wanted a nicotine patch (she'd been a smoker for 30 years) and she said no, she was fine. She assumed she was going to be out the next day. Little did she know she was going to be in there 10 days.

It turns out that she had double pneumonia. The phlegm/mucus drained down into the spaces between her ribs and lungs and hardened to form an abcess. They had to perform immediate thoracic surgery on her to clear the blockage. That's why her ribs hurt. She spent a few days sedated and on a breathing tube. Eventually she healed and got better, but it was hard going. She was out of work for about 2-3 months (I think, it's been a few years since it happened) recovering, because she couldn't do anything strenous, let alone drive. She got tired very easily. But she's 100% better now and back to her old self.

The thoracic surgeon said that 25% of all of his surgeries are this kind because of pneumonia.

Please please please, if you think you have it, go to a doctor!

Oh - and the one truly positive thing that came out of this? My mom's been smoke free ever since. She never wanted another cigarette. The doctor said it's not unusual for someone who has been through a physical trauma to stop smoking like that.

Kimya

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I have had it 3 times...

First time was after a horrible flu. I thought I was going to die. I was hallucinating, puking, high fever, etc...Ten years ago.
It took me 6 months to fully recover and I have never been the same since.

Now I am very careful. Drink water, water, water!!!!!

I get a rattle and night sweats. That is when I know it is pneumonia.

My dd has had pneumonia with hardly ANY symptoms twice. She appears to have a cough/cold.

 

[SadieDog]

cough so bad I had terrible muscle spasms, rumble in my chest, fever, coughed up orange/brown gunk, dehydrated, EXTREMEMY weak and I also had a sinus infection. Glad that's over!

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

Had it twice. Both times, it felt like there was an elephant perched on my chest. Breathing was difficlut, laying down was near impossible. Constant coughing just so I could BREATHE. Mid grade fever (99-102) weak, and irritable. Just Miserable. I was put on levaquin. Got a chest Xray 3 days into antibiotic therapy, and of course by then the antibiotcs were working, so it was negative, but the doc was pretty sure that was the diagnosis. it took me nearly a month to start feeling normal.

I hope you are feeling right and well very soon.