Recovery from Pneumonia

[Beardy10]

I am just on the road to recovery from a bout of Pneumonia...been at home/on antibiotics for three weeks and chest is now just about clear. I'm 43 years old and was pretty fit and healthy, exercised regularly and was certainly capable of doing a couple of hours intensive cardio exercise.

Feels to me like it's going to be a very long process as I can do very,very little without getting tired. I know there is no typical case but just wondered what people's experiences were with how long it took them to get back to being able to have a relatively normal day ? I've read hot steamy baths/showers help as well as obviously lots of rest/good diet etc. Any other tips ?

I am in no doubt it's weeks and months rather than days to get over this at the moment being able to take the dog for a 30 min walk in the park feels a good few days away.

[Beardy10]

Cupramax said:

Dont wish to put the scarers on you but at the same age as you I had it last year as well, I can only say it has royally f*cked me up and I've had severe fatigue issues for a year now, just be very careful not to over do things as it really knocks you for six, take as much rest as you can (and then some). Do NOT try and rush your recovery.

Cheers! Not what I wanted to hear but my body is definitely telling me to take things easy.

[Beardy10]

I've literally only just started the "recovery phase".....been going to get checked up every three days or so and today was the first time my lungs sounded clear. Medication finishes tomorrow. Had an x-ray which shows no long term damage which is good to know too.

At the moment I need a solid 10 to 12 hours sleep a night with a lot of resting during the day so nowhere near ready for work. Weening myself off sleeping tablets as was unable to sleep without them for a week or two...never been any good at sleeping sitting up especially when hacking up the contents of my lungs.

[Beardy10]

petemurphy said:

had severe lobal pneumonia c 10 years ago. never felt the same since i v nearly died apparently. erm good luck!

anyone any tips on recovery?

Oh yes....it's got a proper mortality rate! Well some forms of it.

[Beardy10]

So nearly three weeks on and I am still coughing up crap occasionally and still get tired after two or three hours of doing realyively little and get headaches if I push it at all. Going to try going back to work next week for half days and get cabs rather than dealing with the tube.

My mates keep asking me when I'll be up for beers.....haven't a clue!

[Cheib]

Thought I'd update this thread really to help anyone else as a reference in the future....I know all cases are different but it's been educational and taught me not to accept "you'll get better but it will take time for an answer". Changed my user name from Beardy 10 if anyone is wondering.....

So after about three months after I had the pneumonia (end of Sep last year) I was still feeling very tired and was unable to do more than a half days work...went back to the GP. He did some blood tests and found that I had minor liver damage "you might have had Hepatitis"....."if you don't feel better in three months come back". Funnily I wasn't very happy with this so went to see a Respiratory specialist as I was still feeling very short of breath and just knackered all the time.

Respiratory specialist discovered that I had Bronchiolitis (inflammation of the bronchioles)...basically my lungs were unable to function properly as a result. Two month course of steroids sorted that out but I was still feeling pretty st every day. It basically felt like I had a hangover every day, tired....craving sugars, dehydrated etc. Blood tests were still showing some signs of liver damage (though improved) so I was still being monitored for that. This took me to about November last year.

In January I was feeling better but still not 100%....have been unable to exercise or drink alcohol since July last year. Simply not enough energy to even think about stressing my body in any way. Went back to see the respiratory specialist who found that my liver was still not 100%.

Referred to a liver specialist and through more detailed blood tests and an ultrasound scan has diagnosed that my auto-immune system has become cross wired and is attacking my lungs and liver. I now need to go for a liver biposy to allow a more detailed disnosis and then treatment. Meanwhile I got another chest infection and the bronchiolitis came back very agressively.....back on steroids for a month which has delayed the liver biopsy until April as the sterois need to clear my system.

So whilst obviously all these cases are different I would definitely urge anyone who ever gets Pneumonia and feels they aren't recovering to push back against the "you'll be okay in a few months" diagnosis. It's very,very easy to just say you'll get better with time for a GP...as far as they are concerned that's not at all unusual. Seems like the best thing to do is get some very,very wide ranging blood tests....they can only find these things if they go looking for them. The auto immune issue was flagged in blood tests taken in January....depsite me having regular blood tests since last September they simply didn't test for anything in that area so it didn't show up.