Pneumonia - please can someone talk me down!

[Littletinytarzanswingingfromanosehair]

I've been feeling run down for about 10days now but on Tuesday I did feel up to going to the gym... however soon as I got home that evening I went down hill fast and started with flu symptoms. I have battled on the past 3days and I decided I had to contact the GP this morning when my neck swelled and I was still achy/shivering.

They got me straight in, GP felt my lymph nodes, temp and listened to my chest and said it's very likely to be pneumonia from the way my chest sounded and prescribed me amoxicillin and told me to start taking ASAP.

I'm panicking so much. I vape too and I feel so guilty for doing that I've chucked it away as soon as I got home.

I told my partner re; it being pneumonia etc and he was like omg people are normally in hospital for it?! Hardly helped!

Has anyone ever had pneumonia before and recovered well?

It’s an infection in your lungs, the antibiotics should clear it up.

Did he check your oxygen levels? How is your breathing? When my DC was admitted to hospital with pneumonia it was because their oxygen levels were low, and they couldn’t breathe properly,

On the other hand my mum also had pneumonia and didn’t go to hospital at all, just antibiotics.

Both recovered just fine. Stopping vaping is a good idea though!

Exact same as you @noblegiraffe my child needed admitted and some invasive interventions. But my mum recovered at home. Did take a good few weeks for her to feel normal.

My sister and toddler have both had pneumonia and recovered at home.

My husband has a weakened immune system, was very unwell with it but recovered fully and relatively quickly.

When you’re better, have a pneumonia jab.

Get well soon.

Ds had pneumonia when he was 4 and wasn't admitted just had antibiotics at home.

Have you looked up what pneumonia is? I’ve put a link below. You really need to calm down. For healthy adults it’s not an usually big deal although it isn’t nice. For the elderly or peole who are very sick already it can be much worse.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pneumonia/

I'm currently at home recovering from pneumonia. I'm now in week 3 after being hospitalised when I collapsed in the GPs office and I was taken in by ambulance. I'm an extremely fit (run half marathons/triathlons and was training for my first first full marathon), non smoking woman in her thirties and this has completely floored me. Even 3 weeks in I'm struggling with recovery and have been told to expect to be feeling around 80% at 6 weeks post discharge.

I would suggest starting with the oral antibiotics (which is what I did), buy yourself an oxygen reader and keeping an eye on your oxygen levels and if they are dropping below the recommended levels and you feel no better/worse after 48 hours then I would seek medical advice again as you may need more support in the way of oxygen and IV antibiotics

Yes, he did oxygen levels - 98 I think I saw that at out of 100.

No wonder I've been feeling so crappy the past 10days.

I think the panic of the term "pneumonia" is scary because the threat of catching as a kid if you went out with wet hair!

98 really isn’t anything to worry about. Our son had sleep apnoea and in his last admission to hospital before surgery his was 73.

I’ve had it twice. Take your antibiotics and if you don’t improve by the end of the course go back for more.

It means a lung infection. If the GP had said you had a chest infection it wouldn't have panicked you as much.
It can be serious for the elderly or people with weak immune systems . It's often a complication of covid.
If you are young and healthy you should probably shake it off with the antibiotics.
Sats of 98 are pretty good. I would only worry if they were below 92.
Maybe this will make you think of giving up smoking/ vaping?

98 is really nothing to worry about. Mine were 89 upon admission and I was told not to worry unless they were below 92

Please try not to worry,

I had it last year, very sudden onset of shallow, painful breathing after a seriously horrible bug I’d had for at least 10 days. Phoned 111, ambulance, was blue-lighted to hospital, straight on 2 different ABs. Pneumonia followed swiftly by pleurisy, was in hosp. nearly 3 weeks. Was very weak and wobbly for a while, but did recover very well and quite quickly, considering that I’m pretty old and had also smoked for many years.

Was lucky that only one lung was affected.
Was on ABs for a total of 5 weeks, but the respiratory consultant did say it was a very nasty infection.

I had pneumonia when I was 7 months pregnant and was absolutely fine after taking antibiotics. It's scary because you hear horror stories about people being hospitalised with it but if you've started taking the course of antibiotics you should see an improvement in a few days.

I had pneumonia whilst on holiday in the Canaries. I was in hospital on IV antibiotics and it took a long time to recover. I think I was oxygen deprived. My handwriting went to shit and I had poor manual control for simple things like making a cup of tea and my speech was impaired. I also lost of a lot of weight. I was 6.5 stone when I returned home. I was 37 at the time.

I am fully recovered but not quite the same person if that makes sense. Antibiotics got rid of the infection but I still had to relearn skills I had lost and my personality changed. Skills can be relearnt but I'm still not the person I recognise as me. It's weird but real.

Pneumonia is very common. It’s just a chest infection. Most people just have antibiotics and recover quickly at home. I have bad lungs, so I get it somewhat often. First time at 3 months old and at 30 were the only times I’ve been hospitalised. The time at 30 was quite bad, like more painful than being in labour, I was working in a developing country at the time so poor air quality and different sorts of bacteria. I was in for 3 days, though took about 6 months to fully recover.

I think the association with pneumonia is because it tends to be what people get when they are old and frail and already hospitalised or bed bound, which for them can be quite serious (see: COVID pandemic). For most of the rest of us, it’s just a chest infection. If you didn’t even know you had pneumonia (trust me, I KNEW when I needed to be hospitalised), it sounds all fairly mild, so that’s a good sign.

@Littletinytarzanswingingfromanosehair I had pneumonia about 7 years ago, I was fit, healthy, early 40s. Went to see the GP twice as I had a cold that turned into a chest infection, he prescribed amoxicillin, but I didn't improve. Eventually GP suggested an X-ray, I was immediately admitted and ended up in hospital for 5 days on intravenous antibiotics and fluids. My blood infection levels were worryingly high. It took me about 7 weeks to return to work and I'd say I didn't feel 100% right until about 4 or 5 months later.
Never had anything like it since, just a random occurrence. I'd keep a very close eye on how you feel and if you're not right, don't delay going back to your GP.

Thank you all.

My Dr was so good, the only thing I wish I had was bloods as I have only just recovered from an abscess in my foot too so I can imagine my immune system isn't exactly thriving at the moment.
I'm not as achy as I was Wednesday and yesterday.

My 82 year old grandma had it in January and recovered really well :)

I caught it off my daughter in 2012 she was 8 and it just presented as 3/4 day flu type thing .

I was 31/2 I was ill for about 3 weeks every day but not all day, similar to how I was with COVID in 2020 . Took amoxicillin and eventually it cleared . I went back to work after the first week. If you are fit and healthy you will probably be ok at home

Hey guys!

Just an update. Completed the course of amoxicillin, went back to the Drs yesterday and my chest is clear! I still feel very run down and achy though. Did anyone else experience this while recovering? X

DH has just recovered from his fourth but of pneumonia. This time he managed to stay out of hospital but one thing the GP advised was that he drink 3 litres of water a day. It will take a while for you to feel fully better.

Pneumonia is just a name for chest infection. Amoxicillin is the standard antibiotic. Gp must have felt you weren’t unwell enough to require hospital admission.
You must stop vaping though.

That's what I said @LadyGabriella I have given up vaping

Pneumonia can be very serious so it’s not something to ignore which you haven’t. You are taking treatment and the gp is aware so should the treatment not work the gp will take next steps if needed

but it can also be treated without complications with antibiotics. Lots of people get pneumonia and treat it at home and be absolutely fine afterwards.

so the takeaway is yes take it seriously complete all treatment and contact gp if things don’t get better but don’t worry too much.

oxygen levels at 98 are ok.

to give you some perspective I have a family member who has a terminal lung condition who’s oxygen levels are always lower than that, they live with this lower oxygen level constantly due to the lung damage and condition they have.
They contract pneumonia at least twice a year. They almost always are treated at home with medication. The pneumonia while severe and obviously not nice to live with rarely puts them in hospital because they follow all advice and seek medical care if the medication prescribed doesn’t seem to be working. The gp then decides on what to changes they make to treatment to hopefully avoid hospital.

im only telling you to show you that as a healthy person without the added complications of my family member you will almost certainly be fine as long as you don’t ignore things and follow through on all treatment and medical instructions you have been given, and follow up with the go if these don’t seem to be working or if you get significantly worse.