probable pneumonia?

[Longlost10]

teenage DD off school with a chest infection which the Gp says may be pneumonia. She has been told to stay home, rest, move around a bit, eat and drink what she can, go to urgent care if she deteriorates, and take antibiotics.

What I want to know is, is it normal not to know for sure if you have pneumonia or not? Is the treatment any different? Will you need to know for future health questionnaires, etc

How long does it take to recover from pneumonia, in comparison to an average, unnamed chest infection??

Any experiences, information etc, very welcome. Pneumonia is quite a frightening word.

Yes pneumonia sounds scary. My dp had it last year, was in bed for about 10 days and off work for 4 weeks. The treatment is antibiotics, so probably not much different to what your dd is taking.

The pneumonia diagnosis was confirmed by a chest x-ray. Hopefully your dd will get better with the antibiotics she has been given and that will be the end of it.

Walking pneumonia is relatively common - this is what Hilary Clinton had. Basically it's an atypical chest infection that may not respond well to the usual antibiotics prescribed for a common chest infection. It can take a while to recover but after that there is usually no long lasting damage. Only when it doesn't respond to medication or the person affected continues to ignore medical advice, or has other underlying health problems, does it require hospitalisation.

I had it about three years ago. It knocked me off my feet and even 8 weeks later I was struggling for breath when climbing stairs. I was back at work after a week though and just had to listen to my body when it was telling me to slow down. No lasting damage or weakness at all - indeed I'm 34 weeks pregnant now and have been entirely illness free throughout, so my immunity must be fine!

thank you, that is helpful

Pneumonia is pretty much just a bad chest infection that shows up on x Rays. It's a scary word as the only time it's diagnosed is after having an x ray, at which point people are unwell enough to need to go to the hospital in the first place.

So, I've had pneumonia needing hospitalisation and IV antibiotics once but multiple other chest infections that nay we'll have been pneumonia but I wasn't unwell enough to need hospitalisation so I was just given oral antibiotics by the GP. Does that names sense?

for you and your DD, I hope she recovers quickly. I did find the recovery was longer than it was for undiagnosed as pneumonia chest infections, probably because of his bad it was to begin with. I hope the antibiotics work quickly for her, don't hesitate to go back if they don't.

Yes my dp was told the same as Lion, once you recover there is no long lasting damage and you are not at any greater risk of having pneumonia in the future.

And yes it's usual not to have a categorical diagnosis. If the problem continued it would be diagnosed with a chest x ray, but in most cases the 'chest infection' responds before they'll send you for one. Some GPs won't refer to their suspicions because the word pneumonia scares people, hence they'll say it's a nasty/ atypical chest infection.

Sorry, I mean with my other chest infections I wasn't unwell enough to have needed hospitalisation so didn't get an x ray... Of course you can get x Rays from a GP as an outpatient appt and have pneumonia diagnosed that way, you don't necessarily need admitting, but lots do as they're very unwell, hence why it's seen as such a scary illness (which it is actually, but your DD should recover well if she's otherwise healthy).

thank you, these posts have put my mind at rest

If it's viral you might never know. I had what GPs thought was a bad chest infection until one morning when I just collapsed. Turned out it was a nasty case of viral pneumonia - I was given anti-virals but told they probably wouldn't work & told to take bed rest.

Took me 3 goes to be diagnosed with pneumonia. I had pain on my right side and bubbling when I laid down. Walking anywhere left me breathless and in pain. It took 3 lots of antibiotics to get on top of it and heavy duty pain killers to decrease the pain. Six months later I was still bubbling a little, if the weather was damp. Had a follow up appt with a consultant and after that no more bubbling.

Omg! The pain. It started at 3 in the morning and no shuffling or painkillers touched it. The nurse practitioner said I'd pulled a muscle

I had a really bad case of pneumonia few years back, I was given antibiotics and a few other things, but other than feeling incredibly tired and short of breath I wasn't too bad.

And the only reason I wasn't hospitalised was because I lived 5 minutes away from the hospital. Perfectly fine now, hope your DD recovers quickly.