To ask if you've had Pneumonia, how did you know it wasn't 'just a cough'

[Christmastits]

Had a cough since Tuesday, I've called in sick for the weekend. I'm not starting to feel any better.

I have a temp of 39.5 and my sputum is now brown, it's really hard to cough up anything but it's always there. Lots of vomiting caused by the coughing, I feel bloody awful.

Drs on Thursday said it was viral but I'm not so sure now, I feel like I have the flu, I also have a uti which I'm on antibiotics for but they won't treat a chest infection.

Is it time to go back to OOH tomorrow? Or tonight? I all of a sudden feel really unwell. I'll have to wake DH up to take me but I don't feel like this is just a cough any more

Oh goodness poor you, have you got a chest drain in? They can be very uncomfortable, so ask for more pain relief if you need it. Glad you got seen asap, hope you recover quickly. X

If you are coughing up any weird coloured gunk get to a doctor. My dad had flu years back and started coughing up brown gunk and he had developed pneumonia. The Dr said he caught it just in time to avoid hospitalization so I'm more cautious now.
Hope you feel better soon

Yes I have a chest drain :( and it's my birthday. My manager has come down to see me as I'm meant to be in work tonight, she's really supportive but it's still crappy. Think it's safe to say she knows I'm not faking.

Oh no! Happy birthday and I hope you feel much better soon.

Sympathies OP. I had pleurisy whilst pregnant. Fecking painful. Left me with vulnerability to bronchitis too, the fucker. Desperately avoiding people with colds right now because it always turns into bronchitis for m now at this time of year.

What utterly shocks me is my dd had some of the these symptoms... Some of the them, no bad cough, no mucus but other symptoms that I think should have prompted our doctor to get immediate help. I had never seen anything like it before, trusted him, he gave us steroids.. She slept next to me like an organ . I was clueless but trusted our doctor who said give it a day or two. Next am, something in me clicked...and I rushed her to a and e. I don't know why.. I was about to have a shower and she seemed settled.
Some thing clicked and I took her to a and e half hour away, straight through busy waiting area.. Straight on to oxygen. So many people came to me and said... But she can't have looked like this yesterday at doctors!! I said yes! She did!!
She got x ray and thankful that was clear. They gave her antibiotics on iv as precautions. Nebs all night, oxygen and she was different person. I know better now!

BTW she was 4

Happy Birthday

Just treat yourself to something nice once you are fully recover to make up for it.

Glad your boss has seen you, don't need the added pressure of work getting on your case while you are recovering.

And just to add at least a third of pneumonia cases are viral, mine was

Total bummer it's your birthday. Just try and look forward to celebrating once you're better.

Think it's shocking and worrying how often medical professional's get these illnesses so wrong....what can be done??

Think it's shocking and worrying how often medical professional's get these illnesses so wrong....what can be done??

Being believed would be a start, and not being likened to the last timewaster they saw. The comments above from people saying 'you cant be that bad or you wouldn't be on mumsnet' are just as common amongst some medical staff. The fact you've got a bloody chest drain in speaks volumes!

I know of someone who had pneumonia, not only were they dismissed by the a+e docs, they were thoroughly told off for using the service for what was basically being described as the flu. They had it the other way around, went back to the GPs and got "but you couldn't have looked this bad this when you went to hospital yesterday", GP sent them straight back to hospital where they were promptly admitted.

Being in bed and typing isn't nearly as taxing as people try and make out! Speaking and walking now that's a different matter entirely!

To be honest my DH thought i was being a drama queen until I got wheeled into resus and he got put in the relatives room

Hope you start to feel better soon, it did sound serious from your symptoms!!

Meant to say OP. Happy birthday. and get well soon.

Happy birthday OP. FWIW my DH thought I was being a drama llama too but then came home early from a work trip because he was scared "he'd come home and find me dead on the kitchen floor". Who's the drama llama now!

Oh heck, OP, that sounds horrendous. Poor you, hope you are much better soon x

Oh I am so sorry OP!

I am a veteran of both of pneumonia and chest drains - but not at the same time! Ugh. Really hope things start picking up ASAP and you can get home to celebrate your birthday properly.

I collapsed on platform 6 at Victoria station. That convinced me it wasn't "just a cough".

Decades of being dismissed by medics here. Very untrusting of most gp's, practice nurses etc hospital Medics have been ok.

They really don't like you to sleep in hospital do they 😂. It's stupid because I work in scbu and I know that observations are needed but so is sleep!

I think my manager must have told all my co workers im here as yesterday most of them turned up in dribs and drabs to see how I'm doing. Which is lovely but I'm feeling so vulnerable, on 02 with a drain, I might ask for no visitors other than DH today.

I feel so unwell it's awful.

When a sales assistant in a shop said she also worked at a chemist, she wasn’t being rude but that I really needed to get a Dr to check my cough! Two course of antibiotics and a steroid inhaler later and I was greatly improved. Always need an inhaler now though whenever I get a cold

Oh dear. I didn’t RTFT how awful did you. I’m glad you’re getting better now

I was told mine was viral! Had night sweats, intermittent fever (spikes), annoying dry cough that didn't respond much to codeine/cough medicine/ventolin and after a couple of weeks it got worse, I coughed so hard I was sick after each coughing fit. The fever only flared up at 4pm and went by morning! I was still walking around getting on with housework etc, just felt very tired and drained. Saw a different GP, had an urgent chest X-ray and bloods, pneumonia diagnosed by shadow on lung. Felt better after starting antibiotics! Apparently 'walking pneumonia' is common in mothers of small children (maybe due to getting run down/sleep deprivation/catching endless nursery bugs etc).

You poor thing! Im so glad you are being looked after.
It really irks me when some bright spark trots out the 'if you can type on mumsnet'
My friend and I had a messenger conversation the other day. This was 36 hours after major surgery.
Skin grafts, tracheochtemy PEG tube insertion and full of morphine. His spelling was a bit off due to the pain and morphine but we had a good chat.
Perhaps I should have suggested he was clearly in fine fettle?