Has anyone had pleurisy?

[HeadFairy]

I was diagnosed with pleurisy mid July, I was pretty rough for about three weeks, and started to recover (helped that we were on holiday in France afterwards and the weather was glorious) I took ibuprofen only (admittedly I wasn't brilliant at remembering it, but I did manage it most days for about 2 weeks). I'm feeling better but now I've stopped taking the ibuprofen the chest pain is back. My question really is how long should it take to recover from pleurisy? It's been nearly 6 weeks now and I'm still getting intermittent chest pain.

You should be fully recovered by now. I suggest you go to A&E today as it's possible that your pleurisy is the result of a bacterial infection in which case you need to start taking antibiotics asap as ibuprofen will have alleviated the pain but won't have treated the cause of it.

The advantage of going to A&E as opposed to your GP is they'll order an x-ray so you can be reassured that it is pleurisy rather than some other condition which would require different treatment.

As it's a bank holiday and many people are away from home, hopefully your nearest A&E won't be as busy today as it will be next week when the schools begin to end their summer holidays.

goddess has nailed it.
A&E is only answer.

I had it as an otherwise healthy 20-year-old. Pain was so bad that I couldn't sit up on my own for about a week to ten days.

I was weak but visibly improving after two weeks and back to my old self within four.

Definitely go and see someone ASAP if you are still in pain after so much time!

Yes. I had it when I was 20 week pregnant. I just about got to the GP in pain by walking very slowly and gripping onto the pram. I couldn't go in the car because I didn't have the strength to put the large toddler in his car seat. The GP called an ambulance - she thought I had a pulmonary embolism. I was in hospital for a week on very strong IV antibiotics. When I was discharged I felt so well comparatively speaking that I just carried on as usual. In fact I felt much better than I had for 2.5 years as I think I must have had a lurking bacterial infection bringing me down which the anti-biotics finally zapped.

Emergency medical help now I think. Not quite sure why you were only on Iburprofen for pleurisy although I'm not a medic.

DP had it some years ago, i'm pretty sure he had strong antibiotics - echo everyone else please get proper medical advice

Hello all, sorry I didn't reply sooner. I have had chest xrays previously to confirm the diagnosis. The pain eventually subsided, and the gp and I are both convinced the pleurisy was caused by a viral infection rather than a bacterial, as it has cleared itself up without the need for antibiotics. I wonder if the combination of asthma and pleurisy meant it took a long time for me to recover. I'm definitely much better though, I even managed a short bike ride yesterday because I'm feeling awfully lumpy after 6 weeks of no exercise!