Ds sent to hospital with suspected pneumonia

[insan1tyscartching]

Ds is usually very fit, runs most days, gym four or five times a week. At the weekend he came down with a virus so had high temperature, rigors, cough, sore throat. Expected him to shake it off but went to GP Monday as was feeling poorly and she prescribed antibiotics and ordered blood tests.
He went back today as still feeling awful and GP sent him to hospital. His blood shows an infection but the GP said that his white blood count is "wrong"
At the hospital he's had an xray which shows a slight infection, another blood test which "shows a problem" and is now being repeated again with more blood tests and he has to have a urine test and swabs taken.
Since Christmas he's been unusually tired but he works hard and thought that the break had thrown him off routine. I feel quite anxious,any thoughtson what might be wrong?

What s rough few days for you and your son. I'm glad to hear that the docs knkw what it is so can treat it appropriately now.

Fingers crossed for a smooth recovery.

I'm so glad you have a dx now but sorry it is still awful. Hoping for a big improvement quickly. I am also relived it isn't something more serious, if that doesnt sound too strange. you sound such a good mum

It was ds and his googling that decided influenza A was bird flu so happy to be corrected. He has had a better night, more sleep than he's had for a week and his temperature is down again or it was at 2am. Hoping this means the second antibiotic is doing the trick and we will see a steady improvement from now on.
It has been terrifying at times tbh just the speed at which he became ill and the long wait for answers but I suppose it takes time for cultures to grow and for stuff to be ruled out,
Really grateful for the care he has received and hoping that seeing as the rest of us don't appear to have caught it from him everyone else who came into contact with him at GPs and the hospital initially have escaped it too.
Feeling more positive today.

It must have been terrifying. It might be a bit of a haul with ups and downs yet, but he is in the right place. as others have said it can hit young fit men disproportionately hard- their own healthy immune systems can be wierdly what makes them so unwell.

(had to smile at your ds googling - it does demonstrate that the mn myth that you can't possibly move a few fingers and be on the internet when you have flu is entirely false!)

I am so glad that he had a better night. I hope you can get some rest today, you must be very tired.

How worrying for you.

Bird flu (H5N1) is a strain of influenza A but not all strains of influenza A are bird flu, if that makes any sense.

It does sound like he has a very nasty strain of it but not one that is easily communicated person to person.

I am glad that despite those nurses he is getting good care, hopefully he will feel a little better every day, even if it takes some patience to get back to full health. Thank goodness he was so healthy in the first place.

If it's any reassurance, a family member of mine was very ill and spent several weeks in ICU/HDU with H1N1. He is absolutely fine now and has no long term effects.

It will take a long to time to recover to the level that he was before he was ill. And we are talking months, rather than weeks, but he is back to running/cycling/gym training and a physically demanding job and you really wouldn't know how ill he had been.

Glad he is improving now. Remember to take care of yourself too.

Well good news today,ds appears to be winning I think it's a combination of sorting out his white blood count and the antibiotics specific to his infection but he is definitely getting better. He's still very weak but his temperature is steady and his breathing is getting better and his pulse and BP are down.He has been warned it will take a while to recover and even longer to get back to the fitness levels he is used to but he will get there.
He's in good spirits today, i think he can see that he's making progress and he's not yet well enough to be frustrated by his limitations, I'm sure that will come though.
I'm going to try and catch up with the stuff that I've neglected whilst looking after ds today I think, as I feel better able to concentrate, until I go back to see him at any rate.

that is fantastic news

Really good news :)

I'm really pleased to hear he's getting better :)

Great news xx

yay! hope he continues to recover

OH my goodness came to this late and so happy hes recovering.

Just read your thread, what a worrying time you've all had.

I feel sure him already being pretty fit will have helped in his recovery. He will feel wiped out for a while yet though. Make sure he doesn't overdo it when allowed home.

Thank goodness !

So pleased to hear things are going better for your DS OP. My niece was in hospital with septicaemia just before Christmas and it damaged her heart, such a hard illness. She's tiny so of course it was a very worrying time. That time of knowing they're starting to turn a corner is such a relief.

How is your DS doing op? Xx

He is home and he's recovering, he's still weak and tired and has only today felt up to eating anything more than toast or soup but he's going to be fine. What is slightly worrying though is that two of his workmates have been admitted to hospital this weekend with influenza a. Ds hasn't been in physical contact with either for more than a fortnight so hoping that they have contracted it elsewhere rather than it having a long incubation period as that would raise the possibility that we might still contract it ourselves.

glad to hear he's at home and getting better!

I'm glad he's home and on the up.

That is worrying, are they as fit as DS?

They are both female in their forties without underlying health problems as far as ds knows but he knows them as their manager rather than as friends, They both sought help quickly and mentioned ds's experience and so they were admitted quickly and influenza a investigated straight away. Ds hasn't heard anything further as yet either from work or his workmates and so hoping it's a case of no news being good news.

Have the hospital considered Legionella?

Pseudo,I've no idea tbh although they ran a battery of tests on ds and his workmates have also tested positive for influenza a. Is legionella usually because of air conditioning? If so ds's office building doesn't have it but the building that ds goes to meetings at does (in the same town) It would be unusual if his workmates went to the other office building though as it's usually manager's meetings.

Very odd, its pretty unusual for a cluster of fit and healthy people to be hospitalised because of flu.
You can see the number of hospitalised people across the UK due to flu in the report here

sorry, not uK, just england.