Pneumonia recovery

[Morag72]

Hi - I spent most of Xmas in hospital with pneumonia. It was awful. Horrendous cough & had to be put on IV antibiotics & fluids. I was sent home after 4 days. I’ve almost finished my 12 day course of antibiotics. My cough is much improved. But I now however lower back pain on my left side (this is the side affected by pneumonia). I still feel quite weak and find it hard to talk much without coughing. How long should I expect the recovery to take and is lower back pain normal ?

Sorry to hear you’ve been so poorly. I’m no expert but my mum had double pneumonia this time last year. She was in hospital like you - same medication etc. it took a long time before she was strong enough to even walk to the loo without resting and we had to move her bed downstairs. She is elderly but I’m sure I read somewhere it can take 6 months to recover from pneumonia. Obviously it will depend on your age I imagine. She was hallucinating and everything for a couple of weeks.

Hi op. I'm sorry you've been so unwell. I had pneumonia a few months ago and it was such a scary time. I've never experienced anything like it.

Whilst I do feel better, I'm not 100% yet. I still find I can get tired very easily and still have a cough. If I talk a lot or laugh it brings my cough on worse. I was prescribed an inhaler which I sometimes need.
I didn't realise how long recovery would take. I was told over and over that the cough could last 6 weeks but it's been much longer now.

I don't recall having back pain, could you call the dr and ask about it? Maybe it's from all the coughing?

I hope you continue to feel better!

I had pneumonia, coughing blood and pneumonia turned to sepsis while in hospital. Similarly was over Christmas and I was desperate to get out so discharged myself after a week as I was also in hospital in a part of the UK I was just visiting.

I looked on here at the time for information and kept seeing posts saying it took 2-3 months to fully recover from pneumonia which wasn’t what I wanted to hear but tbh that’s pretty much how long it took. Even then I didn’t feel fully well for about 5 months and went camping over the May bank holiday a few months later and cold air was very tough on my breathing.

i did go back to work after about six weeks but it was hard.

Apart from rest etc I discovered that any form of gentle yoga that focuses on breath was really helpful with recovery.

But do rest! I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but every year I get ill at the same time including pleurisy last year so take time to get better as I don’t think I did.

I did have chest pain and back pain which is what initially prompted me to call 111 who sent me to hospital. However I didn’t understand or wasn’t told when in hospital that it was because one lung had collapsed and the other partly collapsed until I was sent for a follow up x Ray as standard.