Asthma, chest infection, ??pneumonia

[misspollysdolly]

I really need someone to come a tell me a bit about pneumonia...am really worried...

I have moderate asthma with a tendency to slip into fairly serious flare ups particularly in the winter months (i.e now). Last winter not great - which at the time I thought was specifically allergy related - and am currently in a bit of a crisis. I had a cold during half term which made my chest very tight and wheezy. This progressed into a really nasty asthmary chest infection two weeks ago. When I saw my GP last Monday there was hardly any air entry in my right lung, and following a mega-ventolin dose-up there was clearly infection in both lungs. Have now had two courses of antibiotics and a 5-day course of steroids, but since finishing these on Tuesday my chest has got progressively tighter and I'm now wheezing again, full of gunk and have still got quite a lot of pain in my chest and back. The GP I saw has treated my infection as pneumonia, though I have not had a chest x-ray to confirm this. All I will say is that I've never had a chest infection that had made me feel so ill or been so painful.

Does this sound to anyone like pneumonia? Any asthmatic MNs who can compare notes with me on nasty chest infections. I'm worried that it still seems to be hanging around and that instead of getting better it seems to be worse today

Called my GP surgery earlier, but after taking quite a lots of details the recpetionist then said there was not a lot they could do now til Monday morning - which frankly, feeling like this, seems a long time to wait. I'm a bit worried.

TIA

I think you should call your doctor again, the out of hours or nhs direct to check that you don't need to go in to hospital to be nebuliserd or have iV antibs. Don't be fobbed off.

DH just tried the doctors. Was on hold for 15 mins to begin with and then when he got through the receptionist just said there were now no doctors in and he'd have to 'ring the hospital' if he wanted to see someone. WTF??! I am so stressed and so exhausted by it that I will just wait until Monday I think. I do not much want to go anywhere near an A&E dept on a Friday or Saturday night. Still worried, but glad it's now Friday evening, DH is home and I don't have to keep going purely for the sake of the children anymore. He can help me now. I'm tired.

hi missp..it does sound like a pneumonia...having had it three times myself.

Has your Gp sent a sputum test off to see if he has got the right ABx. if not i would insist on one.
It zapped me for 3 months...i felt as if i was dying. Had a temp of 104 and sharp stabbing pains when i breathed in and out. It has left me susceptible to chest infections now.

If you are young as i was when i first got it, they dont hospitalise you even when its serious. They treat you'conservatively ' at home. You only get taken in if you are a baby or old. Actually thats not strictly true as my next door neighbour got it at the same time and she wasnt as bad as me,and she got hospitalised til she was recovering. I was just left to die at home...Got it on xmas day...cooked the dinner and then literally collapsed.

I have to say the recetionist shouldn't be telling you there was nothing they could do until Monday, she isn't the doctor she should have got someone to ring you back before they all went home.

You sound like I did with pneumonia I ended up after 2 weeks at A&E on a Friday night having x-rays and eventually being kept in to keep my O2 levels up at they were getting lower. I was given 24hours IV antiBs and sent home with type specific antiBs on the Sunday.

Please go down if you are feeling worse - our A&E give priority to breathing problems over the normal friday drunk/fallendown drunk/walkedinto a lamppost lot.

i had pneumonia once but it was only discovered when i began to vomit and my temp went up. so just look for these symptoms as well

yes my temperature was frighteningly high too.

Haven't really had a temperature but the significant consolidation of my lungs (part asthma - reversed a bit with ventolin, part crackly infected lungs) was the real alarm bells I think. Haven't been seen by a doctor for a week now, so have now idea what state my lungs are in and I think I've rather lost touch with what normal breathing feels like - chest has been affected for nearly four weeks now. I just know that I have achey, heavy-feeling lungs (does that sound mad??! I can't really describe how my chest feels) I feel like my lungs don;t really move as they should when I breathe and I have aching pain in my chest and back most of the time - it gets worse when I've done hardly anything 'too much'. My cough is chesty and rattly, but part of the problem I think is that I can't cough efficiently enough to bring any stuff up, so I have no idea of it's colour etc. The tiredness is a killer and people keep asking me if I'm feeling better and I actually like I'm letting THEM down when/if I admit that I still feel crappy - now that really is mad, but I'm so frustrated with my body.

Another thing - now that it's time to face the morning again - that I wonder is familiar to anyone else...on waking in the morning my chest is usually pretty much clear as a bell. Still achey and uncomfortable but not gunky and noisy. And momentarily I consider that I actually might be better or failing that, that maybe I imagined the whole thing ! Then gradually over the first waking two hours or so my chest tightens, fills with gunk and by mid-morning I am literally drowning in phlegm. Does anyone else get this when their chest has an infection too...?

MPS, if you instinctively feel that you may have pneumonia go to A&E, I know it's horrible and the last place you want to go to, but they will check you thoroughly and prescribe what you need to get better.

My husband recently had pneumonia, which wasn't dealt with properly by our GP, and he ended up in hospital with a partially collapsed lung.

Sorry, that should be, MPD < bleary--eyed >

Hope you get better soon.

I don't get what you describe in the morning - if anything I have the reverse. But the rest of what you describe sounds like my last pneumonia. I'd had numerous courses of antibiotics from the gp and was on constant steroids. My temperature was raised but would spike further quite quickly. My dh found me one day semi-conscious with a temp of 41+ (with 3 kids incl newborn in my care). I'd been relatively ok just an hour before on the school run. He took me to a&e, and was put on iv abs within minutes and within a few hours beginning to feel much better. Had to stay in for 5 days. Get yourself to a&e now, it'll be quiet this time of day, and as a pp says you'll be seen quickly. After my last experience I won't be doing the 'lets wait and see' anymore, knowing how quickly I deteriated before. Hope you feel better soon.

yep me too, collapsed lobe.

unusual if you have full blown pneumonia to feel clear in the morning,if anything it felt worse after lying down as the fluid clooected in th lungs and made me feel as if i was choking all night.

you dont mention any temperature,which is normal with pneumonia and it comes on really suddenly.

Been up for two hours now. Hurts to breathe. Coughing like a drain and chest very tight. Will see how the morning goes and then decide whether I need to be seen today or whether to hang firs til Monday...thanks for your replies...

*that'll be hang FIRE - no energy to hang trees here...