I’ve had a rather nasty sinus infection for a few months now. Nasty enough that several weeks of Augmentin did not knock it down. Nasty enough that I’m scheduled to have endoscopic sinus surgery June 10th. Whether I’ll actually have it then is debatable.
On Mother’s Day, I started to get vague body aches and chills. Over the next few days…they developed into full blown fever. By Wednesday of that week…the fever was in the 103 range at times with some increasing coughing. Saw my doc on Thursday, who ordered a chest x-ray. Find out on Friday it’s pneumonia…and start on Biaxin, albuterol and some steroid dose pack. I suspect that this sinus infection problem may have played havoc with my immune system making me prone to develop the pneumonia.
I miss an entire week of work…have never missed an entire week of work in my life. It’s now been a couple weeks, and while I feel better than I did then…I still have breathing problems and still have fluid in my lungs. The fluid rattling in my lungs keeps my awake at night. I WAS supposed to have another x-ray 3 weeks after the first…but I call my doc’s ofc about the rattle in my chest and she orders another chest x-ray. Supposedly they indicated that they wanted the results ASAP, but when I get to the hospital there is no such indication on the order…and the x-ray tech says “maybe” the results will be read, dictated and sent over Friday. They were not sent Friday. So now I get to wait til Monday to find out the next plan.
In the meantime…my sinuses hurt like hell…I have constant headaches, and I hope this thing resolves itself soon. I’ll be the guy sitting in the steamy bathroom, with the shower running and coughing up fun colored phlegm.
I had pneumonia when I was 11. Worst experience ever. Fevers everyday, barfing up everything I ate, dry heaves in the morning. Oh yea those were the days.
Only thing I could keep down was gatorade and water. lost 10 pounds over the 10 days I had it.
Sounds like you have pheumonia AND a sinus infection at the same time, that sounds insanely painful, I hope you feel better.
Hopefully you won’t need surgery but if you need I wish you the best. Just get rest and drink lots of gatorade.
I came home from the hospital after having my daughter (by C section) with a lovely case of pneumonia. It took them 2 weeks to diagnose it though because the antibiotics they gave me for mastitis kept me from having a fever. The doc kept saying “ok no fever so it can’t be pneumonia”
Coughing your brains out sucks with an abdominal incision!
Be aware too that too much time on antibiotics can give you other stuff… I ended up with thrush (a yeast infection in my throat)
They did give me some incredible cough medication when they finally figured out what was wrong!
I hope they get their act together and you get better soon!!! Bastards always pull stupid crap like that on fridays!!!
Oh, I beg to differ! I just luuuuvvvv pneumonia! That poor old pneumonia bacillus, just wanting to survive and make a living for itself. How dare we interfere!
One of my best friends has always had a somewhat weak immune system, even before she was diagnosed with leukemia (she is now in remission). She’s only 22, but she has had pneumonia about 5 or 6 times in her life already.
Beagledave, you have my utmost sympathy. I got pneumonia a week after having my second baby, and it was no fun at all - I can remember carrying him in his car seat miles from the car park to the X-ray Department, and by the time I got there, I could barely breathe - the staff in the x-ray department couldn’t believe I was still standing (I very nearly wasn’t!).
My son also caught pneumonia when he was 10 months old after having had chicken pox, and that was pretty scary - he was much worse than me.
Anyhow, sorry for rambling - what I really wanted to say was I don’t know if you are still taking antibiotics, but the one that worked for me was Ofloxacin - it cleared it up within a few days - amazing stuff. My GP said they wouldn’t normally prescribe it because it was too expensive (being an NHS Surgery means the GP has to pay for it), but they’d tried Augmentin and various other antibiotics. Maybe this might be worth asking your doctor about if you are still having trouble breathing? Also, Aminophylline is very good for expanding your airways and helping you breath. Oh, and my asthma nurse said that when you’re lying down at night, try to lay on the side where the fluid is, apparently you don’t feel as if you’re drowning so much - worked for me!
I hope this might help you, and I hope you get well really soon.
