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What Being Diagnosed With Pneumonia Is Really Like

by — Last updated: 2015-09-09 in Respiratory tract disorders and diseases

I was diagnosed with pneumonia and pleurisy in February. It took months, and a pulmonary embolism scare, to get over. Two lots of hefty antibiotics later I am "well" again, but getting used to life with new lungs.

I was first diagnosed with pneumonia and pleurisy in February, after much to-ing and fro-ing between my doctor and the emergency room of my local hospital. After coughing up blood during the night, and a family history of embolisms (clots) my doctor was worried that I'd had a pulmonary embolism, and wanted the hospital to check me over immediately. The hospital initially thought that I had a slight infection.

After getting bloods drawn at both the doctor's office and at the hospital, they finally found a cubicle for me. It meant they could slip a blood pressure monitor over my arm, and a blood oxygen clip onto my finger. My temperature was also taken. My blood pressure was 89/60 — low. My oxygen sats were 94 percent. Low. And my temperature was running high. Finally, it was clear that there was something wrong. 

They ran an ECG, which came back with abnormal results. They ran blood gas tests, which involved putting a needle into the artery in my wrist, had to be repeated four times. It was the most painful blood test I've ever had. Luckily, those tests indicated that enough oxygen was circulating in my blood, which told the hospital that I hadn't had an embolism. 

The ECG said otherwise, according to my doctor. This is still a bone of contention that he's trying to get them to acknowledge, even now.

I went for a chest X-ray and an MRI. They showed that I had a massive pneumonia infection on my lungs as well as pleurisy, which is the medical term for fluid build up between the layers of spongey tissue of the lungs. Basically, it all causes pain, pain, and more pain. I'd arrived at the ER finding it difficult to breathe, coughing my lungs up, and coughing up blood. It took the better part of a full day waiting around and a full battery of tests but this was it: the answers I'd been waiting for, the treatments I'd been desperate to take. 

'No Antibiotics Are Needed'

Yep. They told me that antibiotics were unnecessary, because the infection was viral, meaning that they would be completely ineffective. 

All I could do was rest, take painkillers (over the counter paracetemol and ibuprofen to reduce inflammation) if the pain got particularly bothersome, and drink plenty of water. So that's what I did. Keep in mind that a diagnosis of pneumonia and pleurisy at the age of 23 is fairly unusual when you're usually relatively fit and healthy, so I was feeling more than a little bit under the weather. All I could really do was sleep, lounge around on the couch, ask my husband to bring me food and pet my dog. Four weeks later, I was no better, but figured things would improve on their own. 

READ Home Remedies for Pneumonia in Children

I returned to the doctor for an unrelated problem, and, thankfully, him being somewhat of a family friend took one look at me and said, "You're still not right, are you?"

My Pneumonia Story: Rushed Back To Hospital

I told him that I hadn't been given any antibiotics for my infection, and he checked my blood pressure, oxygen sats and ran an ECG. All abnormal, yet again. I went back to hospital, this time with a note from the doctor, which meant that I didn't have to wait to get through triage — a nurse called my name and sat me in a cubicle almost as soon as I sat down.

MRI and chest X-rays were repeated and I was given clot-busting drugs just in case an embolism had occurred, in the flesh of my stomach (which are super, super sore, by the way). Blood gases were taken again. (Those bruises have only just healed!) Turns out the infection hadn't gone. It'd gotten a little worse. So, I was sent back home with antibiotics, which were repeated again six weeks later, and I've had multiple chest X-rays since.

Pulmonary Embolism

My doctor still believes that although I had an infection, I also had a pulmonary embolism the first time I went to the hospital. This is where a clot travels from your leg and into your lung, causing sharp pain, coughing and shortness of breath, resulting in you coughing up blood. The ECG I'd had at the hospital was a classic embolism rhythm, apparently. My mum had had an embolism the year before. I'd just returned from flying two weeks prior. My family history was incredibly high risk for clotting and embolisms. Due to my age, however, and because my blood gases had come back with normal results at the hospital, ER doctors were stubborn to look for any other explanation for symptoms other than infection. 
 
Not to mention that embolisms can move, disperse and break down, or, I could have coughed it up when I coughed up the blood — which would explain why no clot was appearing on the screen in my MRIs.

Three Months On

Before I had pneumonia, I could walk for miles. I'm not the healthiest or the fittest of folks, and I'm not a gym bunny, but I could go on lovely hikes and walks with my dog and not get out of breath. Now, I can't walk for more than 20 meters without getting out of breath. My lungs ache. They're scratchy. They almost feel itchy. It feels as though they are smaller than they used to be. I can't get as much breath into my lungs as I used to be able to, and it's been a long time since I went on a long walk or hike because I'm so afraid of my lungs failing me mid-journey. 
I have to use blue inhalers (Salbutamol), which open up the airways and allow me to get oxygen into my lungs more easily. I have to see the thoracic team (the lung doctors) on a regular basis, and we're trying to figure out if I need to have inhalers daily, and if there is permanent scarring or damage to my lungs from the infection. All from a flight to Italy!
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