Tips For Regaining Your Strength After Severe Pneumonia
- Get plenty of rest
- Slowly start moving around once you’re ready but don’t overdo it
- Complete any treatments prescribed by your doctor
- Eat a nutritious diet
- Quit smoking and avoid second-hand smoke
- Limit exposure to throat irritants, including pollution and alcohol
- Perform deep breathing exercises
- Consult with your doctor before returning to exercise
Aim to slowly work back into your usual routine and be sure to take note of any signs that the infection may be coming back.
“Pneumonia can be incredibly taxing and there’s no one-size-fits-all to recovery. Some people feel better in about six weeks, but it can take several months for others to feel better after severe pneumonia,” adds Dr. Lee. “Most importantly, be patient with your body.”
If your recovery is prolonged, a specialized program focused on pulmonary rehabilitation may help get you back on track.
How Is Acute Bronchitis Treated
Acute bronchitis is usually mild and does not cause complications. The symptoms often resolve on their own and lung function goes back to normal.
In most cases, antibiotics are not needed to treat acute bronchitis. Thats because most of the infections are caused by viruses. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses. If it has progressed to pneumonia, then antibiotics may be necessary.
Treatment is aimed at treating the symptoms, and may include:
- Avoiding exposure to secondhand smoke
- Cough medicine
- Pain relievers and fever reducers, such as acetaminophen
- Quitting smoking
Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your healthcare provider:
What You Need To Know:
Pneumonia is an infection in your lungs caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. You can become infected if you come in contact with someone who is sick. You can get pneumonia if you recently had surgery or needed a ventilator to help you breathe. Pneumonia can also be caused by accidentally inhaling saliva or small pieces of food. Pneumonia may cause mild symptoms, or it can be severe and life-threatening.
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Chest Pain After Covid
Chest pain after COVID-19 is among the concerning symptoms cardiologists are seeing, even as hospitalizations from the latest surge of COVID-19 cases recede.
Many recover initially from COVID-19 only to suffer weeks later from sometimes confounding symptoms that can affect all parts of the body. These individuals are the victims of long COVID, defined by the CDC as conditions patients experience four or more weeks after recovering from a COVID-19 infection.
Long COVID patients, or long haulers, battle symptoms that include chest pain, chronic fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, nerve problems, anxiety and depression, joint and muscle pain and more. They therefore benefit from multidisciplinary care, which is available at the UCHealth Post-COVID Clinic.
UCHealth Today spoke with Dr. Natasha Altman, an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology specialist with the Heart Failure Clinic at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on the Anschutz Medical Campus. Altman provides heart care for long COVID patients at the Post-COVID Clinic.
Chronic Vs Acute Bronchitis
There are two main kinds of bronchitisacute and chronic. During bronchitis, the tubes that lead from your windpipe into your lungs swell up and produce protective mucus that triggers coughing.
The more common and less severe type of bronchitis is acute bronchitis. An infection like the common cold or flu triggers acute bronchitis. This infection can be a virus or bacteria or fungi. With acute bronchitis, sometimes called a chest cold, you may still be contagious.
Without complications, acute bronchitis lasts less than three weeks. You should be able to recover on your own, without prescription medication. Rest and over-the-counter medications to treat your cough, loosen mucus, and ease pain and fever should be enough to treat your symptoms.
The second trigger for bronchitis is environmental and causes chronic bronchitis. Long-term exposure to pollutants or tobacco smoke irritates the bronchi and causes the buildup of mucus.
Chronic bronchitis is a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , a kind of illness that makes it hard to breathe. It lasts at least three months and comes back year after year. You should get long-term treatment for it.
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A Lukewarm Bath Or Compress
Soaking the body in lukewarm water may help cool it down.
If it is not possible to take a bath, apply towels or washcloths to the body after dunking them in lukewarm water and wringing them out. This may help the body cool. When the towels warm up, dip them in the water again and reapply.
Chills are often a secondary symptom of a fever. The following home remedies may help ease chills:
What Is Walking Pneumonia: How Long Does It Last & Is It Contagious
Walking pneumonia is a generic term for mild pneumonia which is caused by lung infection. This is also known as atypical pneumonia and is not counted in the category of serious ailments. Let us understand what walking pneumonia is, its causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and recovery. There are many queries regarding walking pneumonia, about how long does it last and whether it is contagious. Let us understand about these in detail.
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How Is Pneumonia Treated
When you get a pneumonia diagnosis, your doctor will work with you to develop a treatment plan. Treatment for pneumonia depends on the type of pneumonia you have, how sick you are feeling, your age, and whether you have other health conditions. The goals of treatment are to cure the infection and prevent complications. It is important to follow your treatment plan carefully until you are fully recovered.
Take any medications as prescribed by your doctor. If your pneumonia is caused by bacteria, you will be given an antibiotic. It is important to take all the antibiotic until it is gone, even though you will probably start to feel better in a couple of days. If you stop, you risk having the infection come back, and you increase the chances that the germs will be resistant to treatment in the future.
Typical antibiotics do not work against viruses. If you have viral pneumonia, your doctor may prescribe an antiviral medication to treat it. Sometimes, though, symptom management and rest are all that is needed.
Most people can manage their symptoms such as fever and cough at home by following these steps:
If your pneumonia is so severe that you are treated in the hospital, you may be given intravenous fluids and antibiotics, as well as oxygen therapy, and possibly other breathing treatments.
Can The Pneumonia Vaccine Prevent Pneumonia
It is not possible to prevent all types of pneumonia, but one can take steps to reduce the chance of contracting the condition by quitting smoking, practicing good hand-washing, and avoiding contact with people who have colds, the flu, or other infections.
A vaccine is available against the most common bacterial cause of pneumonia, Streptococcus pneumoniae . There are two types of vaccine: PPSV23 , a pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine against 23 types of the bacteria, and PCV13 , a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine that protects against 13 types of the bacteria. These vaccines may not always prevent pneumococcal pneumonia, but they may prevent serious complications of pneumonia if it does occur.
Avoidance of areas where fungal pathogens are endemic is recommended to prevent fungal pneumonias. There is no antifungal vaccine available however, for some high-risk patients, some doctors have recommended prophylactic antifungal drugs.
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Bacteremia And Septic Shock
If bacteria caused your pneumonia, they could get into your blood, especially if you didn’t see a doctor for treatment. It’s a problem called bacteremia.
Bacteremia can lead to a serious situation known as . It’s a reaction to the infection in your blood, and it can cause your blood pressure to drop to a dangerous level.
When your blood pressure is too low, your heart may not be able to pump enough blood to your organs, and they can stop working. Get medical help right away if you notice symptoms like:
Your doctor can test your mucus or the pus in your lungs to look for infection. They may also take an X-ray or a CT scan of your lungs.
Your doctor will likely treat your lung abscesses with antibiotics. They may do a procedure that uses a needle to remove the pus.
Types Of Doctors Who Treat Pneumonia
In some cases, primary-care physicians, including pediatricians, internists, and family medicine specialists may treat pneumonia. In more severe cases, other types of specialists may be involved in caring for the patient with pneumonia. These include infectious-disease specialists, pulmonologists, critical-care specialists, and hospitalists.
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Things That You Can Do To Help Your Child At Home Are
- Control the fever with the proper medicine and right strength for the age of your child. Fevers lower than 101° F do not need to be treated unless the child is uncomfortable .
- Give your child plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration.
- See that your child gets lots of rest.
- Do not give over-the-counter cough medicines or other OTC medicines without asking the health provider first. The child needs to cough and bring up the phlegm. Coughing is the bodys way of clearing the infection from the lungs.
- Avoid exposing your child to tobacco smoke or other irritants in the air.
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What To Expect By Age And Health
Here is how age can affect your recovery from pneumonia:
- Infants under the age of 6 months are typically hospitalized for pneumonia out of an abundance of caution.
- Children over the age of 6 months are more likely to be treated at home, provided they are typically healthy.
- Older adults may take longer to bounce back from pneumonia since our immune system naturally weakens the older we get, especially if you have a preexisting health condition. Its also more common for the elderly and chronically ill to be hospitalized for pneumonia since the rate of complications and mortality increases for those over the age of 65.
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How Can Parents Help
Kids with pneumonia need to get plenty of rest and drink lots of liquids while the body works to fight the infection.
If your child has bacterial pneumonia and the doctor prescribed antibiotics, give the medicine on schedule for as long as directed. Keeping up with the medicine doses will help your child recover faster and help prevent the infection from spreading to others in the family. If your child is wheezing, the doctor might recommend using breathing treatments.
Ask the doctor before you use a medicine to treat your child’s cough. Over-the-counter cough and cold medicines are not recommended for any kids under 6 years old. If your child doesnt seem to be feeling better in a few days, call your doctor for advice.
Treatment Of Pain In The Lungs After Pneumonia
In modern medicine, the main methods of drug treatment of adhesive pathology in the lungs are heating and electrophoresis. The heating of the respiratory system can be paraffin, clay or mud.
For the treatment of pain in the lungs after pneumonia, the speed of the patient’s reaction to the pain symptom, the patient’s awareness and the urgency of the prescribed treatment play an important role. Only timely begun therapy can guarantee the complete cure of the patient. To exclude the complication after the inflammation of the lungs, to restore the weakened from the transferred organism, the right rehabilitation will help. The main function of rehabilitation measures is restoration of respiratory organs, exclusion of the possibility of development of chronic bronchial and pulmonary pathology.
To recover from pneumonia, it is often advisable to visit health resorts, massage certain points of the chest, oxygen therapy of respiratory failure, electrotherapy, artificial ventilation, a complete cessation of smoking, restorative and hardening procedures, physiotherapy and physical therapy. In addition, the patient must protect the body from colds, especially during two months after the illness, to refuse to stay in places of occupational pollution.
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Who Should I Contact If You Have Pain In The Lungs After Pneumonia
Everyone should remember that the lungs are the most important organ of human life, responsible for the circulation of oxygen in the body. Therefore, patients should abandon attempts to self-diagnosis and self-treatment, as well as rely on intuition, knowledge in this area, advice of unqualified in the field of medicine friends! Carry out the necessary diagnostics and prescribe the treatment you can therapist, family doctor, phthisiatrist.
Treatment For Chest Infections
Most people with bronchitis can be treated at home and make a full recovery. Assessment of the severity of pneumonia is complex. Some patients can be managed at home on simple antibiotics. Those assessed as severe may require admission to the intensive care unit and their illness may be life threatening.Treatment options include:
- Your doctor will advise you about any medications you need to get over this attack.
- Some people need to be admitted to hospital for further treatment, particularly young children and the elderly who are at greater risk of serious complications.
- Review with your local doctor may be needed within 48 hours, especially if you are not improving, and again in six weeks to make sure that you have made a full recovery. A chest x-ray may be needed at this time.
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What Are The Complications Of Pneumonia
Anyone can experience complications from pneumonia. However, people in high-risk groups are more likely to develop complications, including:
- Breathing difficulties: Pneumonia can make breathing difficult. Pneumonia plus an existing lung disorder can make breathing even more difficult. Breathing difficulties may require a hospital stay to receive oxygen therapy or breathing and healing assistance with the use of a breathing machine .
- Fluid buildup in the lungs : Pneumonia can cause a buildup in the fluid between the membranes that line the lungs and the inside of the chest cavity. It is a serious condition that makes breathing difficult. Pleural effusion can be treated by draining excess fluid with a catheter, chest tube or by surgery.
- Bacteria in the bloodstream : The bacteria that cause pneumonia can leave your lungs and enter your bloodstream, spreading the infection to other organs. This condition is treated with antibiotics.
- Lung abscess. A lung abscess is a pus-filled cavity in the lung that is caused by a bacterial infection. It can be treated by draining the pus with a long needle or removing it by surgery.
Trouble In Breathing Due To Inflammed Air Sacs Or Alveoli
You may experience a steady drop in your breathing rate or an unexplained rise in your breathing counts. One may also notice that there is sudden trouble which one may notice every time he/she breathes. This condition is also known as laboured breathing. “The patient may notice that the breathing rate post-COVID recovery has drastically changed. It is either rapid or shallow. One can also find him/herself becoming breathless even while resting,” Dr. Mukherjee told TheHealthSite.com.
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Warning Signs Your Lungs Are Trying To Give You Post
Your lungs can give you some signs which may signal that something is wrong within your body. Especially when it comes to pneumonia, there are certain signs which may help you spot the condition fast and start the treatment before it is too late for you to save your lungs. According to the experts, the onset of pneumonia can be quite sudden, as in without any prior signals. This is why it is important for you to track the actions of your lungs and understand the abnormalities going on inside your system. COVID-19 wrecks havoc on the lungs, and these conditions thereafter can lead to symptoms such as a phlegm-producing cough. Check out for these subtle, yet warning symptoms of pneumonia post-COVID recovery.
What Happens To Your Lungs When You Get Covid
COVID-19 virus infection is so far the worst battle that mankind has ever witnessed. It is a severe respiratory disease that mainly targets the lungs, leading to several serious symptoms such as drop-in oxygen levels, trouble in breathing, etc. So what exactly happens to your lungs when you catch the virus? According to the studies, the virus gets into the body through respiratory organs such as the mouth, nose, etc. After entering the body the virus comes in contact with the mucous membranes which are present in the respiratory tract innings. The virus then enters one healthy cell and the cell, in turn, makes new virus parts. This one cell then multiplies, and the new viruses then infect the other cells present nearby. The virus then splits into smaller and smaller branches in the lungs. Thus infecting the lungs and the alveoli slowly, leading to symptoms like breathing issues, cough, etc.
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Long Covid: What To Do When The Patient Is Suffering Chest Pains
Dr Kiran Desai, senior clinic fellow in respiratory medicine. Dr Rebeca Bamford, specialist trainee registrar in respiratory medicine and Dr Adam Ainley, consultant respiratory physician.22 Jul 2021
Long Covid is a term used to describe ongoing symptoms four or more weeks following acute Covid -19 infection.1 It presents differently in every patient and can affect multiple organ systems, even after mild or even asymptomatic acute Covid -19.2 What is most commonly meant by long Covid is post-Covid-19 defined by NICE as symptoms more than 12 weeks after acute Covid. Symptoms for post-Covid include fatigue, shortness of breath, mental problems, chest pain and dysfunction of smell and/or taste.2
Chest pain has been found to affect up to 22% of patients 2 months following acute Covid -19.2 In a large study presented by Huang et al, chest pain affected 5% of patients six months following discharge from hospital with Covid -19.3 In a cohort study of 100 patients, in whom 17% had atypical chest pain and 20% had palpitations two to three months following acute Covid-19, imaging revealed ongoing cardiac involvement in 78% of patients and signs of myocardial inflammation in 60%.4 Only one-third of patients had been hospitalised.
Does my patient have post-Covid-19 syndrome?
Initial investigations
In low risk patients, and depending on the clinical presentation, initial investigations that can be performed in primary care include:
- Full blood count
- Chest x-ray
Management
References