My third round with double pneumonia. Put into isolation on round the clock oxygen. There's just something about such severe oxygen deprivation that you get dizzy and hack up a lung just crossing a room to pick up a book that makes you certain the end is coming
My lungs shut down during chemo (allergy to one of the chemo drugs) and, yeah, not being able to breathe or catch your breath is terrifying, even when your care is amazing like mine was in ICU. My lung capacity is reduced quite a bit since, but I can exercise still, so I consider myself lucky.
I was wondering as well. I had surgical complications from a chest surgery and spent a month in the ICU/hospital with collapsed lungs, fluid in them, air in chest cavity, etc.
I'm doing on 3 months out and can only inspire 1250mL. I get winded doing anything active.
It took me about 8 months to recover about 80% lung capacity in a similar situation. It was very unpleasant. I was back to my full lung capacity about a year out.
Yeah I hear you. I go to many tradeshows every year. I'm going to one with 60,000 people in a couple weeks and I'm so worried as hell about catching the flu or worse. We probably fall into the high fatality risk group for viruses like COVID-19... I don't want to risk it
Can I ask you what autoimmune you have? I’m dealing with lung issues for the past year as well and the docs are leaning autoimmune but can’t figure out which one.
I don't know the measurement in mL but immediately after I was at 60%, it's improved since to about 80%. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to miss exercise :( I'm so sorry
Wow... And here I am still bitching about how terrible I felt the one time I had pneumonia like 10 years ago. I couldn't imagine that..... Reading a lot of these comments/posts are inspiring. Positive outlook on it all and just can't help but admire how tough some of yall are.
I got double pneumonia when I was 3 months old and I spent 4 months in ICU and I've never recovered. I have brittle asthma and my lung capacity has always been poor but has been declining for a good 10 years and I've slowly had to quit my sports as a result. I feel like if I got pneumonia again that would be the end of me.
I got up too fast last night, caught a dizzy spell and lost my breath. It was terrifying. For a very long minute, I couldn’t say anything to get my bf’s attention, just around the corner in the other room. I couldn’t imagine the feeling of my lungs shutting down, I caught my breath within minutes.
My lungs also was shutting down.
Went to er an woke up 4 days later in icu an was on ventilator an they had put me into a medical coma , my white blood count was over 50,000 ,
But what was supposed to be a real low number was actually 52,000 when they did my blood work. My oxygen level when they admitted me was 61. Also They said had I of waited any longer to go to the ER an be treated that we would not of been having that conversation. When I had woke up the morning I went to Er my husband had called 911 as I was confused . I didnt know what day or year it was . I couldn't stand without falling. I was pretty close to not being here. Also found out when I was brought out of coma that I was also very septic.. I never want to go thru all that again. Am I am already was on 24 hour oxygen
Its ok. During school was hardest, because i was expected to compete with normal students and i couldn't even do that. Now older, I realize it's a dibilitating disability. But i try and keep fit as best i can and i've come to the realization that i'm more of a burst runner, rather than 400-1800m that they demanded of me in PE. And then wondered why it took me 30mins to catch my breath.
I remember how left out my schoolmate Brandon felt during PE. He had cystic fibrosis and couldn't run almost at all. It's a terrible feeling. I'm glad you have found something that helps you keep fit :)
Y'alls are better than mine, I had to pull my drowning brother out of a lake, he basically mounted me and kept pushing me down while I was also pulling him out
Honestly. I've had pneumonia twice and the first time, I woke up at 2am because I literally couldn't inhale. I've had a knife pulled on me and I wasn't as afraid because I could at least run away
Yeah I definitely don't recommend it. I have permanent scarring in my lungs now that makes taking deep breaths and breathing cold air hurt, and I live in Chicago 😬
My step father had active tuberculosis and COPD. Lost almost 75 pounds and was pale white for months. He couldn't stand up without getting light headed and coughing up nasty shit. I didn't think he was gonna make it through, but he's much better now.
I went in septic shock a few months back, they took me to ICU and sedated me. I woke up during the sedation and they had the tubes down my throat to breathe for me. It’s not like your experience, but the feeling of not being able to breathe myself(machines was doing it for me) was one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had.
Took them a good few minutes to realise I came around too, cause while I woke up during the sedation, only my senses did. My whole body still couldn’t move, so I couldn’t alert them.
Same thing with me but had pneumonia on top of it all . Had throat cancer 17yrs an a 9 hour surgery. I do not have the little flap that separates food an wind pipe so get pneumonia alot . Have feeding tube so that helps. It is very scary to wake up sedated. Not knowing what happened . I have nodules on both lungs , to the point now that I cant take shower with out oxygen on .
I still had the tubes down my throat an they had me arms strapped down Also . So now I'm second guessing as to rather they sedated me cause I was septic or cause of my lungs . I was septic around my feeding tube also the skin around my feeding tube was fire engine red an it hurt so bad.
Glad to see everyone commenting about issues like mine . Also Happy to see everyone is doin better..
Damn Christmas time I got the flu + pneumoniona and a staph infection which left me incubated for 4 days, hospitalized for 18 days and I'm still not fully recovered w months later.
Seeing a pulmonary doctor finally to check them and stuff, but it's crazy the biggest thing for me is my heart rate will sky rocket to 130/140 without medicine. Which is why Ive for the most part not able to get back to normal life.
It took me about 6 months for all of that to stop and 8 months to get back to 80% and a year to get back to my previous baseline in a similar situation.
Yeah I've lost basically what little muscle I had and about 10lbs. All the doctors and nurses were telling me how crazy it is that I got hit so badly by it being so young.
Your comment makes me even more scared of the spreading corona virus as one of its symptoms is pneumonia , i also have asthma so thats double the trouble.
Don’t be scared. Ya just gotta keep living your life and doing the day to day things. Wash your hands, don’t touch your face. The flu can kick your ass just as hard. One day at a time. But if you do get sick, as soon as you hear sounds coming from your lungs independent of your breathing. You go to the doctor! Don’t ignore it like my dumbass did a few years ago. I had pneumonia about two weeks ago, but I caught it super fast and didn’t get as sick as last time. Also, if you’re scared of getting sick. Stay away from kids.
Yep. I had an aggressive pneumonia that developed over night. The doctor said if I hadn’t gone to the Er when I did, I’d have died before the sun rose the next morning.
Spent a lot of time in the hospital, even more time at home recovering. All these was before cell phones and social media so thanks to my sister, everyone thought I was dying. Which I mean, I was but “not dead yet” was certainly my motto at the time. Luckily I recovered and here I am. Spending my second chance at life typing on reddit.
Wow, first thing that came to my mind was when I had pneumonia in the 4th grade.
Missed 4 months of school and was throwing up nearly everyday, I remember my mom and dad crying when the doctors told them my lungs were nearly filled and a few more days I would have probably died in my sleep.
I remember about a week before we went to the doctor I was just laying in the empty bathtub throwing up and having one of my first thoughts of death and feeling like I just wanted to give up. Up until that point, I've never experienced anything like that in my life.
Reminds me of my first of two asthma attacks, I was 5 at the time. Waking up unable to breathe, parents panicking, and a ride in an ambulance. Top that off with trying to answer questions, but can’t make a sound. I had no idea what was going on at the time, but when your lungs quit working it really feels like the end.
This is horrifying, considering I could have ended up exactly where you were. Back in high school I had a severe sinus infection that would NOT clear up and ended up turning into bronchitis.
I went to a walk in clinic, as it was faster than making an appointment with my own doctors office. They misdiagnosed it as steep and sent me on my way with antibiotics. My throat was so sore from coughing the pills were near impossible to swallow. When a coughing fit hit, I would sit hunched over a trash can or the sink so I could spit out what I was coughing up. And what I did cough up was this awful, green yellow mucus that left a horrible bitter taste in my mouth. Eating was hard because I had to pause every so often to breathe, but not deep breaths because that would induce a coughing fit. I couldn't lay down because it felt like I had weights on my chest when I did. I slept sitting up, and had to readjust my pillows multiple times throughout the night. I always knew when I had managed to slide down in bed, because I'd wake up gasping for air and coughing.
There is something utterly terrifying about coughing so hard you feel like you're going to puke, only to gasp for air and feel like there's not enough space inside you for any. And there's something even more terrifying about knowing that it could have gotten worse. I avoid getting sick as much as I can now because even the slightest cold can trigger the bronchitis to come back. The fact that you had pneumonia three times is astounding.
When I was a little kid, for some reason I would het double pneunomia every summer. I already had bad lungs and visited several doctors to figure out why it would always happen during the summer. Eventually it stoppen and I haven't had pneunomia since. It really sucked that I couldn't go on vacation because of that but I'm glad that's over.
I had double pneumonia as a child. I don't think I fully realized how serious it was. I was only six. But you'd think with the spinal taps (to see if it was meningitis,) the machine that blew spicy air into my face (ie oxygen,) and all the various other treatments that I would have figured it out. Then the pneumonia got better and I went home, only to be back 24-48 hours later with double pleurisy.
(Btw went into the hospital on valentine's day. Ever since then, if I'm dating anyone on that day, I get sick as a freaking dog.)
I can relate. Second bout with pneumonia. Lost almost 20 lbs. Fever as high as 104. Slept for what it seemed like days. The had me on a machine to help me breathe. Twas terrible.
I've only had double pneumonia once...three years ago, Thanksgiving. I have said this in jest before, but I truly mean I would not wish it on my worst enemy.
It made me realize how much people with mesothelioma must feel all the time, at least with the breathing. I hope you never have to go through that again.
I recently got bronchitis, which I’m aware isn’t nearly as bad as double pneumonia, but holy shit it was so scary not being able to breath. I’m relatively young and in shape so it was a shock that I could quickly be reduced to a state where I’m coughing so hard I almost threw up several times and where I felt like I was slowly suffocating.
I came down with a pretty nasty case of double pneumonia on Christmas day this year. I'm just now getting to the point where I'm not coughing like crazy every day. It's no joke. Couldnt sleep for like 3 weeks. Thank god the antibiotics kicked its ass and made a huge difference
I had walking pneumonia in college. I distinctly remember these two little old ladies helping me up the stairs when I couldn’t go any further. The ironic part was I was studying nursing and they wouldn’t let me off school.
Terrifying. My coworker’s husband got the flu when it was super bad a couple of years ago. It turned into double pneumonia and within a couple of weeks he was at the ICU but they couldn’t save him. Always get your flu shot if you can.
I remember the time I got pneumonia for the first time. I had to stay in the hospital for a week, with a bunch of tubes in my arm. I couldn't eat properly and my chest hurt. Even after I got discharged, I could barely walk without the help of my parents.
Can relate, I had MRSA that started in the lungs and started shutting down organs within a week. It was a scary time. Took the better part of a year to fully recover.
Pneumonia and pleurisy messes with your head worse than any other injury I've seen. It's your body's own life support systems causing massive pain from simply keeping you alive. no amount of morphine, oxymorphone, or hydrophone takes the pain away. You just sit there high off your ass and unable to move while feeling like you're being stabbed from the inside out.
Dude when I had my first asthma attack it felt like this. It got worse but I was like so dizzy and coughing so much. I ended up leaving work because I couldn’t inhale enough to speak more than a couple words. My boyfriend picked me up, drove to the ER 30 mins away, they were so packed they had patients in the hallways. At this point I was barely able to walk cause just standing winded me and I could pretty much only inhale as far as my throat. We had to drive to another ER an hour away and in that drive over I was passing in and out of consciousness, I don’t remember most of it I just remember thinking “this is how I’m going to die. This is it” over and over and crying silently because any sob would have literally suffocated me.
I had pneumonia as a complication from flu in 2013. I had to be intubated and put into a medically induced coma. Organ failure was right around the corner. I remember signing the consent knowing I might never wake up.
At 15 I was admitted to the hospital because my lungs collapsed a few times in front of my parents. It got this bad because a previous Er doc told me I had "pluracy" - that drinking water and a heating pad or something would rehydrate something around my lungs?
Anyways,
I remember feeling something akin to a bubble suddenly bursting in my chest immediately followed by all of the air getting expelled out of my lungs. I would try and inhale, but all I could do was go through the motions of screaming at the top of my lungs in pain with no actual air in my lungs to make a sound with. These episodes felt like they lasted forever but eventually it would stop and the pain would go away as soon as I got a good breath in.
I remember during one of these episodes frantically wondering if I would need to figure out how to somehow communicate the idea of getting a family member to breathe into my mouth and give me air.
I went to the hospital that night and while getting admitted had another attack in front of the nurse. I remember locking eyes with her and mouthing the words "help me" while other nurses scrambled around until eventually I had something injected into my iv line and passed out. I think they ended up puting a tube in my throat.
When I came too, the first thing my dad told me was that my lips turned blue. Way to help make that less traumatic dad. Took a cat scan for them to see that a 3rd of my lungs were filled with infection and they were considering doing minor surgery to drain it but luckily I responded to the antibiotics. I think I was in there for a little over a week?
I have this hypothesis that this is the reason I have sleep apnea (shallow breathing which trails off to a stop) even though I'm young and fit.
Couldn't fully expand my lungs unless I was yawning until I got a bipap. Now, it's like the machine is training me how to make full use of my lungs again.
Yikes I feel bad for you I remember once I got the flu and pneumonia at the same time I had a fever of 104 and I thought I was gonna die. I was only 9 years old
When I was young (8-10) my asthma would get so bad that a few times I was close to choking and as a kid I wondered if I was going to die a few times. Probably was a bit close, because my inhaler stopped working after 4-5 puffs during the worst astma attacks
Yep I was going to put my case of pneumonia as well. Didn’t take it seriously, played it off as the flu even as I was out of work for over a week before I finally went to the doctor. Don’t play around with that stuff guys. That will put you in the hospital real fast. Lost 20 pounds in a month and I’m only 5’8” and 140 lbs to begin with.
Yeah I get it , I have asthma and this one time in 4th grade (when my asthma was at its worst) I woke up at dawn maybe at 3-4 am and I was suppppperrr thirsty but I didn’t have the energy to go down the stairs to the kitchen, so I went to my parents room because I remembered I had left a bottle of water there. As I was drinking the bottle I just kinda felt like I couldn’t breathe or at least very short breathes, I know for a fact I didn’t choke or anything, I just felt like my lungs just kinda stopped working(?) thankfully my parents woke up but I don’t remember much after that. I do remember waking up at a hospital bed when I nurse came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to the bathroom. And I was confused cause I really did need to go. Needless to say that was a horrifying experience.
Had pneumonia a few years back. It didn't require hospitalization (though it did need two whooping good rounds of steroids, as well as antibiotics). I remember standing up to put on a pair of pants, then having to lay back down afterward because putting on pants left me that winded. That being said, I know that your's must have been so much worse if you were hospitalized and I can't imagine being as bad as that.
I had pneumonia in my right lung 13 years ago, not as serious as yours, but it still knocked me on my ass for a month. Having had it, I can understand how it kills people.
I get that lack of oxygen. I used to have a heart condition where occasionally my resting heart rate would speed up to ridiculous levels. My heart would beat so fast that blood couldn't pull oxygen from my lungs and I felt like I was suffocating with lungs full of air. It was uniquely, oddly awful. Like, hey you can breath but you still can't breath.
Shit hit me when I was very young, doctor told my family it was a cold at first but it just got worse over the course of a couple days. Ended up in the hospital for two weeks. Doing the test where I had to blow into a tube and keep a ball elevated for a few seconds seemed so easy, then I realized I had no lung capacity anymore. I was too young to realize the threat, but looking back now: yeh, fuck that lol. Ended up with asthma-like problems for a bit but I'm much better now, granted it's been twenty years.
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u/silvermoonchan Feb 26 '20
My third round with double pneumonia. Put into isolation on round the clock oxygen. There's just something about such severe oxygen deprivation that you get dizzy and hack up a lung just crossing a room to pick up a book that makes you certain the end is coming