Pneumonia As It Is Rarely Discussed
Last February I came down with pneumonia. It is a disease that I thought of as being minor, sort of like a bad cold.I had no idea how wrong I was. The wrongness of my attitude was shown recently by the death of a number of people caused by pneumonia. Here I was, a doddering 84 year old (currently made it to 85)who though that being in the hospital for pneumonia was a great waste of time.However, I was curedand released in a few days, thus confirming that the disease was no big beal. That is, until I tried to resume my "normal" life. Before the big "P" I walked pretty good with a cane, and my sone had a good time providing me with some of the most outlandish canes which I gleefully used to get a rise out of people. But, after P, I found I needed a walker, since my legs had become much weaker.In addition, my brains were scrambled to the point that I thought I was coming down with dementia, a prelude to Alzheimer's. Also, I began having mild hallucinations.I had lived through the LSD craze without participating, giving the Woody Allen excuse, "My brain is my second favorite organ." I found that when attempting to write, I couldn't put two coherent sentences together and thus, I ceased writing. I was fortunate in that my wife refused to give up on me.She kept me out of a nursing home because she was determined that I'd get better. She was right, eventually I got better.The experience made me wonder just how many people who are in nursing homes that don't belong there since not many women can put up with the disabled and mixed up persons that are in their care.Food for thought?
Regardless, I am glad you are here with us again. Rejoice and post a lot!
Herb7734....good luck to you buddy!
https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...
I'm glad it turned out to be something deadly serious but still treatable, thanks to medicine and your wife not giving up.
Glad you are over the worst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWKSx...
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears;
The earth is but the music of the spheres.”
― Lord George Gordon Byron
It brought home to me just how helpless modern medicine is if the lungs fill with fluid and can't absorb oxygen. We can give you pure oxygen, we can intubate you, we can force air in and out of your lungs mechanically -- but if your lungs can't absorb air, we're out of options.
With limited oxygenation, all the organs of the body start failing.
My wife and I got the full set of anti-pneumonia vaccinations.
Good luck, and keep moving -- carefully.
Take care.
Need to clarify. I don't know what you're reading on this. But, I work in it. I get lots of calls on legionella outbreaks that you won't hear about. It's been educational, to say the least. When a rest home has an outbreak. My phone often rings...
Me dino went the the funeral and saw her in an open coffin. She was blonde, very pretty and in her twenties. She died in a hospital.
That's when I realized that coming down with pneumonia is dangerous and nothing to be fooled with. Not ever! You're lucky to be alive, Herb!
There's a lot the medical community doesn't know about human physiology. When I went for treatment of sciatic pain, I was placed on neurontin (gabapentin), which is supposed to block one of the pain calcium channels. Unfortunately, I happened to be one of the one in ten thousand whose calcium channels are different, and the medicine didn't block the pain, but screwed up my motor control to my lower extremities. I used to have no trouble walking long distances, but now I have a hard time walking over a quarter mile. With the probability of my reaction to the medicine being so low, there was no way the doctor could have foreseen this reaction, so I can't see any malpractice involved.
So, when they offered this senior the first pneumonia shot, I took it, it is nto cultured in egg, so was safe for me. No issues. However, a year later, I was told to take the second in the series, so I said ok. Well, my arm got so sore I could not lean on it, and I was so exhausted for several day, all I could do was sleep! I was ntot warned that the second shot has a 55% adverse reaction rate! I alwasy look things up first, I just got lax on checking after the first went so well. Glad you are back among the functioning again. Could the lingering symptoms have been a reaction to meds they have you while you did have pneumonia. My husband got like you after he was off predisone for a shoulder issue, even though they did decrease the dose at the last.
I had a seizure a few years ago for an unknown and non repeating reason. I noticed a number of effects from that which lingered for awhile.
Medicine really doesnt understand how the human body works. When a computer goes nuts, we can just reload the operating system. With humans, we havent figured out how to do that.- yet.
PS...are you back to walking with outlandish canes?
No. Using a walker. I had a Physical therapist who told me that recoveries such as mine were quite common, that is, if there was any recovery at all. Apparently she's had several patients die on her. She got me from not being able to stand on my own, but to to stand and walk. I am currently aiming towards walking with a cane. That is a few months in the future.
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I contracted it three years ago and was in the hospital for three months.
One would think that for as many years pneumonia has been plaguing mankind, medicine would have had a simple cure for it, or eliminatred it entirely. Sorry, not that wat,
You can easily die of hypoxia from a bout with pneumonia.
Glad that you're feeling better.
I had similar symptoms from those. It takes a while to recover. They mess with your brain chemistry