PNEUMONIA!

[LuckyKid57]

Well, I have been hit with pneumonia. I have to say that these last few days were the worst of my life. My entire body ached. No, more than ached... my entire body was in excruciating pain whenever I moved. It hurt to breath. I could barely stomach the thought of food. Worst thing... I lost noticeable amounts of weight, far too much to be beneficial. Noticeable, because when people saw me, I got "woa, you lost weight, yeah you look like you were sick."

Fabulous.

Here is the thing. I was stuck with IV's feeding me antibiotics and now I am on more oral antibiotics now that my fever is down and the pain is gone. But I apparently still "have it." So I have to be careful. I will be on antibiotics for the next next 5 days, and I am supposed to steer clear of the gym until then so as to not force my fatigued body to use up too much energy. I must heal. Sadly, I actually agree with the docs on this one. It will end up being a full week without training if I go by the Doc's orders.

Now, honestly, I have been training for 3 years and I have never taken "a break." So that is the plus side, it is a forced "break." (If anyone believes in these). That's really the only plus. This absolutely sucks.

I was running a pretty successful anabolic diet too, and that has to change. i am sorry, but I need the carbs for any energy at all, and I can not stomach massive slabs of meat and fat while recovering from this. I am eating loads of fruit and oatmeal, and plain yogurt to provide my body with beneficial bacteria while on antibiotics. Protein is coming from whey and probably a couple chicken breast a day.

Basically, has anyone experienced pneumonia before that give me some idea on kicking back into training gear?

I was thinking: rest up and get healthy this next week, then do full body circuit training for another week or two just to prime myself back into condition, then get back on my regular split. The reason why I give 2 weeks for circuit training is because I may not be fully recovered within 2 weeks. But we will see about that.

Any suggestions?

 

[corsaking]

Whatever training you do after your illness , i suggest limiting your time in the gym. Only when you start exercising again will you know whether you have gone back to the gym too soon.I can understand your enthusiasm for wanting to get back into training but you may find youve not taken enough time off. You have caught your illness because your immune system was not in top form and overtraining can quite easily contribute to that.Perhaps now is the time to overhaul your training programme, diet, rest periods and to consider supplements which will boost your immune system

 

[silverSurfer]

I'd say get back in gradually, no need to go full force. Your circuit approach seems ok.

Enjoy the break, your body probably needs one. Sleep a lot if you can.

 

[Aggravated]

I am eating loads of fruit and oatmeal, and plain yogurt to provide my body with beneficial bacteria while on antibiotics.

I thought antibiotics destroyed bacteria no matter the type?

 

[Trauma1]

I thought antibiotics destroyed bacteria no matter the type?

That's commonly a misconception. Antibiotics themselves work through differing mechanisms, and provide varying degress of microbial coverage (gram positive vs. gram negative) which is dependent upon the antibiotic that's utilized (which can either offer a broad or narrow spectrum of microbial coverage), and the bacterial organism that's suspected or involved.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics: They offer good coverage of bacterial involvement that is either of gram positive or gram negative etiology. This type of therapy is often utilized before specific culture/sensitivity testing is able to determine the specific bacteria linked to the infectious process.

Narrow-spectrum antibiotics: They are often put into place once a specific sensitivity of the bacteria to an antibiotic is noted, and this allows a more focal destruction of the bacteria that's involoved. This further spares much of the good bacteria that are killed as a result of broad-spectrum antibiotic intervention.

Broad-spectrum antibiotic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Antibiotics work through two primary methods of action in order to attain bacterial eradication.


1)Bactericidal - Destroys the bacteria itself by directly destroying the bacterial cell well. This is its primary means of assistance in controlling infection.

2)Bacteriostatic - These type of antibiotics prevent the bacteria from being able to replicate themselves, and allows the immune system itself time to control and eradicate the infection through this method.


Antibiotics attack


http://www.nfid.org/pdf/id_archive/antibiotictherapy.pdf


Antibiotics (primarily broad-spectrum antibiotics) will often destroy a fair amount of good (probiotic) bacteria as well as the bad (pathogenic) bacteria after a course of antibiotic treatment, so this is why probiotic supplmentation is often utilized to upregulate the production and proliferation of these beneficial probiotic bacteria. They help to keep many of the unwanted bacteia in our bodies under control (which limits unwarranted infections), and essentially assists the immune system in its overall job of maintaining a homeostatic immune state.

 

[CopyCat]

T1 beat me yet again..Ha

I had Pneumonia last year and I've helped treat well over a hundred or so kids at Marine boot camp.

My best advice would read like this:

- Take your meds..ALL OF THEM (even if you feel better, you should finish all antibiotics)
- Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate (water is not a crutch) - pedialyte is good also
- Use your incentive spirometer (hopefully they gave you one) at least 10 an hour every hour your awake. Take it every where with you. I'll put a pic of one below and you should ask your doc if they didn't give you one
- Rest, rest, rest - - until you feel better then don't be afraid to get up, go for a walk, do light exercise. It will actually do you better than lying in bed.

Most Pneumonia cases are viral and not bacterial, but many docs treat with antibiotics off the bat because it is easier to treat that way instead of waiting for results to get back, but I can not say what your doc did.

Be aware that just as I'm sure you have experience shortness of breath that you may have that for a bit. I was truly sick for a 7 days, but was better and able to workout about a week after that although I didn't feel that I could really breath well for about a month particularly on runs. However, we would put Marine recruits back to full duty anywhere between 4-7 days.

wish you the best, 'cause I know it sucks. I had 102.5f for 5 days.


The incentive spirometer seems like a silly plastic toy, but it's one of the best things you can do for PNA. If we had a Marine not getting better we could almost always trace it back to him not using his. It works!

 

[Trauma1]

Good call with the incentive spirometer!

 

[LuckyKid57]

They treated me with antibiotics. I am on a cruise ship, so actual testing results may have taken a while to get back. My starting temperature was 102.5F as well. After one hour on an IV with antibiotics it dropped to 101. By the next morning (and right before my next IV treatment) I was all the way down to 97.8F. That night I was right back up to 98.2 and I stayed right around there for a bit. Three IV treatments total. I am now on oral antibiotics. Ciprofloxacin, 250mg at 50mg doses every 12 hours. I will be on these through Tuesday. I will play it smart, if I feel I can work out, then I will.

I just thought I should give a bit more information on what they have me taking.

 

[Trauma1]

They treated me with antibiotics. I am on a cruise ship, so actual testing results may have taken a while to get back. My starting temperature was 102.5F as well. After one hour on an IV with antibiotics it dropped to 101. By the next morning (and right before my next IV treatment) I was all the way down to 97.8F. That night I was right back up to 98.2 and I stayed right around there for a bit. Three IV treatments total. I am now on oral antibiotics. Ciprofloxacin, 250mg at 50mg doses every 12 hours. I will be on these through Tuesday. I will play it smart, if I feel I can work out, then I will.

I just thought I should give a bit more information on what they have me taking.

Cirpo (a fluoroquinolone antibiotic that is bactericidal) is very commonly used in the treatment of pneumonia. Sounds like you're doing better, so i wish you a speedy recovery so you can enjoy the rest of your trip!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroquinolone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciprofloxacin

 

[CopyCat]

Yeah cipro is very common. So is avelox, that's what we usually dish out in the military. Your on a cruise? That sucks, it's suppose to be fun time. Well, if your on a cruise it sounds like they are most likely giving the antibiotics just in case. The treatment is the same essentially for bacterial and viral except with viral the antibiotics won't help. However, they won't hurt either and if they wait to get results to determine which it is you would stand the potential of being days behind your antibiotic course. It's common and what I or any of the docs I work with would do as well.

 

[Trauma1]

Yeah cipro is very common. So is avelox, that's what we usually dish out in the military. Your on a cruise? That sucks, it's suppose to be fun time. Well, if your on a cruise it sounds like they are most likely giving the antibiotics just in case. The treatment is the same essentially for bacterial and viral except with viral the antibiotics won't help. However, they won't hurt either and if they wait to get results to determine which it is you would stand the potential of being days behind your antibiotic course. It's common and what I or any of the docs I work with would do as well.

Very true. Avelox (being a newer generation quinolone) is more typically used these days due to better overall broad-spectrum coverage in relation to typcial lower respiratory infections in general. We use it all the time.

It's not uncommon to have a viral bronchitis type illness stress the immune system enough to allow for opportunistic bacterial infections which often cause the develpment of pneumonia. That's why i can't stress enough to rest up when people are ill.

I hear cruise nursing can be fun from a buddy of mine that's done it.

 

[LuckyKid57]

Well guys, don't feel too bad for me because I actually work on the cruise ship, lol. I play in the band =).

Yeah so far so good, I was actually able to play tonight for about 45 minutes and it went ok. I want to start training again on Sunday at the latest, as long as I feel as good as I did today. Anyway, thanks for all the help...

And come cruise on the Freedom of the Seas and check out our badass gym!

 

[CopyCat]

I bet it would be easy to pull tale if you worked on a cruise ship.

Freedom of the Sea, huh? The Mrs. and I want to take a cruise in the Caribbean or someplace. Any tips on how to do a good cruise for the least money?

 

[LuckyKid57]

Your best bet would be to check out the smaller ships in our fleet that do Caribbean runs. Go to the rc web site and check out the book a cruise section. You can choose your date range and all that stuff. I would obviously check out the biggest ships first, because many times the prices are not surprisingly too much, and the commodities are much nicer (we have an ice skating rink... an F***ing ice skating rink). If you would mainly be going on the cruise to check out the ports, then the class of ship will not matter too much. However, if you want to really have endless options... well... the biggest is the way to go. PM for some more info if you would like, I'm more than willing to talk to the loyalty and guest services people for some info.

 

[CopyCat]

cool thanks

 

[MedicineMan]

One other thing worth noting is the black box warning now in place for the quinilone antibiotics such as Cipro. They are associated with tendon rupture. Many doctors feel that the weakening of the tendons last for quite a while. I would go a little lighter for a while to play it safe.

 

[corsaking]

I bet it would be easy to pull tale if you worked on a cruise ship.

Freedom of the Sea, huh? The Mrs. and I want to take a cruise in the Caribbean or someplace. Any tips on how to do a good cruise for the least money?

highjacking the thread

 

[acronym007]

One other thing worth noting is the black box warning now in place for the quinilone antibiotics such as Cipro. They are associated with tendon rupture. Many doctors feel that the weakening of the tendons last for quite a while. I would go a little lighter for a while to play it safe.

I am on Avelox and this junk makes me nervous. I'd think I would rather live with an infection versus rupturing a tendon on the football field. Anyone here know someone personal that was injured by this drug? Is it rare or common? I read the side effects when I got home and called the Dr right away. Sorry to bring up an older thread but it was on topic.