Been in the hospital - so glad to be home

[vlcarr]

Hello everyone,

I had to go the ER Wednesday night due to a high fever, chills, body aches, headache and just didn't feel right.

So, it ended up that I had pneumonia in both lungs. They gave me antibiotics by IV twice a day and let me come home today.

Of course I was supposed to have Herceptin on Thursday and they did not want me to have it due to the fever. I will be seeing my onc next week and they said she will discuss the herceptin with me at that time. They were not able to determine if this was viral or bacterial, but leaned toward bacterial.

I finished radiation a week ago this past Wednesday. This has been a bummer because now I'm off my herceptin schedule and I only had 3 left........

They also gave me Levaquin orally each day and I'm to take this for 7 more days at home.

The weird thing to me was the chest x-ray did not show the pneumonia but when they did the chest CT they found it.

Can't believe I made it through chemo and radiation and then this happened. It hit me so suddenly. I had been fatigued, but expected that due to the radiation, but this hit me quickly and my fever rose to 102.5 within an hour.

Has anyone experienced this? I honestly did not know you could "catch" pneumonia but I guess it goes to show my immune system is still out of whack!

The good thing that happened was the oncologist who I spoke to at the after hours emergency number, alerted the ER I was on the way and I didn't have to wait at all.

They also did another ECHO and my heart is still in good shape.

Aw, this cancer journey.....never a dull moment.

[misquam42]

I hope you feel better soon. I am about to start my journey of TCH on Friday. Thoughts and prayers are with you.
Pat

[ammebarb]

I'm so sorry you haven't been feeling well, but glad to know you are home and on the mend. Hope you are soon completely over the pneumonia and able to finish up those Herceptins!

Barb A.

[ElaineM]

I am glad you are home again !! Anybody can get pnemonia at anytime. It doesn't take much to get the bug. Take good care of yourself. Get plenty of rest before you have to go back to see the doctor.

[Rich66]

It's good to keep in mind the limits of imaging regarding pneumonia. My father had a severe case of it that wasn't diagnosed until they went in with a broncoscope. Since then when they point at an X-ray and say lungs look clear, it gives me only a limited comfort. I belive the imaging varies depending on how opaque the mucous is.

[BonnieR]

Vickey, just shows how vulnerable our immune systems can become during this ordeal. Good you are on top of it.

Rich, I so agree with you about chest Xrays. I had one recently that was negative. But a CT and PET/CT showed signifigant "something" going on. I recall a friend who had lung cancer telling me "never settle for a chest Xray" if there are symptoms.

Misquam, when you begin treatment you might want to start your own thread in the Newcomers section if you have not already. Then you can ask questions as they arise and we can offer support.

Keep the faith everyone.

[Lien]

My son had pneumonia in both lungs and it came up as quickly as yours. He was 5 at the time. At 3 AM he came to my room and said his tummy hurt, and he had a slight fever. My husband was home that day, so I went to work. By noon my husband had called the doctor who sent him straight to hospital for XRays. Before they could take those, he lost consciousness. They gave him antibiotics and he perked up pretty quickly, but it was really scary.

Apparently this is normal for some types of bacterial pneumonia. I guess with the beating you had (surgery, chemo, rads) you actually did pretty well. Your immune system wasn't what it used to be, but antibiotics work by boosting your immune reaction, I think, so when you needed it, it did it's job. That's actually pretty good news.

Hope you feel better soon.

Love

Jacqueline

[mrsd]

pneumonia can and does often present itself with nothing visible on Xray I know that's what happened to me, I have an nurse friend who works in emerg dept of our local hospital tell me after my bout with it that this winter and spring they have seen alot of non-typical pneumonia that just does not show up on Xray.... plenty of fluids and lots of rest, it really can set you back I know and was so surprised by how unwell I felt with it..... take care and in a few weeks you'll be back to feeling better..
take care
Patricia

[vlcarr]

Thanks everyone. Glad they did the scan and found it. I'm feeling better but just no energy. This also made me realize to pay attention to my body.

I think I had this for a week but I just kept blaming the bad fatigue on radiation. I think the pneumonia was playing a role in that too.

Having cancer makes me chalk up all pain, fatigue, etc on that and sometimes there is something else going on. I'm not the type to complain about every little thing--I get tired of hearing myself so feel like other people don't want to hear it either.......

But, from now on I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to contact the doc, but I think they would have blamed this on rads too. Good thing we get temps when something is wrong but that doesn't apply to everything........

[DanaRT]

Vicky, Glad you're doing better. Get plenty of rest.

Take care,
Dana

[krisvell]

Vicky,
I am glad you are home and doing better.

[Jean]

Glad you are back home (that most feel sooo good).
While the meds are kicking the germs....it does not hurt
to make yourself a large pot of chicken soup with lots of fresh veggies in it. (and chucks of garlic) I think that and yogurt are helpful foods for restoring our systems.

Sending you best wishes,
Jean

[Jackie07]

Vicky,

So glad you are well now. My first knowlege of pneumonia was when my Oldest Sister got hospitalized for it 40 some years ago when she was in college. My impression was that it was caused by a cold and somehow the secondary infection caused the bacteria to start growing in the lung. Ever since the advent of penicillin (and other antibiotics), pneumonia has become very treatable. Oldest Sister is 64 right now. She's never caught another one of those nasty bugs.

http://www.lungusa.org/lung-disease/...pneumonia.html

[Bill]

Hi Vicky! Sorry to hear about your trip to the ER, but I'm glad you're home and on the mend. Keep in mind what others have said, and rest when your body tells you to rest and try to eat as healthy as possible. I had a bout of pneumonia about a year ago and I fixed a big pot of home-made chicken soup and left it on the stove so that I could get a mug of it whenever I felt like, with little fuss, and then go back to bed. You'll be back in fighting shape in no time.

[Shobha]

Hi Vicky,

Hope you are feeling better. I was warned a lot about catching bronchitis or Pneumonia during chemo by my onc. Although I fortunately did not, one of my other friends going through chemo did fall sick.

Sending you hugs and prayers.

[juanita]

Glad to hear that you're back home and doing better. Get some rest!

[Becky]

What an ordeal you've had. I'm glad you're home now and on the mend. Rest up! The end of treatment is in sight.

[StephN]

Thanks for what ended as good news! So glad they caught this and got you treated pronto.
And for the heads up on diagnostic scans. Something we all could stand a reminder on from time to time.

We have a friend who we had not heard from for 3 weeks and just got the message that he ended up in the hospital with the same thing. Double pneumonia. Can't be too careful these days.

Insist on complete diagnostics.

[schoolteacher]

Vicky,

Hope you are feeling better today.

Amelia

[vlcarr]

I'm feeling better but still having temp issues. Last night my husband said I felt warm and my temp was 100.3 but didn't get any higher. I was finally able to cough up some mucus and will be taking that to my onc appt Wednesday at 4:00.

Tonight my temp got up to 99.3 but then went back down. Find this strange. Not that it made any difference but I took my Levaquin earlier tonight than last night. When I left the hospital I was not having a temp at all. I also spent most of today in bed to see if that made any difference.....

I'm still having leg pain and I have this pain in my lower back that doesn't want to seem to go away. Been having that for a couple of weeks now.

Will discuss all of this with my doc on Wednesday. Feeling like a big time whiner these days.

Thanks for all your well wishes and advice