Living with Pneumonia

My 16 year old son was showing signs of a cold- but went into school- he had a maths test.

Later that day his temp was 102/104. I called the surgery- it was Friday evening. I fed him ibuprofen and Tylonol all weekend and wrapped hhis forehead with damp cloths, thinking that by Sunday his temp was coming down (101). He was still coughing so thought I’d keep him home Monday and go from there. Tuesday no improvement (104), so I took him to the doctor (not his primary care dr.) Who told me he would be fine tomorrow, he’s 16 and wants a day off school. He prescribed cough mixture. My son cried after leaving the surgery saying he wasn’t joking about. He got worse… at 9pm I called the doctors office who put me through to his own doctor who recognised my worry/concern and advised me to take him to Emergency care. We were seen at 2-3am.. sent home with a cough.

I was going crazy. I sat him upright to sleep and watched him all night. The next day he said he slept but felt like he was suffocating. My friend called to check and asked what I was going to do…

When I came off the phone I was struggling to keep him awake, he could eat/drink/talk he was almost dilerious.

I called his doctor who saw him immediatley, and recognised immediatley that it was pneumonia and advised me to take him back to emergency. He even called them trying to bypass procedure for me- no luck.

We waited 4-5 hours to be seen- they had recognised us from the night before and knew that we’d been sent home… even with the message from his doctor.

When we eventually got in to a room they decided to re-x-ray, and everything then started moving. He could not breath hard enough to activate the breathing monitor. I was almost relieved and thought that my worries were over.

I was told he needed admitting and a bed could take about 8 hrs… and that he was lucky that I’d trusted my instincts!
He was in a bed in less than 2 hours- 10.30pm.

The next day he was moved to the ICU. His dad arrived back from overseas business just as he was being wheeled to the elevator up. That night we were told that the pneumonia was still aggressively attacking his system and they weren’t confident that he could make it… we saw the x-rays…

I spent the next 48 hrs holding his hand and watching a clock and the machines attached to him. He was in the ICU for 4 days.
He was in hospital for 11 days. He left 28lbs lighter, very weak but still my son.

It took ages for him to get anywhere near normal- but alas contracted it again (a much milder version)only days after having his first clear x-ray!

But I must say that the Hospital staff and his own doctor were/are terrific throughout all of this.

He sees a pulmonologist next week…

He was a healthy 16yr old- hardly ever having any ailments- and we still don’t know how/why…