Scared of pneumonia, please help!

[megs18]

Hi everyone, I am a 20 year old female who is new to HA and the community of NMP.

I have been coughing for about a week now. The coughing isn't too violent and I'm not coughing anything up, except very small amounts of phlegm occasionally. I do not have a fever and pretty much feel fine except for the coughing. The coughing seems to be a little better today and subsides at night (it's never interfered with my sleep). It seems to be a pretty deep cough sometimes, if that makes sense. I also have been having some trouble breathing and it sometimes feels like there's something partially blocking my air supply. I don't have a runny nose or anything like that. I'm very worried it's pneumonia and I know it's rare for pneumonia to cause serious problems or death, but there seem to be so many stories of young people dying from it suddenly.

I'm wondering if I should go to the doctor or try to get a chest x-ray. Any advice would be so, so appreciated.

[sial72]

Hi Megs18
It doesn't sound like anything serious at all to be honest, just a cough. But if you go to your gp, they can tell just by listening to you wether they need to xray or not.
My daughter has had pneumonia 4 times.
Xx

[MyNameIsTerry]

I've had pneumonia and it wasn't too bad. Its more a risk for young children, the elderley and people with certain conditions that it could impact onto e.g. I have asthma.

I would suggest visiting your GP as you have a legitimate physical problem here and its worth them determining if you need any help in the form of antibiotics to stop anything progressing.

They may not need a chest xray, they may be able to diagnose from an examination and discussion of your symptoms or decide to monitor you with or without antibiotics. A chest xray is the norm to diagnose pneumonia though but things like pleurisy can be usually determined from listening to your chest as can chest infections.

Is the mucus coloured? Yellow or green? My GP's have always told me thats a sign of an infection and to see them because my asthma used to need a boost from antibiotics when I was younger.

I know its going to panic you with having HA but honestly, pneumonia, pleurisy or infections, etc and very easy to treat and unless you are in an "at risk" group you could easily be treated at home successfully.

My mother just had pneumonia and she is in her mid seventies so she had to go to hospital as the antibiotics weren't going to be enough without IV administration.

In both my case and hers, we had a sudden onset of pain and trouble breathing (much more than from an infection). If this happens, contact a medical support quickly jjust in case but even if it were pneumonia, this doesn't have to develop if it is found early.