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Turns out I have pneumonia and although I went to the doc I just wanted to hear the cpaptalk conventional wisdom regarding CPAP use with pneumonia.

I choked on some water yesterday, ended up inhaling some of it. I tried to cough it all out, but I was in pain, and today was pretty bad. I went to the doc after work and she diagnosed Bacterial Pneumonia (from the inhaled drinking water), so i'm on Amoxicillin for 10 days.
I've got a horrible headache (not migraine-like, but all over my entire head), Coughing and coughing up (yuk), Chills, very cold, no appetite. Heart rate elevated but BP ok. Veeery tired.

She said to go ahead and use the CPAP but to clean it out starting tomorrow (which is when the antibiotics should kick in).

Last night I used my Activa with mouth tape but that was probably stupid, so I'll use the FFM, and a lower pressure (since my AHI pretty much the same there). I didn't notice that I was any worse this morning, but I certainly wasn't better.

Is there any reason to sleep in a sitting up position? When I lay down on the couch my headache gets worse.

I hope the antibiotics work, I was reading some pneumonia links from Den from another post... I don't want to die What a stupid reason to get pneumonia

OK I need to back to resting. Thanks...

Wow! That seems like a really short incubation period for the bacteria. I'm not aware of any that go from inhalation to painful infection in a matter of hours, but I don't know everything, that's for sure!

I haven't had a respiratory infection since going on APAP, but husband has. He has sometimes slept sitting in the recliner with his APAP and not had any problems. If it makes you feel better, I'd give it a try.

I'm sorry you're having problems. Hopefully you'll start feeling better soon.

Thanks Corgigirl!

I found the english name for it: aspiration pneumonia

Yeah, that is a fast incubation time... My lungs were painful immediately after the inhalation of the water, and it's just continued. I've been reading the symptoms of viral pneumonia, and I'm wondering if I had that first.

Also we're floating around a theory that I'm aspirating my GERD/reflux in my sleep -- which can also contribute to pneumonia?

Waaaahhhh This sucks.

OK I will stop theorizing now and go to sleep.

Sympathy is always good

Is there any chance your sleep doc would take a phone call to ask him/her about the advisability of your using cpap tonight, with the details of your exact form of pneumonia?

jnk wrote:Is there any chance your sleep doc would take a phone call to ask him/her about the advisability of your using cpap tonight, with the details of your exact form of pneumonia?

Hm good question. Problem is that I walked out of the GPs office after 7pm, and right now it's nearly 11pm. Although... they are probably monitoring people in the sleep lab right now (duhhhh!). I wouldn't really want to go without CPAP though, because then my lungs just feel all that much worse the next day (overexertion during inhalation?). I'll see if I can get the BF to call them (though I'm not sure they would answer the phone). But thanks for the idea! (as you can see, I'm still not resting )

Echo...What are you doing to relieve the GERD/Reflux. Meds? Raise the head of your bed 4-6"? Change diet?
Also...avoid sleeping on your right side.

LSAT wrote:Echo...What are you doing to relieve the GERD/Reflux. Meds? Raise the head of your bed 4-6"? Change diet?
Also...avoid sleeping on your right side.

I was on OTC acid-reducers for about a week, had to stop on the orders of the doc in preparation for the endoscopy (which still has to happen). Am currently using Gaviscon at night (tablets) and changing diet. I cannot raise the head of the bed - my parents' bed was like that and I can not sleep like that.

Is right side worse?

It seems to me that pneumonia might be enough of something out of the ordinary to ask someone about. That's the only reason I mentioned it. My uneducated mind thinks in terms of fluid in the lungs as being something I wouldn't necessarily want to put pressure on, depending. But I am not a doc, just a worrier. And now I've passed that worry on to you. I'm a carrier!!! Sorry.

Right side is bad if you are refluxing. If you look at a diagram of your anatomy, you will see that the esophagus enters the stomach on the right. If you lay on your right side, acid from the stomach can leak into the esophagus. If you lay on your lefty side, any acid in the esophagus drains into the stomach...where it belongs. Often the problem lies with the valve that separates the esophagus and the stomach. Check out these diagrams.

http://images.google.com/images?q=esoph ... 1&ct=title

Just curious, Echo, about what it is about the head of the bed being raised a little that you are unable to tolerate? As long as it's the bed or the whole mattress, I couldn't tell it was lifted as long as I didn't go high enough to cause sliding. Could not sleep with a wedge - that was too uncomfortable to me.

I have chronic inflammation in my lungs. First dx as pneumonia and given antibiotics, then another round of them, to no avail. That's when they decided to pull out the big guns. Prednisone for over 5 months till it was discovered I had glaucoma and had to go off it since it can increase eye pressures and mine were in the forties. Now I use a steroid inhaler.

Hope your lung problems respond well to treatment and you get the reflux under control soon. Take care.
Kathy

Echo, I know that my GERD exacerbates my asthma, so I'd guess it could cause problems farther down in your lungs, if it gets that far. I'm taking Prevacid every day to control my stomach acid and doing very well. After your endoscopy, will you be taking a prescription proton pump inhibitor like Prevacid?

I'm glad you're getting a lot of rest!

Hi Echo,

So sorry to hear you are under the weather. Pneumonia is definitely no fun! I had it 2 years ago (mild) and was flat on my back for 2 weeks. Week before last I got some kind of bug (cold, cough) and fever started going up. Saw doc who said my lungs sounded bad. He said if I didn't have bacterial pneumonia yet that with my messy lungs I would probably have it soon and put me on antibiotics. Apparently once you have had it, you're more likely to get it again.

I'm still using cpap but carefully cleaning mask every day and always use distilled water in HH. I wouldn't want to start a flame war on cleaning procedures but I'm seriously considering starting to use the Control 3 disinfectant on a regular basis instead of occasionally.

Take care of yourself and I hope you feel better very soon!

Mindy

Just a tidbit of an idea. To raise the head of your bed..have a 4" or 6"(which width you desire) board the length of your bed ..have it split from one corner to the opposite corner in a triangle sort of. turning the width to be equal.meaning the 2 ends will be the full width on one end and to 0 on the other 2 ends..attach a cross board across the bottom on the "0" end and a cross board at the wider end at the top. Place this under the box springs and the rise will be so gradual that you will not be aware of it. ONLY you will find you are closer to the foot than usual when you wake up. It does work. You will find that it does not damage your bed by misaligning it when using brick etc. under the head only.

echo,
I've been thinking of that super fast incubation period, in the one hand, and the fact the you've actually been feeling bad for a month perviously.

echo wrote: Although intermittent congestion has been a factor, as well as sealing issues with the FFM, nothing about my setup has changed, and I seem to be sliding back into my pre-CPAP days. I am having a lot of difficulty getting up in the morning, and yesterday I slept for 12 hours for the first time in a long time. I keep waking up with this 'hung over' feeling - which is exactly what I would get at either (a) the wrong pressures I had in the past year or (2) before CPAP.

Not only that, but my energy levels are dipping, I'm getting morning headaches, and I'm starting to slide back into depression / I-hate-the-world-and-I'm-useless again (luckily i recognize it so it's managable). And I'm really worried about work, since I'm not able to get up in the mornings again.

With the benefit of hindsight, could it be that that was the beginnig of a subclinical pneumonia that had you dragging for that whole month? Your low oygenation symptoms in respons to those flow limitation runs could be a result of you starting out at a low baserate anyway.

I was walking around once with untreated bronchitis once - nothing dramatic slight caughing (you attributed yours to smoking in on of the recent posts), but I was soooo tired all the time. Pneumonia is even worse.

O.

hi guys - thanks for all your replies! I just got done sleeping for 2 days, am feeling slightly better. I ended up not using the CPAP because between the hacking and coughing, the nose running, and the weird feeling I got when I put the CPAP on, it just wasn't working. I meant to call the sleep clinic but then ended up falling asleep, and yesterday was just one big blur of sleeping. I actually slept propped up (felt easier to breathe like that too).

Ozij - I was thinking more about this too. I remember that last weekend I had a strange kind of deep cough coming from my lungs, with some sort of wheezing and (what I now think was) some crackling in my lungs. Of course I thought it was just the smoking, and it went away after a day or two so I didn't think more of it. I think you're right, there was something there beforehand.

I hope the rest of don't mind if I answer your advice, comments, and questions regarding the reflux later... I'm still tired and can't do a computer marathon at the moment.

thanks for all your positive thoughts