I have a chest infection ... probably
- Thread starter lulubel
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lulubel
Über Member
- Location
- Malaga, Spain
They put some really good stuff in those antibiotics here in Spain!
I've only been on them (as well as steroids) for 24 hours, and I've just taken 15 minutes off a MTB ride that took me 2:30 the last time I did it. Up the mountain, along the side of the mountain, and down again. Wheeeee!
(I think they may have some kind of stimulant in them because I'm feeling a bit high .....)
And I kind of forgot about staying in the valley. Oops!
I've only been on them (as well as steroids) for 24 hours, and I've just taken 15 minutes off a MTB ride that took me 2:30 the last time I did it. Up the mountain, along the side of the mountain, and down again. Wheeeee!
(I think they may have some kind of stimulant in them because I'm feeling a bit high .....)
And I kind of forgot about staying in the valley. Oops!
MattHB
Proud Daddy
- Location
- Deepest darkest Dorset
Don't overdo it!
but glad your feeling better
SatNavSaysStraightOn
Changed hemispheres!
- Location
- ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ 'ɐɹɹǝquɐƆ
so that will be the steroids then! seriously.
glad you are feeling better.
Are you on a constant dose of the steroids or a tailed off dose? standard seems to be either 5 days of 6 tablets (30mg) or 6, 5,4, 3, 2, 1 tablets per day. Usually I start on 30mg Prednisolone and either stay on that for minimum of 5 days and then drop 5mg (1 tablet in my case) each day until down to zero but that is because of other issues. Better to stay off them as much as possible, so get out and get fitter whilst you can on them and then re-adjust your sights afterwards!
take care
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lulubel
Über Member
- Location
- Malaga, Spain
Actually, I don't think it is. I started the steroids on Tuesday, and still felt pretty lousy. (I went straight up to 40mg prednisolone because those were the tablets I had, but I've been on 30mg since I saw the doctor yesterday, reducing by 5mg a day from tomorrow.) I remember being a kid and getting the soluble ones, and I'd go from looking near death to bouncing off the walls in the space of about 10 minutes, but I don't get any kind of kick out of them at all any more.
The antibiotics are the usual 500mg amoxycillin, but with 125g of something else (in Spanish) that I don't recognise, and googling them is drawing a blank. Also, my cat tends to go a bit loopy when he's just had his 4-weekly antibiotic injection, and we've been joking for months that we need to ask the vet if we can all have some. So, I am suspicious that they put something else in them that makes you feel good.
I asked my doctor for a 250mcg Becotide inhaler as well, so I can get my inhaled steroids up to cover the shortfall as the prednisolone drops off, so I hope I have this well and truly under control.
SatNavSaysStraightOn
Changed hemispheres!
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You are probably on augmentin at a guess... that is 500mg +125mg of something else... sometimes called Co-amoxiclav which contains amoxicillin and clavulanic acid as active ingredients.
I have also found that I don't notice the steroids at all any more when I take them - not a good thing, other than my asthma gives me less issues and it is several days before I start to feel 'better'. I don't get the "you're on steroids" look in my face and friends who have spent most of their lives on them when the saw me the last time I was on them had no idea I was taking them - again not a good sign. I have yet to discuss that developement with my GP or endchronologist, but suspect I should & soon knowing I don't produce enough cortisone naturally.
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lulubel
Über Member
- Location
- Malaga, Spain
I think you're probably right about the augmentin, although I think it's the same stuff under another brand name. The extra ingredient is acido something-or-other. It's also described underneath as sal de potassio (or something like that), which suggests it's intended to replace salts lost through the amoxycillin upsetting your stomach. Plain amoxycillin has never upset my stomach, but these ones definitely do!
It's probably a weird reaction to the combination of drugs I'm on. I had that once in the UK, when I was dosed up with loads of stuff for really bad flu and asthma. I was getting palpitations and nearly passing out every time I had something hot to eat or drink, and that went on for a few weeks after the flu had gone and I'd stopped the medication. I was a bus driver at the time, and my employer wasn't best pleased because I ended up taking 8 weeks off (because I wasn't safe to drive) rather than the 2 weeks it would have been otherwise. I was very happy because it gave me the chance to work on setting up the business that led to me leaving my job a few months later!
I'm kind of vaguely concerned about my cortisone production, but not concerned enough to do anything about it at the moment. I do gain weight if I eat enough, so I don't have problems with uncontrolled weight loss, but I do have some of the other symptoms of reduced adrenal function. I suppose there are inevitable consequences of a lifetime of drugs.
SatNavSaysStraightOn
Changed hemispheres!
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I have been on Becotide 250mcg equivalent for since 1993, so I would not worry too much, the stress is not worth it.
I also don't worry about the side effects of a lifetime of drugs as you put it - I would be dead without them (been rescusicated twice) so I don't see the need to stress myself any futher regarding them. Just stay off the prednisolne as much as possible - inhaled steriods are less harmful in the long run than injested/injected ones. My old GP (can't say for my new one, we have not really met each other yet) always prefered me to take more of my inhaler if needed than resort to prednisolone, but towards then end I was on prednisolone 1 week in 4 if averaged out over a year - that was when we decided enough was enough and left jobs, home & the country.
The nausea is quite common - I spent something like 9 weeks on a much stronger dose (think 1,000mg twice a day) as a result of the dog bite.... I found taking them after food worked for me, but the NHS website advices to take before you eat - but always with food. I think I recall avoiding milk products was useful with this one as well, but can't remember really given I can't have milk products anyhow.
gbb
Legendary Member
- Location
- Peterborough
Lost track of when this thread started, but if its still there Lulubel, hope it eases soon.
I'm off the bike, had a cough since Xmas day, from a cold that didnt really develop but it just left me with a hacking cough ever since.
Friday between Xmas and New Year, the wife called an amulance in the middle of the night when she found me writhing in agony on the bedroom floor...every breath hurt like being stabbed inside the ribcage, excruciating.
ECG, all the usual checks found nothing and it didnt recur...until last night, albeit not as painful.
Docs again this morning, various checks, nothing outwardly wrong apart from possible muscle strain from excess coughing, a heavy object lifted that may have strained something...or trapped air in the torso and i have a very slight infection probably. And acid, my lungs and windpipe feel hot sometimes. So many things going on, its difficult to know whats causing what, very fustrating, glad i don't smoke.
Maybe try for an easy ride tomorrow, i'm going stir crazy.
I'm off the bike, had a cough since Xmas day, from a cold that didnt really develop but it just left me with a hacking cough ever since.
Friday between Xmas and New Year, the wife called an amulance in the middle of the night when she found me writhing in agony on the bedroom floor...every breath hurt like being stabbed inside the ribcage, excruciating.
ECG, all the usual checks found nothing and it didnt recur...until last night, albeit not as painful.
Docs again this morning, various checks, nothing outwardly wrong apart from possible muscle strain from excess coughing, a heavy object lifted that may have strained something...or trapped air in the torso and i have a very slight infection probably. And acid, my lungs and windpipe feel hot sometimes. So many things going on, its difficult to know whats causing what, very fustrating, glad i don't smoke.
Maybe try for an easy ride tomorrow, i'm going stir crazy.
byegad
Legendary Member
- Location
- NE England
I urge all riders with a chest infection to get it checked out, Mrs Byegad, who has Bronchiectasis and so is very cautious about even a cold, ignored what seemed like a mild cold that had 'gone to her chest.' Three days later she was rushed into hospital with Loculated Empyema. Thanks to a rubbish local hospital's prevarication/incompetence she damn nearly died, and only my insistence that she be looked at, and the resulting transfer to an excellent local hospital saved her life. In fact she recovered better than her second, excellent, specialist expected. So much so that he wrote up his treatment in a professional journal.
Andrew_Culture
Internet Marketing bod
- Location
- The People's Republic Of Suffolk.
Might be a daft question with an obvious answer, but are a chest cold and chest infection one and the same thing?
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
gbb - that sounds almost a carbon-copy of what happened to me last summer, and I almost died. My first visit to the GP only got me drugs for the muscle strains from the coughing. A second GP visit lined me up for a chest x-ray but by then the DVT in my leg made itself very obvious and I ended up in hospital for 9 days in August. I have been recovering ever since on Warfarin for the clotting problem which led to a bilateral pulmonary embolism. It's an extremely serious condition which you do not want to ignore - I've read that up to one third of emergency admissions die from it!
You say you had all the usual tests - did that include a blood test for clotting? If you didn't have that test done, I'd get straight on the phone and demand one!
I went for 2 rides when I was already seriously ill, but hadn't realised it. I'm lucky to still be here. Let us know how you get on.
You say you had all the usual tests - did that include a blood test for clotting? If you didn't have that test done, I'd get straight on the phone and demand one!
I went for 2 rides when I was already seriously ill, but hadn't realised it. I'm lucky to still be here. Let us know how you get on.
SatNavSaysStraightOn
Changed hemispheres!
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ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
You could have an infection which was not a cold, but a cold is an infection, so sometimes yes, sometimes no!
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lulubel
Über Member
- Location
- Malaga, Spain
According to the NHS website, a chest infection is either acute bronchitis or pneumonia. Either is very bad for me, as an asthmatic.
I had a nasty flu that affected my chest a few years ago that was clearly not caused by a bacterial infection because the antibiotics they gave me didn't make the miraculous difference that they usually do, but normally what's referred to as a "chest infection" is a bacterial infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics. This time, I'm pretty sure mine was caused by inhaling mould spores (ie bacteria). Asthmatic lungs tend to be pretty weak and prone to infection, so that's more likely to cause problems for someone like me than for someone with healthy lungs.
I had a nasty flu that affected my chest a few years ago that was clearly not caused by a bacterial infection because the antibiotics they gave me didn't make the miraculous difference that they usually do, but normally what's referred to as a "chest infection" is a bacterial infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics. This time, I'm pretty sure mine was caused by inhaling mould spores (ie bacteria). Asthmatic lungs tend to be pretty weak and prone to infection, so that's more likely to cause problems for someone like me than for someone with healthy lungs.
