Pleurisy Remedies?

[Jade Tigress]

This sucks. I have pleurisy. I was given a z-pak (heavy duty 5 day antibiotic treatment) and prescribed 800 mg ibuprofen 3-4 times a day. That was last Thursday. Doc said 48-72 hours and should see improvement.

The pain has definitely lessened, but I can still feel it. Overall I still feel pretty poorly which I'm not sure if it's from the pluerisy or a secondary viral or bacterial infection. My ears and sinus's were clogged and I have a cough which the antibiotic was supposed to help. Now I can kind of feel a clicking in my lung at times, and I had some heart palpitations yesterday. I'm not real concerned about it. I think it will just take a little time to start feeling better but I would like to speed up the process if I can. I'm taking lots of vitamins and drinking tons of green tea.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any specific Qigong excercises that might help, or any other home remedies that I can try to get rid of this quicker. I hate being sick!

Thanks.

 

[Shirt Ripper]

This sucks. I have pleurisy. I was given a z-pak (heavy duty 5 day antibiotic treatment) and prescribed 800 mg ibuprofen 3-4 times a day. That was last Thursday. Doc said 48-72 hours and should see improvement.

The pain has definitely lessened, but I can still feel it. Overall I still feel pretty poorly which I'm not sure if it's from the pluerisy or a secondary viral or bacterial infection. My ears and sinus's were clogged and I have a cough which the antibiotic was supposed to help. Now I can kind of feel a clicking in my lung at times, and I had some heart palpitations yesterday. I'm not real concerned about it. I think it will just take a little time to start feeling better but I would like to speed up the process if I can. I'm taking lots of vitamins and drinking tons of green tea.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any specific Qigong excercises that might help, or any other home remedies that I can try to get rid of this quicker. I hate being sick!

Thanks.

I got no suggestions for you. But, as I understood it this condition was oft times a symptom of another illness. Any discussion there with your doctor?
Either way, take it easy and take care of this.

 

[arnisador]

I had some heart palpitations yesterday[...] drinking tons of green tea.

The former is a known side effect of the latter. Green tea is very heavy in caffeine and, despite what those who sell it for weight loss will tell you, heart palpitations/irregular heartbeats can be a consequence of taking it in high doses (or in conjunction with other sources of caffeine). Don't overdo it!

Given the chest pain and inflammation that goes with pleurisy, my guess is that exercise is best avoided for a bit. Get rest and beat down the infection.

Good luck!

 

[shesulsa]

Pam, everything I've read indicates that pleurisy is usually a secondary condition to an already existing lung or cardiac issue but COULD be caused by a viral infection or chest injury or drug interaction.

If you feel you have chest congestion that won't come up, there are expectorants for that, but I worry about excessive coughing and the irritation it could cause to the lining of your lungs. You may have some scar tissue as a result of this.

In any case, some good breathing exercises might be in order here. I recommend you see A LUNG SPECIALIST about this - now.

I'd also cut back on the green tea and make sure you supplement electrolytes right now. Cool moist air is what you need while you're well-insulated against the cold.

Please keep us (at least me, please) posted.

 

[Jade Tigress]

Thank you everyone. I've read the same thing about pleurisy being a secondary condition to a more serious underlying condition as well, but my doctor didn't mention anything about that.

It is in my left lung and for a few weeks I noticed minor pain around the left rib cage and arm pit. I just kind of ignored it. Then about 10 days ago I caught a chest cold from my daughter. About 3 days later I experienced severe pain in the upper lobe of the left lung and went to the doctor. I also had my ears clogged with fluid which I wasn't aware of and I did notice minor sinus pressure but I've certainly felt worse before. I'm the kind that it takes alot to get my attention that way. I usually slow down a bit but try to keep up with my daily routines.

I didn't realize the green tea could cause heart palpitations. I have been drinking alot of it but that is the only caffeine I'm consuming and I am a recently reformed coffee-holic. I had been drinking a pot a day myself. Then swiched to green tea which I sip on throughout the day drinking maybe 5-6 cups over a 10 hour period.

Funny thing is the doc told me there were no restrictions on physical activity as long as I felt up to it.

So....I take it I should be calling the doc again?

 

[Lisa]

Giving the time frame of when you started taking the antibiotics to now, I would definitely call the doctor again and see him. Could be that the antibiotics aren't doing their job and he may want to change the prescription. It is important to stay on top of your illness before it gets any worse and lands you in the hospital. Better safe then sorry I always say. And please, remember to mention the clicking sound in your lung.

I agree that the heart palpitations could be caused by the caffeine. Try a nice decaf tea instead.

Please keep us posted, Pam. ((HUGS))

 

[Shirt Ripper]

I would make the call. If there is in fact an underlying situation and it is (as noted by Shesulsa) a viral infection of some type then it would be best to get off those anti-biotics.

"Better safe then sorry I always say."

Agreed.

 

[Jade Tigress]

Thank you. I just called the doc's office and gave details to the nurse. She will get back to me sometime this afternoon to let me know whether I need to come back in or if he's going to call in a different antibiotic. (I live about 35 miles away from the office). I'm going to lay off the green tea for the rest of the day and drink something caffiene free. I have several other teas in the cabinet, but green tea is my fav.

 

[arnisador]

Sounds like a good plan all around. Beating down the infection is the way to go.

Watch out for caffeine withdrawal headache! Sigh...there's no winning.

By the way, I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I love your .sig and quote it often. In fact I gave that advice to my son recently, after he lost an argument with someone who, uh, would appear to be much less qualified to debate the topic at hand than my son.

 

[shesulsa]

Okay, Pam, you should absolutely listen to your doctor - I am NO physician by any means, but I consulted my nursing manual (Lisa, please correct me) and some other health reference study books I have and they all say that bed rest is mandated.

My herb book says something about pleurisy root and lobelia, but you don't want to mix that with prescription meds.

One of the nutritional health books I have says to elminate all mucous-producing foods - that means pretty much everything except fresh, raw vegetables and whole grains with no fat added. Yay you.

This is just extra info, okay? Please keep with a doctor's plan.

 

[Rich Parsons]

I had Pleurisy once, and the Doctor treated the it with meds such as Anit-biotics. Once I was better, and it took some time to get back to 100% feeling, for I would go out and try stuff as I felt better, I have not seen any real issues since then.

 

[Jade Tigress]

Thanks again everyone. After I talked with the nurse yesterday I had to run into town for a blood test and chest x ray. The doc wanted to rule out a possible blood clot in my lung. The blood test came back negative for a blood clot and the x rays aren't in yet. The pain in my lung has diminished even more today which is good. I can feel it only on taking a very deep breath. But I feel like crap otherwise and have monster headache. Will wait to see what the doc says when they get the x rays back.

On a side note, I have to share:

I had a Kung Fu tournament on Saturday. When I was at the doc on Thursday and he diagnosed pleurisy I asked him about physical restrictions and told him about my tournament. That would have been 3 days on the anti-biotic and he said it was fine if I felt up to it.

We don't normally compete in tournaments but were doing a fund raiser for St. Judes Childrens Hospital. My Sifu has 3 schools and we were having an interschool tournament. Tuhon Ward would be there judging as well as bringing some of his students to compete and also some students from another sister school came to compete. There were several judges present.


Well, Saturday came and I felt like crap. My son was also competing so I put on street clothes and threw my gi in the car just in case. There were 3 catagories of competition, open hand forms, weapon forms, and sparring. I planned and practiced for open hand forms and sparring. I was going to pass on weapon forms.
So, I'm sitting there watching everyone and going crazy because I want to participate. Problem was I had no lung capacity and felt really fatigued. But I'm highly competitive and that nature took over. So I changed into my gi.

I missed the open hand form competition. My sifu encouraged me to do a weapons form instead as that was what was next. I hadn't practiced for it at all but I went up and did a staff form.

Then we sparred. I got my butt kicked by a guy who was clearly above his level for the rank he was in. But I think I got a couple good licks in. I got cut over the eye. I was dying trying to spar, I had to wear a mouthpiece and I couldn't breathe for nothing and had no stamina. The way it works is 2 people spar and the winner goes on to spar the winner of the another match and the losers spar the losers of the other match.

All in all I took 2nd place in weapon forms and 3rd place in sparring. And, if I do say so myself, after watching the competition, I think I would have had a good chance at 1st in open hand forms if I competed. So that made me pretty happy.

 

[Jade Tigress]

I'm finally starting to feel better today. Both the blood test and chest x ray came back negative. No pulmonary embolism or pneumonia. The doc did call to check up on me Wed. I think I should back to feeling close to 100% tomorrow. Yay! It's been a long 2 weeks. I hate being sick. Thanks for your advice and concern. :asian:

 

[shesulsa]

I'm SO happy to hear this, SLTL!!