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Scar tissue after pneumonia

I developed pneumonia over and a half ago. I didn't even know it was pneumonia at first. I went to the doctor because my lung hurt. It hurt so bad to breath. I thought maybe I had pulled something. I hadn't been sick at all, nor showed any other illness. When I went to the doctor, they instructed me to get an x-ray. I did, and they told me from that that I had pneumonia. However, no medication would make it disappear, I had no other symptoms besides extreme pain in my lung, which wasn't non-stop but came and went. My lung was also inflammed is what they told me. But, they couldn't hear it when I was breathing, and did a lot of tests because they couldnt figure out the cause nor why it wouldnt go away. I was rushed to the emergency at one point because of an extremely high d-dimer level which they thought might be a blood clot. It ended up not being, after a CAT scan. Because the meds didn't work, I had to continue to get xrays. It didn't disappear until about 9 months later. Today, I can't really feel it much at all, but just a little little bit, I can still feel it. Right where it hurt before. Is this scar tissue? Is this something else I should be worried about? Is this something that will affect me later in life? I don't know what to do about it...should I go see the doctor again? Thanks for your help. I could really use it...
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242588 tn?1224271700
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
This is a very unusual story and not at all typical of an infectious pneumonia.  Also, somewhat unusual to have extreme pain with pneumonia, unless accompanied by inflammation of the pleura, the membrane that surrounds the lung and can cause the type of pain that can cause pleurisy.  Another unusual feature of this illness is that the “pneumonia” didn’t “disappear until about 9 months later.”  Given that you had pleurisy, you might well have scarring of the pleural surface.

Given the highly elevated D-dimer, you could well have had a blood clot, the negative CT scan possibly related to the timing of the onset of symptoms, the timing of the D-dimer and the timing of the scan.

It is hard to know if the hurt that you are now experiencing is something to be “worried about”.  Given the uncertainty that seemed to surround your illness over a year ago, it would be even harder to try to explain things now, but it might be a good idea for you to request copies of your medical records and then discuss them with one of the doctors who was involved in your case to get a statement of what most likely was the cause of this puzzling disorder.

Good luck.
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Avatar universal
By the way...I am 21 years old. I don't know if this matters or not.
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