Reoccuring Pneaumonia

Hello,

Hello,

Since 9/06 I have had pneumonia 4 times.  In 10/06 I had a pneumonia vaccination.  I am overweight but other than that, am very healthy (great BP, never smoked, no meds, etc.)  My dr has no explanation for the pneumonia and I've asked the last three times what else should I be doing or going to see.  The most recent time I went in, I was coughing up blood (although prob really just in sputum) and she didn't believe me that I had pneumonia until she saw the xrays and said the blood was nothing to worry about.  I have now had pneumonia again - for a total of four times in 2007 and twice that I recall in the last quarter of 06.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[caregiver222]

Yes. Has the sputem ever been cultured to identify the organism creating the problem, or have you been simply provided with a broad-spectrum anti-biotic? Request your medical records to determine if an actual culture has ever been performed. If not, your physician recieves the 2007 "Box-Top" award. This is given to those who recieve medical diplomas by sending in conflake box-tops. The problem is with lung infections is that they tend to become encapsulated somewhere if not agressively and properly treated, and then break out again whevever the immune system is not up to speed. A theory of how and why these infections break out again and again has been proposed by a Rutgers researcher and it is called "quorum theory". You might want to do a search. One can get pneumonia from many infectious bacteria and the vaccine is specific to only one of those.