Trouble breathing since Penumonia

[melsi]

Im only 19 years of age, i went travelling on a gap year, and towards the end i fell ill with pneumonia which put me into hospital for a few weeks, (prior to this i had been smoking for a couple of years)
I gradually got better after antibiotics and rest and have been home now for about 3 months, and sometimes i feel completely fine, and i go to the gym alot and havnt smoked since, but everynow and then i feel very short breathed a struggle to breathe properly, i have had a scan since the pneumonia to confirm it had cleared and they ran all the tests on me and said i was clear, but im still having these breathing complications and i just dont understand why, i even saw a therapist who said pneumonia has disrupted my breathing pattern and that i had been breathing from my chest but the exercises she gave me havnt helped.
Im scared the problem could lie deeper and dont know what to do

any suggestions......

thanks

[National Jewish Health]

Your concern is warranted.  You said, "a scan" but I assume that you meant a chest x-ray that confirmed "it had cleared".  Here are a few possibilities:  
1) that the pneumonia has gone into a chronic phase, with scarring, not yet evident on plain chest x-ray;
2) that the infection also involved your bronchial tubes, called bronchitis, resulting in a lot of inflammation and you have now developed asthma; and
3) that you are having clots to your lungs and the "pneumonia" was caused by a clot and really was not an infectious pneumonia.

With this much time elapsed, the pneumonia should have resolved completely.  You should have an examination by a doctor to look for signs of asthma, a simple breathing test called spirometry, examination of your legs for any sign of thrombophlebitis that could send clots to your lungs and a CT scan or another test to look for any evidence of clots in your lungs.  Breathing exercises will not suffice.  You should seek medical advice without delay.

Good luck.

[melsi]

thank you for the advice, yes i meant chest x-ray, im seeing a specialist on monday so i will let you know what he says, can you explain a little more about this chronic phase and why you cant see it on an x-ray? and what does a ct scan show that x-ray doesnt?

if it is the reasons you have described am i able to fully recover or is this something i will now have to live with?

thank you so much