Pneumonia Or Asthma?

[Carrera]

Years ago, I nearly died from pneumonia when I was a student. The effects were I completely lost my voice and was bed-ridden for at least 3 weeks. I couldn't even walk at the time. Several years later, I still note I have a cough that just won't go away and feel something in my chest (like rubbish on the lungs). If I ever get stressed or have a cold, it seems like my cough comes back.
My cycling performance isn't affected but I still cough when riding.
Anybody have any idea why I can't seem to shake off this cough and does pneumonia do permanent damage? At the time, The Doc said another 3 days or so and I'd have died without medical attention and that I should get my chest X-rayed.
I never did get an X-ray but is this some kind of a virus that lingers in your system? Or maybe, as I read on the net, I have a mild form of asthma linked to my pollen allergy?

 

[danch]

Pneumonia and bronchitis can both leave permanant weakness in the lungs, but this is generally seen as making you succeptible to getting the diseases again.

I've had Pneumonia once and bronchitis a lot, as well as asthma chronically. I get bronchitis really easily, but once I'm over it, i'm over it (my lungs get back to basically normal function). I'd be wondering about a cough that doesn't go away for that length of time. A really hard ride will cause me to have an achy chest for a couple of hours and maybe cough up a couple of lung cookies, but that's only after something like a hard interval workout.

My 'do as I say, not as I do' advice is to see a doctor. A cough that lasts for several years isn't a good thing!

 

[Doctor Morbius]

Carerra, I understand your frustration completely. I caught a bug right around the time the WTC was attacked. It was the typical sinus/head cold but it went down into my chest and hung on for a very long time. Eventually I had to go see a doctor and use a nebulizer with albuterol. The doctor's diagnosis was asthma, even though I'd had no real breathing problems prior to this. By no real breathing problems I mean I still had trouble with heavy exercise in cold weather and allergy season always bugged me but nothing else... and I have cats!!

Anyway, every Winter since that bad infection I easily get respiritory problems when it's cold and the humidity is low. My doctor (different doc) chaulks it up to bronchitis and not asthma. Right now I'm having a touch of trouble, which is most likely due to ragweed season. But for the past several months (ever since Spring) I've had no problems. I've taken a few hits off the albuterol inhaler just prior to riding the past couple of days but haven't needed it for quite a while.

This Winter though, I'll have to use albuterol 2 or 3 times a day just because I'll be wheezing so much. It sucks! I hate getting older.

 

[Carrera]

I've been meaning to start a thread on getting older as I share your lamentations entirely. Seems so unfair that as you get so much wiser mentally, your body deteriorates and you can't do the things you did in the past. Still Stallone and Sharon Stone are having some success beating the system.
You know, it could well be allergy I have. I mean today as I was doing my light squats in the gym, I could feel a sort of blockage in my nasal passages. As for the cough, I feel like a kind of film of rubbish inside the chest that tickles and provokes a chronic, constant cough.
It all started years ago when I'd completed a very very hard training session and then sat next to a guy in a bar who had flu. 2 days later I couldn't walk. My family found me lying on the floor, so weak I couldn't move an inch. They called an emergency doctor and he said it was pneumonia (mild). I lost my voice for several days and theoretically I'd have snuffed it if someone hadn't gotten the doctor in time. I've had bouts of coughing on and off ever since. But I guess it was a serious illness at the time.
Apart from the cough, I guess I feel O.K.

Carerra, I understand your frustration completely. I caught a bug right around the time the WTC was attacked. It was the typical sinus/head cold but it went down into my chest and hung on for a very long time. Eventually I had to go see a doctor and use a nebulizer with albuterol. The doctor's diagnosis was asthma, even though I'd had no real breathing problems prior to this. By no real breathing problems I mean I still had trouble with heavy exercise in cold weather and allergy season always bugged me but nothing else... and I have cats!!

Anyway, every Winter since that bad infection I easily get respiritory problems when it's cold and the humidity is low. My doctor (different doc) chaulks it up to bronchitis and not asthma. Right now I'm having a touch of trouble, which is most likely due to ragweed season. But for the past several months (ever since Spring) I've had no problems. I've taken a few hits off the albuterol inhaler just prior to riding the past couple of days but haven't needed it for quite a while.

This Winter though, I'll have to use albuterol 2 or 3 times a day just because I'll be wheezing so much. It sucks! I hate getting older.

 

[spacefuzz]

Years ago, I nearly died from pneumonia when I was a student. The effects were I completely lost my voice and was bed-ridden for at least 3 weeks. I couldn't even walk at the time. Several years later, I still note I have a cough that just won't go away and feel something in my chest (like rubbish on the lungs). If I ever get stressed or have a cold, it seems like my cough comes back.
My cycling performance isn't affected but I still cough when riding.
Anybody have any idea why I can't seem to shake off this cough and does pneumonia do permanent damage? At the time, The Doc said another 3 days or so and I'd have died without medical attention and that I should get my chest X-rayed.
I never did get an X-ray but is this some kind of a virus that lingers in your system? Or maybe, as I read on the net, I have a mild form of asthma linked to my pollen allergy?

Most of my family has asthma and weve been dealing with it all our lives. The coughing you describe doesnt sound like a classical asthma attack, more like broncitis. Tickling in your lungs could be mucus build up, if its different colors when you caugh it up that can tell you the severity of your illness. clear is usually ok. yellow is the early stages, go to the doctor. if its green or brown go to the ER.
When I get asthma attacks I feel a tightness in my lungs, not a tickling and start wheezing. I dont usually cough.
As to getting the cough back after a cold, that happens to me and people I know with asthma all the time, it can be a precurser to broncitis because your lungs maybe cant handle the strain.
I guess just go see a asthma/allergy specialist. They can tell you for sure.

 

[Doctor Morbius]

I've been meaning to start a thread on getting older as I share your lamentations entirely. Seems so unfair that as you get so much wiser mentally, your body deteriorates and you can't do the things you did in the past. Still Stallone and Sharon Stone are having some success beating the system.

Yeah but they're multi-millionaires and have all day to train and take care of themselves and hire personal trainers and get liposuction and all of that hollywood stuff. What about us working class slobs? Notta. We just fall apart.

You know, it could well be allergy I have. I mean today as I was doing my light squats in the gym, I could feel a sort of blockage in my nasal passages. As for the cough, I feel like a kind of film of rubbish inside the chest that tickles and provokes a chronic, constant cough.
It all started years ago when I'd completed a very very hard training session and then sat next to a guy in a bar who had flu. 2 days later I couldn't walk. My family found me lying on the floor, so weak I couldn't move an inch. They called an emergency doctor and he said it was pneumonia (mild). I lost my voice for several days and theoretically I'd have snuffed it if someone hadn't gotten the doctor in time. I've had bouts of coughing on and off ever since. But I guess it was a serious illness at the time.
Apart from the cough, I guess I feel O.K.

I quit going to bars partly because at any given time a large percentage of the clientele are fighting something. Let's face it, the people who spend a lot of time in bars aren't really worried about their own health AND they don't give a damn about somebody else's health, so they'll go to a bar to have their drink and smoke a few dozen packs of ciggs without giving it a second thought about speading their contagions all around the place.

I got sick of assholes sitting next to me lighting up their ciggarettes and putting their ashtrays right next to me. Hell if they want to inhale that **** they should put the ashtrays right under their own noses shouldn't they? Smokers are a rude lot. I have no sympathy for them when they die of cancer.