Can someone walk me through pneumonia recovery?

[carfreemama]

Just wondering how this is likely to progress. Dd, who is 7 with no underlying conditions, was diagnosed Sunday morning with presumably bacterial pneumonia. It came on very suddenly, though she has had a cough for a while that caused no other symptoms.

She went to her ped yesterday (who I love and trust) and he said that "right now, she doesn't have pneumonia." He said she was still running a low-grade fever and that we were slowing down her recovery by giving her Tylenol. Her fever had been spikinig up to 105, even after 3 days on abx. Yesterday was the first day without a high fever until last night at midnight, she spiked again to 101.6. I didn't treat it and she seems cooler this morning, though didn't check. Dr. said he's okay with fevers even as high as 105 or 106 and said pneumonia is usually a mix of bacterial and viral, rather than one or the other. If the fever is trending down like this, I'm okay with it.

So how long can the fever last? I feel reassured that the ped said it's okay and not to worry, but how many days? Dd handles fever very well and dr said to let it go "as long as she can stand it."

She also seemed to be coughing more, but it's a productive cough and Dr. said this can be a sign of the pneumonia loosening up and getting better. He's not worried. But can pneumonia suddenly get a lot worse? Could she have it again after having been "cleared" yesterday? The coughing spell seemed to go along with the fever spike and then she was resting comfortably.

At no point has she had trouble breathing or anything. Overall she definitely seems better. But the dr at the walk-in clinic on Sunday said she could probably go back to school on Wednesday, which would have been yesterday!!

Anyone been through this? Did you or your dc fever last a while?

ETA: I should note that the diagnosis was "mild pneumonia."

[Marnica]

I read your other thread and just wanted to weigh in.

Your doc is right on about the fever (so rare - it's refreshing) Treating fevers with tylenol is not a solution and can be dangerous. There is loads of evidence out there that shows that fever is an adaptive host response and treating with fever reducers can increase morbidty and mortality for most bacterial and viral infections. If you'd like a list of references please PM me Id be happy to share.

At this point I would be focused on supporting your DD's immune system. Illness depletes various vitamins and minerals. I would be giving LOADS of sodium ascorbate, extra Vit d and A and magnesium along with probiotics to help mitigate with the gut damage that the abx will cause.

I know it's hard, but please try and relax a bit. Focus on building her immune system up. I get worked up to when my DS is ill, but it never does anyone any good. Hope she feels back to her old self again soon.

[carfreemama]

Thanks, Marnica. I hope this experience will help me find my big girl panties. I hate being so freaked out.

Luckily, we were giving Tylenol relatively infrequently. I didn't even have any in my possession, but when I called the nurses' health line they told me to use it to keep the fever below 104. Of course it was the weekend and our wonderful ped was not available. So at least we only used it a few times when the fever spiked really high and I admit, when I was getting super upset.

I have all the things you mentioned and I am trying to get them into my daughter. Unfortunately, she's still eating very, very little and is incredibly medicine-phobic. The vitamin D is no problem, but the rest are harder. Once she's eating even things like applesause, I know how to dose her.

She IS doing better. Our paediatrician told us we were misled by the first doc at the walk-in clinic who told us "she could clear this up right away" and that dd "could be back to school by Wednesday." I think that set me up to be panicky when it didn't happen, too. He says it will take a lot longer and there will be ups and downs, even though the actual pneumonia seems to be clearing. Knowing that really helps.

She's never been sick like this before. She's always just run a super-high fever for a day or so, even when the other kids are taking longer to recover from something. So this is brand-new territory. I keep trying to figure out what the imbalance was in her system that she got nailed like this. Was she overtired? Too much sugar? The fact that I let her go without a coat when she wanted to? Or just bad luck? Anyway, here we are and we were playing Polly Pockets this morning and not spiking fevers over 101 or so. Not bad, considering where we started on Sunday.