With regards to your return to work query I suggest you follow your hospital doctor’s advice and take the 6 weeks off. Pneumonia is physically very hard on the body and takes months to recover from. You will feel tired, and this is to be expected and you will feel breathless even with slight exertion, this will improve over time.
If your GP feels you are fit enough to work after an examination and you feel well enough, then you should be able to return to work. If this is the case, I would suggest you discuss this with your manager and occupational health department about returning to work on a part time basis and working back up to full time hours once you feel better. Pleurisy, which is inflammation of the two layers of tissue covering the lungs is common after a chest infection or pneumonia and you are on the correct treatment, and you do need to continue with this until the pleurisy has resolved.
Pain when breathing is common with pleurisy, and chest pain is also common with persistent coughing. A persistent cough after pneumonia is a well- known problem and this can continue for months after recovery. You will need to look at the colour of any secretions you cough up. Clear or white is normal, yellowish or greenish indicates infection which you would need to see your GP for. If this chest pain you have described is different from the pneumonia or pleurisy chest pain I suggest you see your doctor.
Due to your recent pneumonia you will have a slightly increased risk of picking up cold’s and flu’s as your body is working to recover, so I do suggest caution and avoiding large gatherings of people and caution with friends or relatives who have a cold or flu. Unfortunately people with a cold or flu are infectious a few days before they display symptoms so this is not fool proof. I do suggest caution if you are out in cold weather, as cold air hitting the lungs can trigger some tightening and wheezing as well as coughing. If you do go out in the cold I do suggest you cover your nose and mouth with a scarf to give the air a little extra time to warm up before the cold air gets to your nasal passages and mouth.
It is standard procedure to give you time to recover from any infection before you have a flu vaccination, as a vaccination can trigger mild symptoms of the flu and as your body is still in the recovery process you may develop a flu and this would complicate your recovery. Usually they will wait at least 6-8 weeks post infection before vaccination. I would suggest you follow up with your GP on this.
As to your liver enzyme results, these should start to return to normal after your medication has stopped. This can take a few months. Stopping alcohol will help this, but can take a few months to return to normal. Your doctor will likely be doing regular blood tests for a few months to keep track of your liver enzymes to ensure this.
Hopefully this will answer some of your questions, hope you feel better soon.
Answered by Health at Hand nurses.
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