Pneumonia - Home Treatment

Home treatment is important for recovery from pneumonia. The following measures can help you recover
and avoid complications, such as further infection or a buildup of fluid in the space between thelung and
chest wall (pleural effusion  ).
While you are at home:

 Get plenty of rest and prevent dehydration by drinking plenty of fluids.

 Take care of your cough if it is making it difficult for you to rest. A cough is one way your body
gets rid of the infection. And you should not try to stop your coughing unless it is severe enough to make
breathing difficult, cause vomiting, or prevent rest.
 Consider taking acetaminophen (such as Tylenol) or aspirin to help reduce fever and make you
feel more comfortable. Do not give aspirin to anyone younger than 20 because of the risk of Reye
syndrome.

Do not give cough and cold medicines to a child younger than 2 unless your child’s doctor has told you to.
If your child’s doctor tells you to give a medicine, be sure to follow what he or she tells you to do.
Always check whether any over-the-counter cough or cold medicines you are taking
contain acetaminophen. If they do, make sure the acetaminophen you are taking in your cold medicine,
plus any other acetaminophen you may be taking, is not higher than the daily recommended dose. Ask
your doctor or pharmacist how much you can take every day.
Your doctor may want to see you after a week of treatment to make sure you are getting better. Be sure
to contact your doctor if you do not feel better, your cough gets worse, you have shortness of breath or a
fever, you feel weak, or you feel faint when you stand up.

Pneumonia - When To Call a Doctor

The faster you get treatment, the faster you will get over pneumonia. This is especially true for the very
young, for people older than 65, and for anyone with other long-lasting (chronic) health problems, such
as asthma.
Call911or other emergency services immediately if you:

 Have chest pain that is crushing or squeezing, is increasing in intensity, or occurs with any
other symptoms of a heart attack.
 Have such bad trouble breathing that you are worried you will not have the strength or ability to
keep breathing.
 Cough up large amounts of blood.
 Feel that you may faint when you sit up or stand.

Call a doctor immediately if you have:

 A cough that produces blood-tinged or rust-colored mucus from the lungs.

 A fever with shaking chills.
 Difficult, shallow, fast breathing with shortness of breath or wheezing.

Call a doctor if your cough:

 Frequently brings up yellow or green mucus from the lungs and lasts longer than 2 days. Do not
confuse mucus from your lungs with mucus running down the back of your throat from your nasal
passages (postnasal drip). Postnasal drainage is not a worry.
 Occurs with a fever of 101F or higher and brings up yellow or green mucus from the lungs (not
postnasal drainage).
 Causes you to vomit a lot.
 Continues longer than 4 weeks.

Also call your doctor if you have new chest pain (more than just discomfort when you cough) that gets
worse with deep breathing and if you have other symptoms of pneumonia, such as shortness of breath,
cough, and fever.
Watchful Waiting
Watchful waiting is a wait-and-see approach. If you get better on your own, you won't need treatment. If
you get worse, you and your doctor will decide what to do next.
Home treatment may be appropriate if:

 You have classic cold symptoms (nasal stuffiness, mild body aches orheadache, mild fever).
 You cough up mucus that is caused by mucus running down the back of the throat from the nasal
passages (postnasal drip). But a cough in which the mucus is definitely coming from the lungs rather than
the nasal passages is a more serious problem, and you should contact your doctor.
 You have signs of flu (high fever, severe muscle aches or headache, and mild respiratory
symptoms). For more information, see the topic Influenza.

Who To See
Health professionals who can diagnose and treat pneumonia include:

 Family medicine physicians.

 Pediatricians.
 Internists.
 Physician assistants.
 Nurse practitioners.
 Specialists in lung diseases (pulmonologists).

To prepare for your appointment, see the topic Making the Most of Your Appointment.

Pneumonia - Exams and Tests

Your doctor will usually diagnose pneumonia by using your medical history, a physical exam, and a chest
X-ray. Based on the medical history and physical exam, your doctor may start your treatment right away
without doing other tests. The need for more tests often depends on how severe your symptoms are, your
age, and your overall health. In general, the sicker you are, the more tests you will have. This is especially
true for older adults and infants.
A chest X-ray is almost always done to check for changes in the lungs that may mean pneumonia and to
look for other causes of your symptoms. But an X-ray does not always show whether you have
pneumonia, especially if the X-ray is done when you first get sick.
In some cases, the X-ray results may:

 Suggest the type of organism (bacterial, viral, or fungal) causing pneumonia.

 Show complications of pneumonia.
 Show conditions that may occur with pneumonia, such as fluid in the chest cavity or a  collapsed
lung.
 Reveal another condition, such as heart failure, lung cancer, or acute bronchitis.

If you are very ill, have severe shortness of breath, or have a condition that increases your risk (such
as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), your doctor may examine your mucus.

 In a Gram stain, you cough up a sample of mucus (sputum) that is then treated with a special dye
(Gram stain) and looked at under a microscope. This test may show what type of organism (bacterium or
fungus) is causing the pneumonia. This test can help your doctor choose the best treatment for your
infection.
 In a sputum culture and sensitivity, a sample of mucus is placed in a container with substances
that will make bacteria or fungi grow. If bacteria or fungi grow, your doctor can identify them and choose
the correct treatment. Unfortunately, getting lung mucus that has not been contaminated with throat or
mouth mucus is difficult. So, the results are not always helpful in identifying the cause of pneumonia. This
test may be less useful if you have already started using antibiotics.

If you have severe pneumonia, you may need other tests, including tests to check for complications and
to find out how well your immune system is working.
A urine test is available that may identify within 15 minutes whether you are infected
with Streptococcus pneumoniae, one of the main causes of bacterial pneumonia, orLegionella
pneumophila, the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease and sometimes can cause pneumonia.
Although experts consider the test to be useful for the identification of Legionella pneumophila, doctors
generally do not use it to identify Streptococcus pneumoniae.4 But it may be useful in adults with severe
pneumonia and when a Gram stain has not identified the bacteria. 5
In people with impaired immune systems, pneumonia may be caused by other organisms, including some
forms of fungi, such as Pneumocystis jiroveci (formally called Pneumocystis carinii). This fungus often
causes pneumonia in people who have AIDS. Some doctors may suggest an HIV test if they think
that Pneumocystis jiroveci is causing the pneumonia.