Pneumonia

Dear Ask The Doctor: Hi! I had pneumonia in october and it came back 2 weeks ago. After I finished my Z pack, I felt the heaviness in my chest come back. I have lingering cough and heavy nasal congestion. Should I give it time? Or is there such thing as chronic pneumonia?

Dear Libby:

I realize your worry about your last Pneumonia episode and your current symptoms. According to your current symptoms, in my opinion they could also be produced by other less complicated conditions and not necessarily Pneumonia. Chronic Pneumonia would have caused different and more serious symptoms than the ones you suffer from.

The persistent cough, if present for as long period of time might be due to Bronchitis, if phlegm is produced you might need to be evaluated by your physician and probably you also might need to have a sputum culture and chest x-rays to rule out these or other causes. In the meantime, you could try using over the counter antihistamines until you have an evaluation done by your physician. I wish you a prompt recovery.