6 replies to this topic

[Deaky]

Hi all, need some advice/a friendly ear...

Over the past few weeks, I have had slight chest pains which I saw the doctor about. Long story short, after some tests the Doctor saw from my xRay that I had viral pneumonia (wasnt a bad case, as there were only white streaks on the xRay instead of a concentrated area of infection) and that I should stop running immediately and take a course of antibiotics for 10 days and a total rest period of 3 to 4 weeks, after which another xRay will be taken to determine if the infection is gone.

(question 1):
- I walked away a little stunned, considering the only symptoms i had was a tight chest at times (in the mornings) and no other flu-like symptoms. I always thought pneumonia was easily visible/detectable and, as I DON'T seem to have the common symptoms associated with pneumonia (cough, rattled breaths, fever, headache), was wondering if this was a misdiagnosis of a minor flu/cold?

- Has anybody else had a similar case in the past?


I have a race on at the Gold Coast this weekend, but will most likely scrap that one, since im really focused on this years melbourne marathon, which leads me to my next question:
(question 2)
If i do decide to take the full 4 weeks of, which will put me at July 28, do you guys think that would give me enough time to
- prepare for this years marathon (sub-4:00 at the very least)
- keep my base level of fitness
- and (sort of related to the above) jump straight into long runs of 30-34 km within the first week



A bit of background:
This year i have been slowly building up to the marathon, and even though i had hip issues, I have been doing consistent 160KM months since November until my actual training program began a little under 4 weeks ago. Last week, i completed a long run over 24KM which felt great, and I was covering over 70KM over the each of the last 3 weeks. I am miles in front of where I was at at the same point in time last year, as I only began my program mid-July last time (although i trained for and completed a half marathon until then)

Any advice on any of my questions would be greatly appreciated,


Thanks in advance

Edited by Deaky, 30 June 2011 - 08:57 PM.

[orlando]

If it's viral pneumonia, why is your doctor treating it with antibiotics?  Antibiotics are effective against bacterial infections, but useless against viruses.

[Deaky]

orlando, on 30 June 2011 - 09:22 PM, said:

If it's viral pneumonia, why is your doctor treating it with antibiotics?  Antibiotics are effective against bacterial infections, but useless against viruses.

spot on what i was thinking when i walked out of there (since I was on antibiotics only a couple of weeks ago due to dental implants), which makes me more skeptical about his diagnosis if even his treatment is wrong.
Hmmm, it may be time for a second opinion

[Beanie]

I have been unlucky enough to have had pneumonia twice in the past 9 years. The first time I was misdiagnosed as common cold so did a 25 km training run in the mountains only to be on deaths door a few days later. The second time, I couldn't walk so a run was out of the question. I would get a second opinion.
Beanie

[jockster]

I posted this a while ago in a different topic.. but still relevant and might be helpful to you:

Last year I had a chest cold and took 6 days off running (mainly because I literally couldn't run without wheezing and panting etc). Thought I was semi ok, and tried running again, lasted 4k and could barely walk let alone run... decided something not right (more than cold) went to doc and then found out it was pneumonia (chest x-ray), and took another 9 days completely off to recover properly with medications/steroid etc!. It was then another 3or4 days building slowly of 3-4k and after that return to normal running but low energy levels after no running and the medications etc.

So dates; First felt a cold (cough etc) bad enough to make me stop 1st July; Return to running after medications (steroids worked like magic, probably 6-7day turnaround) 18th July, slow build up of k's... Half marathon ran 8th August (1.26), marathon ran 29th August (2.58). The half marathon I felt just ok to run it, listen to your body that will be the best judge!! Once the cold is in the chest, it isn't good for running!!

[Deaky]

Thanks for the info, jockster (n.b. i did see your initial post when I performed a search, but was selfish and made a new topic)

Although I haven't been given any steriod treatment, if the diagnosis is accurate, it sounds like i was diagnosed early on (since i have no physical signs of flu/pneumonia). What's also promising is the fact you were able to punch out a great marathon time (1 hour faster than my minumim goal) 3 weeks after your 'comeback' half marathon, which was only a couple of weeks after resuming

This drastically boosts my confidence/mental state knowing that I can still prepare for the marathon in october.

Cheers!

[jockster]

No worries, getting onto it early is the key - ie. medical intervention!

It took me almost 10days of what I thought was 'just' a cold, before I thought I really should be getting better by now and I'm not - so went to doc! Big turnaround though after medications (7 days).  

The times I am running this year is where I thought I would be last year just before I got the pneumonia... so my 2 comeback races seem quick, but I would have been running almost a sub 1.20 half, and almost a sub 2.50 marathon...  so you should be well right for October!  I did have a large running base behind me though to get the times I did run, which I could fall back on (number of k's clocked up 2007: 5700k's, 2008: 5100, 2009: 5300).  Good luck!