Holy carp, sorry to hear that, I doubt that was a lot of fun
have you managed to get back to full health? -what you had sounds like a potential to be life changing
Thanks.
(The only lasting thing that I am aware of is that my lung lining has now fused to my lung. It hurts from time to time but isn't a massive biggie. Other people have told me that I should have done specific breathing exercises. I didn't know that at the time though.)
I had already spent about 6 days in bed at home with a fever of 103.5 deg F. I assumed that it was the flu. At about day 8 I had sharp stabbing pains in between each of the ribs on my right lung. I got to the point where breathing really, really, really hurt. I couldn't talk properly because that exacerbated the pain. My GF panicked and called 999. They took about 90 mins to turn up. In the meantime, I took a couple of diclofenac sodium, it helped (partially) with the pain.
The ambulance crew checked my vitals. They then asked me to take a deep breath so that they could listen to my lung. I explained that I couldn't. They concluded that I had an intercostal muscle injury and not to worry.
I had previously had an intercostal muscle injury years ago that only hurt when I coughed, so I went with their diagnosis. I ordered a chest band from Amazon and it, with the diclofenac helped. I still had the fever but the pain was ok. After 14 days I rang my GP at 9am, he phoned back at 9pm and asked me to go straight to A&E in the morning- he said it could be sepsis or pneumonia.
The next morning, I got the tube to St Mary's, Paddington. Within 20 mins, I was admitted. My GP was right, it was sepsis and pneumonia. I was totally out of it for most of the first week. Weeks later, at the out-patients appointment, the lead consultant showed me my earlier X-ray. the right lung had completely collapsed because of the amount of liquid in the lung lining.
The only good thing about the whole thing was that a year later, a mate of mine started complaining about a stabbing sensation in his ribs. I relayed my experience and urged him to go straight to A&E, he did so a bit later that day. He was lucky that he only needed antibiotics to treat his pneumonia.
Oh, the other good thing was that although I was taking Oxycodone on a daily basis for almost 3 months, I discovered that if I had more than one pint on the way home from work, I felt really hungover shortly after. That gave me a massive incentive to stop taking the synthetic opiate. I know now that I won't become addicted to any prescription drug that prevents me from enjoying a few pints.
In summary- if a friend mentions that breathing results in stabbing pains between each of their ribs, convince them to go to A&E.
www.nhs.uk