Value of early pneumonia detection/treat

I'm 10y post spleen and recently experienced my first significant fever and pneumonia. We caught it very, very early and it still surprises me how quickly & physically impacted I became.

TimeLine - day1: MD Visit re low grade fever (100), occasional uncontrollable chills and night sweats. Dx ear infection and COLD. Rx - antibiotic

TimeLine - day4: MD visit re increasing higher temp (102) chills and night sweats. MD "hears" something and x-ray confirms start of pneumonia in one lung. Rx-continue antibiotic

TimeLine - day6: MD visit re 103 fever spikes (Tylenol reduces and relative normal temp returns). MD doesn't like this and hospitalizes for bronchoscopy to positively ID pneumonia strain. Rx additional broad spectrum antibiotics (plural).

TimeLine - day7: bronchoscopy confirms MD suspicion of Pneumocystis pneumonia. It's relatively common in immu-compromised people often times induced by high & prolonged steroid use (that covers ITP). One of the multiple antibiotics already started is the BEST RX for this strain (BACTRIM).

TimeLine - day8: Pneumonia infiltration into both lungs.

TimeLine - day15: DX Mouth Thrush which is another opportunistic yeast for Immu-compromized people (can we say pred). Rx Fluconazole

Timeline - day 19: Tentative Dx of stomach THRUSH causing severe nausea and headache. Severe symptoms led to dehydration and a few other contributors.

TimeLine - day 22: Discharged feeling relatively better but low energy, stamina and lung capacity. Outlook is good, just need time to heal & recover.

My desire is to reinforce the need to monitor for a fever and act quickly if asplenic . In the span of 3 days pneumonia wasn't detected to we're pretty sure the xray shows the start of pneumonia and another two days Dx with double pneumonia and hospitalization (while on antibiotic but obviously not the optimal one).

I'm now about a week after discharge and am noticeably weak and get winded if I do very much (which translates to very little) even though I "feel" quite well. MD says 30 days typically is full recovery.

I don't believe I could have sought MD much, if any, sooner and can only imagine the my condition if I delayed a few days (based on the progression in those first few days).

So PLEASE if you're asplenic pay careful attention to your temp and react quickly. I've known that since the splenectomy and the many recent MD all said it can become BAD, very, VERY quickly. I can now confirm how quickly and impacting it can be.

wow Steve. Glad your getting better. What an ordeal! Tho I still have my spleen, I will keep this info in the back of my mind when a fever comes!

really glad your doing better

I am four years post splenectomy. Your ordeal will make me think again about see a doctor if I ever get a fever. I'm not one to run to a doctor over any little thing.

Glad you're doing much better!

I'm glad you're doing better. Good for you for going back so many times!

Very scary. It's a good thing you were so persistant.

Lily