I have had a chest xray and my doctor with the VA says I have an infection in my lungs..I feel tired, have tingling in my lower body. I have a caugh, some joint pain in my fingers and wrists. I feel like I have no energy when I get out of bed. I m taking Bupropion HCL for depression 100 mg/day and Clonazepam .5mg starting to cut back to .25mg on Clonazepam/day. The VA said they are sending Sepra or something for the infection. If my caugh doesn t clear up in 10 days, I m to go in for further examination. I m taking Mucinex to control my caugh. My wife has had the same symptoms and still has a caugh.
Thanks for your question on Chat Doctor. In my opinion you should consult pulmonologist and get done chest x-ray first. Infection in lungs is known as pneumonia. And treatment of pneumonia is antibiotics. But we first need to identify the organism which is responsible for the pneumonia. And then the sensitivity of the antibiotics to be done. This is known as culture and sensitivity. If sputum is available then get done this with sputum, otherwise get done bronchoscopy and BAD (Bronchoalveolar lavage) analysis. So antibiotics are treatment of choice, but need to give specific antibiotic which is effective against causative organism. Consult pulmonologist and discuss all these.