I have it so I was just wondering.

opps....i thought i was in medicine...my bad...

It was the worst month and a half of my life. It took two rounds of antibiotics before it went away.

I was out of commission for about a month mainly because the doctors told me that I shouldn’t do any exercise and it only took a short six pill sequence to get it out of my system. I was also hacking up goo for a while afterwards.

It sucked!

My story is actually a pretty sad example of the health industry:

I went in to the workers comp clinic because I was having terrible back pain and I figured I did it at work (I am a professional tradesman). well the doctor asked me to breathe in deeply, and I tried, but told him that it hurt too much. He basically dismissed any of my complaints about how it was hard to breathe, and that only one side of my back hurt. He basically just wrote me a prescription for pain killers. (which I never took, because I don't like how Vicodin makes me feel. So I sold them to a crack head at work)

Well, the pain got worse, and I also started to have a fever. I went back to the same clinic, and this time I got a different doctor ( younger and maybe a little more patient) and diagnosed it as Pneumonia!!! My entire left lung was fully filled with fluid!!! WTF!!

So I did several rounds of antibiotics, several cat scans, was assigned a pulmonary specialist and one draining. Yeah, that draining was the worst part! They poked into my lung with the longest syringe I have ever seen. That was an odd feeling when I could actually feel the fluid draining out of my lungs. It felt like I have coughed up the biggest phlegm ball! I also lost 25 pounds of weight. I looked like a skeleton!

I hope I never have to do that again. The bad part is that the doctor told me that when you get Pneumonia, it leaves a scar in the lungs that makes it easier for you to get it again!!!

Worst NINE months of my life. I have pretty severe asthma and couldn't get over the pneumonia. Several rounds of stronger and stronger antibiotics. Of course it didn't help that I refused to stop climbing during that time. Redcloud and Sunshine in calendar winter a few days after getting pneumonia (climbed trying to convince myself that the asthma was just really, really bad) and before getting the diagnosis left me with separated ribs from the coughing on top of it. Already had plane tickets for Babo in AZ and Mauna Kea/Loa in HI so I went anyway, within weeks of the diagnosis and with the separated ribs. Had dreams of dying, the pain was so severe. Worse than 24 hours of labor / childbirth. Didn't fully recover my breathing ability (back to "normal" asthma levels) or get past the last of the rib pain for 9 months.

I've come back from climbing trips since then with concerns that I might have pneumonia again, had it checked out with chest xrays, and was told it wasn't pneumonia -- my lungs are just full of scar tissue.

I had a stupidity of running on polluted NYC traffic-jammed bridge in November, when I was sick with a chest cold. It developed into a bronchitis and eventually into pneumonia. I was sick for 3 months - 5 different antibiotics, and finally got rid with some really powerful injectable. Totally wasted 3 months of my life - I learned my lesson, now when I get sick, I rest up and let my body heal itself. I do feel that I have very sensitive lungs now - I cannot stand even littlest cigarette smoke and aerosol products.

My advice! Let yourself heal properly! Take as short a round of antibiotics as possible and be sure of the diagnosis.

I had it extensively as a kid and missed all of first grade and most of second; leaving me with scarred lungs and that's with antibiotics etc. I did hike at altitude in my 20s, 30s but it's much harder for me as I have gotten older due to the scarring.

My husband had double pneumonia in his 40s and did fine after 4 weeks of antibiotics but not much later came down with a bad ear infection. I personally think all the drugs killed his good germs! He ended up needing so many more rounds of drugs for his ear that he lost most of the hearing in that ear.

I used to work graveyard shift and did dayacre for my daughters when they were newborns and toddlers and came down with it twice. I got over it in a couple of weeks both times after the diagnosis and antibiotics. Seems like you all came down with some nasty cases of it. As for getting back in condition, I would say take walks and increase distance week by week or month by month depending on the severity of one's bout with that illness.

You wouldn't want to have a relapse from rehabbing too hard too fast. the first 2-4 weeks after getting a clean bill of health are usually where we all make mistakes on our stamina. Take it slow and careful. Getting lungs drained by the needle or being bed ridden in a hospital isn't worth the rush.

Antibiotics may have their place but I cringe at their over use. As Silversummit said above - they affect your good bugs. Basically, they kill your natural gut flora - a vital part of ones immune system. Make sure you help them by eating "bug-supporting-foods" and avoid others: That's low sugars, low or no caffeine, low alcohol, but high fresh food. Surprisingly, acid foods, such as grapefruit, lemon, orange, create an alkaline environment which this part of system benefits from.