Repeated Episodes of Pneumonia

Starting a couple of months ago Michael and Chad both got sick and it settled immediately into their lungs. Our Physician’s Assistant prescribed them antibiotics and steroids. This seemed to help but then Michael seemed to go downhill. He was more lethargic than usual. I took him to the ER where they gave him an IV of fluids and tested him for Covid. It came back positive so it was assumed that both he and Chad had Covid. With the treatment of IV solutions for hydration and the antibiotics and steroids, after a week they were doing better.

A week later they both started getting sick again. This went on with recovery and sickness a couple more times. Each time they were given steroids and/or antibiotics which seemed to work for a short time but pretty soon they were sick again.

A little over a week ago they saw our regular doctor, Jarrod. He was very patient and explained a lot to us. He said that, of course, repeating antibiotics wasn’t healthy for their system. He always puts them on Nystatin after antibiotics which helps the system rebound from the antibiotics but it is still preferable to not need to be treated with antibiotics if it can be helped.

My take-away from our visit with Jarrod was that our bodies work a lot like a machine. For example, the lungs are like bellows that fuel a fire. Deep inhalation and exhalation helps the bellows work more efficiently. It also fuels a hotter fire which feeds our bodies. With our lungs, this deep breathing also helps to clear out anything that might be settling in the lungs that could grow bacteria and possibly develop into pneumonia. This deep breathing is very difficult for my Myotonic Dystrophy – DM, so we’ve had to figure out ways to help them deep breathe.

I realized that my family needs to move their bodies more, inside and out. They need to use inspiration spirometers to help them breathe deep into their lungs, some of them also use albuterol inhalers. They also need some form of exercise which forces the entire body to work harder. As is well known, DM individuals tend to be lethargic and they have a hard time initiating activity. I realized that it was my responsibility to get my family to be