People forget - so they do not take infections seriously enough - but before the advent of vaccines and antibiotics, 90% of U.S. mortality used to be from infectious disease.
It used to be common for people to have two families - the first set of kids wiped out by Diphtheria, then the second crop.
Doctors did more diagnosis than therapy.
Now - now mortality is largely cardiovascular and malignancy and trauma -
But you do need to get that infection treated in time.
If you smoke, quit yesterday.
Pneumococcus vaccine: how often? Some of the literature states three years, some states five, some seven, some ten, some lifetime. I have never seen more different recommendations for such a simple concept, but the literature is all over the map (last I looked, anyway). Best suggestion - go with whatever you are advised by whomever is giving it to you - with so many recommendations, he can't possibly be wrong. ;-)
Flu vaccine - yearly.
Avoid coughers.
Avoid the sacred game of poker (and other card games - tears well in my eyes) - more infections disease is spread by fomites than by aerosol.
Eat well, rest well.
Be health conscious.
As far as the high blood pressure is concerned - medication has made great strides and does save lives. The hypertension may have been situational, associated with the pneumonia, or may be chronic - it will be interesting to see.
Note that only around half of patients treated for chronic hypertension continue treatment after a year. Why? Hypertension is a symptomless disease, the treatments all have their own set of side effects for which different people have different tolerances, the treatments cost money - and people are people.
If the hypertension is chronic, a healthy diet plus mild exercise can reduce the need for hypertensive medication by as much as half or more. After you get over the current acute illness, if the hypertension persists, do not neglect diet and exercise as part of the overall anti-hypertensive prescription - consultation with a dietitian may be beneficial. Walking a half hour a day, if you can tolerate it, may be all that is needed on the exercise front - get any exercise plan OK'd by your physician prior to proceeding.
Remember, "essential hypertension" is a Systemic Disease. The pills treat the symptoms, but they generally do not fully treat the underlying systemic disease process. It generally takes significant lifestyle changes to treat the actual underlying chronic hypertensive disease process. Exception - secondary hypertension from any number of treatable diseases (renovascular, pheochromocytoma, hyperthyroidism, etc.).
But 90% or so of hypertension is primary.
Essential messages -
(1) Follow-up on the hypertension with your doctor even after you feel well.
(2) If the hypertension is chronic, go the pill route as directed by your physician - but think beyond pills to significant lifestyle (diet/exercise) changes.
Another note - families of health care workers often get poorer health care than the general population. It is not intentional - there is just a lot of denial and such. A person's judgment is clouded when it is their own family. I could tell you stories - two deaths come quickly to mind.
Just something of which you should be aware.
Reiddm.
Na zdrowie!
Epaminondas
