Brief Answer:
Doxycycline is a good antibiotic for pneumonia. Some other advises also.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thank you for asking at HealthCareMagic

I carefully read your question and understand your concern.

I am so sorry for this long cold you are having. It is good you have seen your doctor already been and taking treatment. If you had pneumonia in the xray than taking antibiotics regularly and resting is very crucial. Cough is present in most cases with pneumonia but very rare cases might happen to have no cough.

Doxycycline is a good antibiotic for pneumonia as it covers almost all causes; it is actually one of the first line of treatment. Treatment for pneumonia might take a while to give the effect especially as it kills the bacteria but the healing of the lung tissues should follow, and this takes its own time, so you can feel better.

You should not feel worse though while on treatment. If this happens than you will need to see your doctor again. Sometimes some other antibiotics can be tried like the ones we call Flluorquinolones (levofloxacine)- these are used when the usual first line antibiotics do not give good enough result or in patients with other chronic conditions.

I understand that you need to go to work and this is very important but you will need to take care of yourself and take treatment regularly and take the time you need to heal. Pneumonia can be a very serious infection and needs the right care and attention. Some patients might need sometimes 2-3 weeks to feel strong enough to do their daily activities.

So to conclude I would say
1. take the doxycycline daily as recommended (twice a day), rest, take fluids, take ibuprofen as needed. Give it at least one more week before you think it did not work
2. If you see any worsening you will need to see your doctor and probably consider Levofloxacine
3. At your age there are few other conditions that might be needed to be ruled out if no improvement and most important one might be sarcoidosis- this is a very rare condition that affects lungs and might get confused with pneumonia but the doctor has to consider it if the treatments do not seem to help you to not get worse or to get better.
4. Blood tests might be needed also if no improvements seen in a week or earlier if any worsening. Mantoux test and in a few cases a CT of the chest might be also advisable if no improvement. Your doctor might ask you to go to hospital to have all those tests if needed (if no improvement with the treatment).
Very likely you will get well with the treatment mentioned though and the above tests are very rarely needed.

I hope this answers to your question and is helpful to you but please feel free to write back if anymore clarification is need on this.

I wish you will be well soon.

Kind Regards

Antoneta Zotaj, MD

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Brief Answer:
Doxycycline should be taken 100mg, twice a day

Detailed Answer:
Hello again xxxxx,
Thank you for the reply.

Yes, the medical term for chest infection is pneumonia and doxycycline you are using is used for it. Doxycycline is given generally 100 mg, twice a day- this is its full daily dose. I would recommend you to jump to 2 tablets a day till you meet your doctor.

If you feel you are worsening this is important and might need medical attention. On the other hand you have not been taking full dose of the antibiotic so you will have to decide if you would like to wait for another couple of days how you will be with the full dose of it or go for the other antibiotic (levofloxacine).

It might be easier for you to try doxycycline 100 mg, twice a day for a couple of days till you can access medical care due to the holidays.
If any further worsening you need to go to the emergency room, they are generally open even in holidays.

The symptoms of the upper respiratory tract (sinus, throat, etc,) can be part of another viral infection you might have encountered- they do not need special attention in terms of treatment if you are taking treatment for pneumonia as treatment for pneumonia covers also if a bacterial infection is developing in the upper respiratory tract also.

Having such a sensitivity to several infections the last few weeks and not improving with treatments might bring to attention to have also some routine tests like CBC, ERS, HIV, etc.

I hope this is helpful and answers to your question but please feel free to write if anymore clarifications are needed on this.

I wish you well.

Kind regards

Antoneta Zotaj, MD

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