Other Qs & As
What is pleurisy? I have been prescribed amoxycillin 500mg three times daily but cannot find any information about this condition or where I got it from.
How long will it last and will it affect me in the future?
Other times when I got a bad dose of the flu, my breathing has been strained and sore – then I get a cold like a tight band round my chest.
Could this be connected or not?
Thank you for your email. Pleurisy is simply an inflammation of the membrane that covers your lungs inside your chest.
It is usually caused by a lung infection such as pneumonia, which can easily result from a bad cold.
The antibiotic you have been prescribed is to remedy just such an infection. Pleurisy is not uncommon and its main symptom is a fairly sharp pain on breathing deeply in following on from having a cold.
It usually lasts no more than a week to 10 days once antibiotics have been started, and there is no reason why it should affect you in the future.
Some people do seem to have ‘weak’ chests in that infection tends to move downwards from the head onto the lungs fairly easily, but if you are one of these people, having antibiotics by you to take at the first sign of any chestiness is a good idea and preventative.
Finally, I would only recommend that you ask your GP to test you for asthma as mild undiagnosed asthma can sometimes be a predisposing factor for pleurisy and also for the feeling of having a tight band around the chest when exercising, suffering from a cold or even breathing cold air.
Incidentally, I see that you are taking an anti-inflammatory agent, ibuprofen, for pain in joints as well as cimetidine to prevent inflammation of the lining of the stomach which anti-inflammatory medication can in itself cause.
To answer your other question, you should have some investigations for these joint pains to rule out any form of arthritis, and you should not be having repeat prescriptions without these investigations or having your medication reviewed.
The NetDoctor Medical Team