Anyone know what this dodgy flu-like illness is?

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Ok a friend of mine has been ill for like 5 wks with a really bad chesty cough.

She doesnt smoke & she's taken about 3 different kinds of antibiotics, which dont seem to be doing any good.

Its now progressed into a chest infection which has gotten so bad that it began by leaving her back & ribs sore, but now the pain in her ribs is so bad that she cant breath in or out, or cough without being in terrible pain. She's now had to start taking steroids.

The stuff she's coughing up is pretty bad stuff. Its brown in colour & comes up in strings.

She thinks that she may have damaged her ribs because of the pain she's in & is going back to the docs tomorrow to ask for an x-ray. The problem is that her doc seems pretty useless tbh as he hasnt twigged that she been back to see him for 5 wks & has been off work due to how its affecting her day to day life.

[abigsmurf]

My guess would be a long lasting, resiliant chest infection. If you don't cough up stuff that's built up in the lungs, it tends not to go anywhere so it becomes thicker and mankier as time goes on and fluid is drained away (and she's coughing up the dead bacteria too). Could have traces of blood but if that was the case, I'd imagine she'd be stuck in a hospital by a doctor.

If the infection is viral in nature anti-biotics won't touch it. Some lung bacterial infections can take a while to clear.

To be honest, any internet diagnosis' you will receive won't do anything other than make you more worried. Better to trust the doctor. Last thing you want is for her to be needlessly worried about TB or pnumonia.