So my little brother is in the hospital...
 

Mom just emails me, she just got back from the hospital (it's like 1 in the morning in Illinois.) Apparently she took my little brother to the ER because he was hacking up blood in the shower.

Turns out he has a small spot of pneumonia in one lung and a "lung absess" in his other lung. He was at camp all week and probably exhausted himself running around like the nut that he is. He's pumped full of drugs right now and is being his typical smart ass self (unfortunately he takes after me) so he'll be fine after a couple days.

But my question is, what the hell is a lung absess? I'm off to Google it now...

that doesn't sound very pleasant, what ever it is.

Sorry to hear that, hopefully he'll be ok. Sounds like something some anti-biotics would clear right up.... let's hope it's something that simple.

Wow, I'm sorry to hear. I hope he gets better soon.
WG

Means he devoloped an abrasion, hole, etc...

Sorry to hear it. I grew up with Asthma and still did a mile in under 5 minutes and did 6 miles over terrain in 50 minutes. Sucked hacking shit up during the runs though. Having everyone sitting around next to me with car keys in hand expecting me to plead to go to the hospital.

really sorry to hear that.. hope things get better.. keep us informed!

Nothin like your child coughing up blood to scare the fucking shit out of you.

Glad it was something minor and he seems to be doing allright.:)

Not sure about the abscess part, but I wanted to tell you about something just in case.

My mom & dad's best friends have a son that's about 13 or 14. Last summer he went to some kind of camp out in the woods someplace. When he got back, the same thing happened. Coughing, blood, felt really shitty. The doctors told him it was pneumonia and put him on antibiotics.

It didn't get better and he actually started feeling worse. He eventually spiked a really high fever in the middle of the night and they had to rush him back to the ER. The docs there decided to send him an hour away to the big Children's Hospital in our state.

A ton of tests, xrays, and MRIs later they figured out that he had some sort of fungus or mold in his lungs. They had to culture it to figure out exactly what drugs to get rid of it. Apparently, it's sort of a common thing with kids who live near woods or spend time in the woods.

May be totally unrelated to your brother, but if he doesn't seem to get better you might share it with your mom.

a lung absess sounds pretty bad

hope he gets better real soon :)

uh oh..better pass this on to mom :(

Sorry to hear, I hope it's nothing too serious.

Well he's in the hospital for at least the next 3 days and they gave him some very strong anti-biotics so he's being watched. The camp is in the woods, mom said something about water in his lungs, so he must have been swimming. And he does live in the woods as well. So it could be some kind of mold, that's actually the first thing I thought of. I'm sure he'll be fine though.

Thanks for the comments!

Sly sorry to hear that bro, I'm sure he'll be fine though with some good medical attention:

Lung Abscess: Lung infection that is accompanied by pus accumulation and tissue destruction. It often has a well defined border. Anaerobic or aerobic bacteria can cause lung abscess. Antibiotics has made the condition much less common now than formerly. Poor oral hygiene with dental or gingival (gum) disease is strongly associated with putrid lung abscess.
Symptoms:

Cough - may produce bloody, purulent, or foul smelling sputum.

Pleuritic chest pain

Dyspnea (difficulty breathing)

Excessive sweating -Diaphoresis

Chills Fever

Headache

Malaise

Weight Loss

Crackles

Diminished breath sounds

Treatment:

Prolonged antibiotic therapy

Postural drainage may help discharge necrotic material into upper airways, where expectoration is possible.

Oxygen therapy may be needed

Poor therapeutic response requires resection of the lesion or removal of the diseased section of the lung.

All patients need rigorous follow up and serial chest X-rays.

sorry for you'r brother i hope he wil be ok :(

Wow poor kid :( sorry to hear, hope he's gets better soon.