Colleen, you are correct that an uninhabited home cannot be fully insured, and so my brother is looking into having the house renovated somewhat in order to make it rentable. It has the original wiring from 1928 when it was built, and so that may be a major problem. They also need to seal all the holes where the mice get in, and that may not be possible, as some get in through the attic. We did not get an update this week on DF - we tried to call Karen, but she has been out of town on business a lot lately. Unfortunately, her work requires her to travel a lot, including trips every spring to D.C. to advise legislators on banking law, which is her specialty. The other trips are to meet with bankers in other parts of Texas, and so it is pretty boring. We did not get to discuss the estate the previous week-end because our niece tried to set it up and instead ended up antagonizing too many people - she's not as diplomatic as she thinks. Her father (Mike) has very different ideas about what to do with the estate than Kevin and I do. Karen was not feeling well, and I did not want to have this discussion when she is ill. Mother's will went into probate last week, but we know very little of the details yet. Lars

Ask the Dr. to do a Petscan which is much better and more through that a CT. It is done with radioactivity and shows up way more that anyother scan. DH just had one done to see if there is any active cancer at this time. Results back within a week and thankfully all is clear at this time. Our Dr always cultures anything involving breathing tests. Since he is allgeric to prednisone he has to take other drugs. But then because of his medical conditions, he had another pneumonia shot, only this was a double shot with something else included to discourage cold, flue and pneumonia. I asked the Dr what was in it, but he did not give me an answer, he only said a good lung doc should know how to combine shots, depending on the person's health.

Antibiotics will be helpful if you have bacterial pneumonia, and, obviously, you should take them. Antiviral drugs are effective on some viruses, but not most. But nothing is more important than rest. It shocked me how fatigued I was when I had pneumonia, and how many weeks it lasted. Sleep whenever you can. Tell people you're ill and that you need to take care of yourself. Drink lots and lots of liquids - it's easy to get dehydrated. One thing that helped me a lot were chest treatments (not sure what they're called). My neighbor, who was a nurse, did them for me, but they're not difficult. I've done them for family members. Lie on your stomach, and have someone tap on your back and shoulders. The person who taught me used a cupped hand. Not hard, but not too soft. You can do this on your front, too, even by yourself. This helped immensely in breaking up all the gunk in my lungs. Oh, and don't try to suppress your coughing - you need it. Good luck, and I hope you recover soon. Sleep a lot!

I had a case of 'walking pneumonia' when I was a young healthy 19 yr old. I was living alone renting a room over a store, working a job, and attending college in a work/school coop program. I knew that something was amiss in my lung area, but being a young squirt with little cash, I thought I could tough it out and that it would get better, like a cold or flu. That did not happen. When I bent over while playing ping pong, I felt like something was loose around the bottom of my lung. After ice skating on a park pond, I walked to my room and went to bed. A 4 am, I awoke with an awful pain in my chest, became nauseous, and had difficulty breathing. I sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over because that seemed to be the most comfortable position. I sought medical help as soon as business opened that morning. The verdict: pneumonia and lung collapse. I could have died. The bottom lobe of one lung had collapsed and 1/3 of the other lung had a partial collapse. The Doc shot my rump with a double dose of penicillin and ordered me to go to a hospital. I rode a Greyhound Bus back to my hometown where my parents lived and entered was hospitalized. I was there 3 days while they monitored my lung because if the lung did not refill and re-attach, surgery would be needed. After 3 days, I was sent home with a week's amount of pills and was told to lie around, do no heavy work, and periodically perform a lung exercise to aid re-inflation. I wondered why I was so groggy and sleepy much of the time. I did a lot of daytime napping and that was not normal for me. It worried me a bit and made me wonder how long it was going to take to get better and regain some pep. After a week, I took the last of a little white pill - and then I woke up! It had been a sleeping pill. The label did not identify it as such. Among other pills, the Doc had given me sleeping pills to insure that I did not feel like going outside for activities. My advice: If you got pneumonia, do not mess around. Get medical help. It is too dangerous and your lungs could be damaged beyond repair.