One can have a primary viral infection, and a secondary bacterial infection.

By the time I made it to the doctor's office, I think the fever had broken, but I was in pretty bad shape. Very short of breath,and my O2 Sats were somewhere between 75 and 85. Pulse was racing.

Several people had said that had I gone to Urgent Care connected to a hospital... they might not have let me go. But, on the flip side, there were very few other co-factors that would have required admission (never smoked, etc).

I'm not convinced that I had a bacterial infection as there was no fever at the time, sputum was reasonably clear, and there were no other signs of an actual infection. But, I went ahead and finished the course of antibiotics (for minimizing resistance, they always recommend doing the full course).

When I'm "normal", I can induce wheezing at about 25 MPH on the flat, or climbing a hard hill.

And, that day in the doctor's office, I was wheezing like I was doing a pretty extreme effort on the bike.

So, the steroids (Prednisone), in fact, was to combat inflammation in the lungs. Perhaps it also helped with fluid in the lungs, and the release of fluid into the lungs.

I can't say for sure what changed. Effort to clear the lungs, antibiotics, or steroids, or just plain time. But, the next 10 days or so were hard,but showed a continual improvement. Another week, and still gradual improvement.

WHEW!!!

Just about back to normal, but still a few deep productive coughs.