Pneumonia is an illness confined to the lungs. The human body's immune system will generally keep infiltrating bacteria from infecting your lungs, but at times can be unsuccessful. The bacteria will then reproduce in the lungs causing an inflammation in the alveoli that are tiny sacs in the lungs that help in absorption of oxygen from the air sucked into the lungs. Due to the inflammation, the lungs do not have much room for the oxygen required for the body to function. As a result of the increased workload on the unaffected alveoli, the person suffering from the condition will tend to feel a distinct shortness of breath as well as chest pain and severe coughing. It is also accompanied by a high fever as well as shaking chills. Pneumonia is mostly diagnosed by the other symptom where a person will produce yellow or brownish colored sputum during a coughing fit. Because so many of the conditions related to the chest and lungs produce very similar symptoms, it is usually very hard to differentiate between one and the other. However, whenever these symptoms are noticed, it is essential that you visit a licensed doctor for a face to face diagnosis. Since you mentioned that your condition has improved by 60% during the course of 1 week, the recovery has been quite remarkable. Most will take about 1 month to get to the condition you are in now. However, it is very important that you aid the remarkable recovery by getting you fair amount of rest as this is the primary building block on the path to complete recovery.
When recovering from this possibly fatal illness, one should make sure that they take utmost care of the lungs. Avoiding any kind of exposure to smoke is essential as is avoiding any kinds of cough medicine. Anything that triggers wheezing or applied needless stress on the lungs must be strictly avoided. Keep your body hydrated and well rested at all times. Placing a nebulizer in the bedroom will help keep the air clean and give the lungs a little less work to do. Increasing your intake of garlic into your meals is also highly recommended as it has tremendous healing powers. Eating boiled food until completely cured is also essential as this will allow your body to focus all its energy and efforts in fighting the illness rather than trying to digest difficult food.
answered by M W