Looks like I have my diagnosis now: chronic eosinophilic pneumonia, with aspergillus fumigatus fungus. I suspect the fungus, along wth Sjogren’s, is the cause. And, do you know, I printed out notes on CEP two years ago when they told me I had ‘pneumonia’ and it just didn’t ring true. When will I ever learn to trust my instincts and press my case?!
Treatment of course is high-dose steroids, starting with 3 days IV methylprednisolone, then oral steroids starting with 30mg/day for a week. Deep joy. So obesity, headaches, sleeplessness and even more bone density loss here we come! The assumption is I’ll be on low-dose steroids for ever. No way! Too awful to contemplate. Will speak to my lovely naturopathic doctor soon and find an alternative.
GOOD news is I should start to feel massively better very soon.
Judy's Jottings 
Hi Judy-
I am a Registered Nurse of nearly 30 yrs suffering from numerous chronic health conditions since my youth. Umpteen doctors, hundreds of procedures and surgeries, as well as thousands upon thousands of dollars resulted only in my becoming sicker and sicker.
Trying to maintain an otherwise healthy lifestyle in the face of unending illness, I left “traditional” medicine and sought treatment through homeopathy and naturoathy. I discovered, to my long-desired relief, that my naturopathic physician and chiropractor accomplished more healing and remission than any of my “specialists”.
All that to say, in researching Chronic Eosinophilic Pneumonia treatments for a friend plagued with this and enslaved to long-term steroid and oxygen use (neither being healthy and causing so many debilitating side effects and other diseased states), I have learned that our beloved pets, especially cats, and mold keep coming up as triggers for exacerbating inflammation. The high eosinophil count found in the lung fluid is a result of allergenic inflammation.
Cats and long-haired dogs can be a tremendous source of allergenic reactions. We had a beautiful, maine coon cat and I know the allergy problems we dealt with in my husband. We loved the cat too much to give her up…
Do get to your Naturopath soon. There is so much they can do to help you stay off corticosteroids that will only mask the disease for a short time while causing so many more problems.
Hope this may have been a little encouragement…
One who cares.
LikeLike
Thanks so much for that Missy W. I agree with all your observations, of course, and will be contacting my wonderful naturopathic doctor today. Also an Indian doctor I know who practises Ayurvedic and other approaches.
I am, however, terrified to read about your Maine Coon cat – cos guess what I’ve got?! I do hope he (and his late ‘brother’) are not implicated in my pneumonia. Theodore is now nearly 15 and himself not well. There’s absolutely no way we could finish him off. And I know I will be desperate to get, not just more cats, but more Maine Coons – they’re unique, and uniquely wonderful, as you know.
But we’ve had long-haired or semi-longhaired cats for over 30 years. It seems strange that I should only develop an allergic response at this stage. Also, for the last nearly 6 years I haven’t lived full-time with the cats anyway.
Interestingly, both Theodore and Byron have themselves been afflicted with eosinophilic conditions. Very curious.
My current house backs on to woods, so I am surrounded by trees, plus mountains of fallen, rotting leaves in my back garden. Also there is damp in the wall behind my bed. I can’t do anything about the trees, other than move house! But I can fix the damp. I’m hoping it’s that that is provoking my pneumonia.
I’m still waiting for the full IgE/RAST test results to come back, so hopefully I’ll have some more useful information to go on then.
LikeLike